Antidepressant use by preschoolers rising

THE WASHINGTON TIMES ^ | April 3, 2004 | Joyce Howard Price

[neverdem]

The study examined antidepressant use from 1998 to 2002 among 2 million youngsters ages 18 and younger who were covered by commercial health insurance. About one in 15 children in the United States is covered by commercial insurance, according to officials of Express Scripts Inc. of St. Louis, which conducted the study.

[neverdem]

Maybe it's a self-esteem problem.

I'm more inclined to think there's a lot of over diagnosis, but I could be wrong. I wonder what's the prevalence in other developed countries for juvenile depression.

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[neverdem]

PING

[thoughtomator]

This is a parenting problem. Any parent who wants to drug their kids needs their kids taken away from them. This is child abuse just as surely and just as damaging as molestation.

[cyborg]

I would like to know that too. My mother and I are at odds over depression. She does not believe in it which leads me to believe at least where she's from it doesn't happen often. Very interesting. I think giving preschool children drugs is very iffy. We don't know how this is affecting their brains.

[jocon307]

This is truly sick. I do not believe that persons under the age of 5 can be diagnosed as depressed in any way. Bratty, maybe, but not depressed.

[Viking2002]

What in the hell does this say for the state of modern medicine (and society in general) when we're medicating preschoolers?

[netmilsmom]

Hi Lady!
Why is it that your mom doesn't believe in depression? It is truly a problem and easily treatable.

[IronJack]

Hmmmm. Kids are told over and over "Don't do drugs. Drugs 'r bad. Mkay?" Then they're told that for every ailment, there's a pharmaceutical solution.

In many public schools, they're effectively told that if they DON'T do (the "right") drug -- e.g., Ritalin -- they'll be punished, suspended, harassed.

They're given unrealistic expectations in terms of appearance, conduct, academics, thrust on them by parents who are living vicariously through them and by an education system that is nothing more than a giant social experiment with them as the lab rats.

Their image comes from trash TV, gangsta (c)rap, loudmouth athletes, and punks who paint the picture of a hostile, dog-eat-dog world that will savage them unless they're bullet-proof.

They're suffocating under a blanket of good intentions, manipulated by every adult with a leftover dream from Woodstock, and lied to by everyone they've ever been told to trust.

They get trotted out every time some thief needs a tear-jerk mascot for his new entitlement scam. The thief gets rich off taxpayer money and the kids go to hell.

There's a "village" meddling in every aspect of their lives, contradicting the little moral value their parents try to impart in between golf games and Survivor reruns.

And we wonder why they're depressed ...

[cyborg]

My mother doesn't get it. She thinks people should not entertain such thoughts and should pull themselves up by the bootstraps. My dad was the same way but not as bad as my mom.

[scan58]

It's a bit more than iffy, IMHO. I would venture to say it is out and out wrong. Children that age are still forming their personality.
Giving them mind/mood altering drugs looks like something very lazy parents would do.

[netmilsmom]

Wow! Well, I guess if she were to have the fortitude to overcome Seratonin reuptake, God Bless her. Many people need just a little help. I liken taking Paxil, Prozac and Zoloft to taking insulin. Some people just need it.

(Maybe not as young as this article! If I had a preschooler come into my ex-boss' office, we'd be evaluating the family life)

[cyborg]

She's just old fashioned. I took zoloft once and it made me ill so I can't imagine giving children these same meds. I think drugging kids is a good way of ignoring other issues.

[netmilsmom]

>>I think drugging kids is a good way of ignoring other issues.

You're a smart cookie, don't let anyone tell you otherwise :-).

[templar]

What in the hell does this say for the state of modern medicine (and society in general) when we're medicating preschoolers?

That we need to make Prozac and such in a variety of appealing flavors?

[Paul C. Jesup]

And we wonder why they're depressed ...

And the Socialist Baby Boomers are INSANE it they think the young generations are even going to be able to pay the taxes for the Boomers' social programs.

[neverdem]

This is a parenting problem.

I think you also probably have a teacher problem and way too much day care. When I first went to kindergarten, I wasn't happy about it. Only many years later did I find enjoyment in subjects I learned. How many kids enjoy going to school, especially if you have to take a bus? But I think giving this stuff to little kids borders on outrageous.

I'm somewhat dubious about the diagnosis of depression in adolescents, but then you have teenagers attempting suicide. If they are successful, you've made the diagnosis too late.

The comment about self-esteem was supposed to be followed by /sarcasm, but I enclosed it within HTML < > and it vanished. Duh

That's a good example of how dangerous a little knowledge is.

[cyborg]

Too many teachers are posing as doctors. Every parent that has come to my health food store has told me the teacher said the child should be on such and such medication.

[neverdem]

That was a mouthful and on target.

[Lil'freeper]

I guess its the age we live in, perhaps we're just so sophisticated with our pharmacology that we ignore possible causes as simple as nutrition- which is what I suspect is at the heart of these problems. Pepsi, Cheetoes, and chicken tenders with fries isn't going to help a 5-year old human organism function optimally. Ditto the high-fructose, artifically colored everything else. I blame parents, too, not for lax discipline but for feeding their children crap. They then run to the doctor with fashionable alarm when their kids' bodies don't work right. I have several co-workers like this and they flabberghast me weekly. Their kids are always sick and have a host of problems (including a 14-yr old linebacker wannabe with symptoms of heart disease). Their kids were (are!) raised on McDonalds' and Hamburger Helper.

But of course, the topic of nutrition is more inflammatory than religion and politics combined. Even here, I'm sure I'll get flamed.