Prescripted Drug Use in Children

[ResidentWeevil2077]

WARNING: This is an intellectual discussion that should only be partaken of by mature members who have at least some grasp of the issues at hand.

 

It has recently come to light that there is a growing number of children who are diagnosed with ADHD, or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. It is becoming an increasingly common diagnosis for young children (more specifically those in kindergarten to Gr.5) who often misbehave in school and are disruptive to their classmates. Children who have ADHD often can't focus on their schoolwork because they are distracted rather easily, they are very hyperactive and can't be told to sit still, and sometimes can't wait for the things want.

 

The only way for ADHD to be properly managed is through drug treatment. Because ADHD is currently considered to be an uncurable psychologial disorder and is quite persistent, drug treatment tends to be for life. There are a number of prescription drugs on the market that can easily treat someone who has been diagnosed with ADHD. Most of these prescription drugs are stimulants, as they seem to restore many of chemical imbalances that stem from this disorder within the brain that control our focus, attention, and impulse control.

 

However, many, if not all, of these prescription drugs have not been approved for use in young children by the FDA or Health Canada. Despite that fact, many physicians and psychologists will prescibe these drugs to children, albeit in smaller dosages. Sometimes, the doctors may inadvertantly misdiagnose a child, and be prescribed several different drugs. In some cases, the child may not even have ADHD at all, and in the meantime, he or she is being prescribed drug after drug to which the child's systoms are not alleviated by.

 

This is a practice commonly refered to as "cocktailling", and can become very dangerous to the health and well-being of the child. Some children are lucky to have a doctor make the proper diagnosis, and take them off their medications, which can sometimes total over 20 seperate drugs. Othe rchildren aren't as fortunate, and sometimes may die from being over-prescribed. And perhaps now more than ever, these misdiagnoses come from the most unlikely places - in the classroom.

 

A most disturbing fact is that many of these so-called "ADD kids" have been diagnosed with their condition just from the opinion of their teacher. Many young children who misbehave and disrupt the classroom are labelled with ADD because their teacher automatically assumes that this is the cause. However, teachers are not capable of making any kind of logically informed medical diagnosis whatsoever, and in fact many teachers assume a child who is overly hyperactive to have ADD or ADHD, when in fact they could very well just be hyperactive children.

 

What is even more disconcerting is the fact that the US and Canadian gov'ts are failing to acknowlegde that there even is a problem in the first place. Currently, there are NO laws or even guidelines in place that can allow teachers, doctors, or psychologists to make any kind of logical diagnosis. As a matter of fact, medical professionals often have a difficult time in trying to make a proper diagnosis simply because ADHD has many different symptoms as other psychological disorders where hyperactivity is the main symptom.

 

So, my question to you is, do you condone the use of prescription drugs in young children (generally under 12 yrs) for the treatment of ADHD, or any other disorder for that matter? Do you think teachers should be allowed to make their own diagnoses, even though they don't have the proper medical knowlegde or licence to even make a diagnosis at all? What kinds of laws or even general guidelines that should be set forth for healthcare professionals to follow when making a diagnosis regarding young children?

 

I feel this is a rather important issue that should be dicussed. I don't believe, with 100% certainty, that children should be allowed to be prescibed ANY legal medication whatsoever, depending upon whether drug treatment is in the best interests of the child's overall health and well-being. I know this really isn't the best place to talk about these things, but I feel very strongly about this matter.

[Peregrine]

I feel this is a rather important issue that should be dicussed. I don't believe, with 100% certainty, that children should be allowed to be prescibed ANY legal medication whatsoever, no matter how severe the child's symptoms may get. I know this really isn't the best place to talk about these things, but I feel very strongly about this matter.

 

Are you honestly this stupid? This isn't just that silly stalker thing I've been doing, I mean that entirely seriously. If you really believe that, please kill yourself before you do any more harm to society. What you're proposing is nothing more than a death sentence for countless children, and no amount of "save the children" propaganda is going to change that. Many of those children NEED their medication to have anything resembling a normal life (if they can even live at all). So please, convince me you're not just a complete sociopath, and apologize for your poor judgement.

[poopgoblin]

I think the problem with ADHD is the lack of discipline in children. Now days, its frowned upon to spank your kids when they mis-behave. I realize that there are children out there that really have ADHD and need medication, but I think the main cause of the problem is the parents. Parents need to suck it up and discipline their kids when they step out of line. My parents spanked me when I was young, and I'm grateful for that. Mind you, I'm not saying to beat your kids to the point of black eyes and bruises, that would be child abuse. And child abuse is for pussies. But a spanking, or maybe a backhanding, never caused great pain to a kid, but instead helped them latter.

 

I bet if teachers were allowed to hit their students for mis-behaving, like they did in the 50s, there'd be less cases of ADHD.

 

And the doctors mis-diagnosing children on purpose should lose their licenses. And a teacher's opinion on something they know nothing about shouldn't be the deciding factor in a diagnosis.

[ninja_lord666]

I don't think many doctors mis diagnose on purpose, and if they do, they do loose their lisenses. As for the teachers. I agree one hundren percent. Teachers have no right to make medical diagnoses on students if they jdont even have a doctorate degree, let alone a doctorate in medicine. Why are teachers even allowed to do that? They are pretending to be doctors. If a normal person starts diagonsing people, they get arrested for fraud! Why not teachers?

 

As for the discipline, I think you're partly right. The lack of discipline has caused children to flagrantly disobey the rules. I know, my sister does it all the time. However, if a kid is hyperactive, discipline won't do much, not saying it won't do anything. It just won't do much on a kid who is inherently hyper.

[Peregrine]

I don't think many doctors mis diagnose on purpose, and if they do, they do loose their lisenses. As for the teachers. I agree one hundren percent. Teachers have no right to make medical diagnoses on students if they jdont even have a doctorate degree, let alone a doctorate in medicine. Why are teachers even allowed to do that? They are pretending to be doctors. If a normal person starts diagonsing people, they get arrested for fraud! Why not teachers?

 

Simple reason: they aren't. Anyone who claims otherwise is a moron. A diagnosis or prescription from a teacher (unless that teacher is also a licensed doctor) isn't worth the paper it's written on. And if that teacher's prescription is actually used to get drugs, you're talking about quite a few different crimes (something so obvious nobody is going to accept a teacher's "prescription" and give them the drugs). So the most that is happening is the teachers are recognizing symptoms and behavior patterns, and recommending the parents seek a doctor's opinion.

 

 

As for you poopgoblin (god, what an immature name), there's that biblical morality again? If someone steps out of line, beat them into submission! Why not go all the way and bring back stoning as the punishment for disrespecting your elders?

[poopgoblin]

if a kid is hyperactive, discipline won't do much, not saying it won't do anything. It just won't do much on a kid who is inherently hyper.

you sure? Say a kids jumping of the walls, running around, yelling, and doing other hyperactive activities. If you were to backhand him and tell him to sit down and shut up, wouldn't he do it?

 

someone get me a second grader and some Red Bull, i wanna test it out.

[ResidentWeevil2077]

I feel this is a rather important issue that should be dicussed. I don't believe, with 100% certainty, that children should be allowed to be prescibed ANY legal medication whatsoever, no matter how severe the child's symptoms may get. I know this really isn't the best place to talk about these things, but I feel very strongly about this matter.

 

Are you honestly this stupid? This isn't just that silly stalker thing I've been doing, I mean that entirely seriously. If you really believe that, please kill yourself before you do any more harm to society. What you're proposing is nothing more than a death sentence for countless children, and no amount of "save the children" propaganda is going to change that. Many of those children NEED their medication to have anything resembling a normal life (if they can even live at all). So please, convince me you're not just a complete sociopath, and apologize for your poor judgement.

What do you expect me to say to you, hmm? That a child should be allowed to be prescribed anything, even though the doctor knows full well that what they prescribe might do more harm than good? Quite a few a prescription drugs haven't been approved use in children under 12. And do you honestly think that I don't know that there are some children that absolutely need to be medicated?

 

I suppose what I should have said was " I don't believe, with 100% certainty, that children should be allowed to be prescibed ANY legal medication whatsoever, providing that the diagnosis doesn't mean the child abosolutely needs to be medicated, just for that child to have a normal life."

 

I admit I said something stupid, and apologize for my idiocy. Now, I'm tired, and I'm going to bed.

[Peregrine]

What do you expect me to say to you, hmm? That a child should be allowed to be prescribed anything, even though the doctor knows full well that what they prescribe might do more harm than good? Quite a few a prescription drugs haven't been approved use in children under 12. And do you honestly think that I don't know that there are some children that absolutely need to be medicated?

 

Drop the strawman. You know perfectly well there's a difference between "you're wrong, banning drugs for children is completely immoral" (what I actually said) and "children should be given anything and everything without any limits, as long as someone wants to do it". Of course there are incidents of unjustified or incorrect prescriptions. The solution is to be more careful and eliminate the mistakes, not to add excessively broad bans.

 

And I'm sure you know some children need their medication. I'm also sure you didn't consider that fact before making your post.

 

I suppose what I should have said was " I don't believe, with 100% certainty, that children should be allowed to be prescibed ANY legal medication whatsoever, providing that the diagnosis doesn't mean the child abosolutely needs to be medicated, just for that child to have a normal life."

 

Again, you're wrong. Why should children be denied legitimate prescriptions because of your paranoia about mis-diagnosed 'problems'?

 

And nice black and white fallacy. There's more than just "zero benefit" and "needed to survive", we have a whole range of situations where the drugs may improve the child's life without being absolutely essential. Or do you think we should just leave any problem that isn't life-threatening untreated because you hate drugs?

 

I admit I said something stupid, and apologize for my idiocy. Now, I'm tired, and I'm going to bed.

 

Good, I accept your concession. Though it's usually better to just apologize and drop the argument instead of continuing to defend it...

 

 

----------------

 

 

As for you poopgoblin (god, what an immature name), there's that biblical morality again? If someone steps out of line, beat them into submission! Why not go all the way and bring back stoning as the punishment for disrespecting your elders?

[ninja_lord666]

you sure? Say a kids jumping of the walls, running around, yelling, and doing other hyperactive activities. If you were to backhand him and tell him to sit down and shut up, wouldn't he do it?

 

someone get me a second grader and some Red Bull, i wanna test it out.

 

Yes, I'm 16. I go to school with todays children. Many of them are so rebelious, you could trade in that backhand for a gun, give them sleeping pills, and they still wouldn't do as you told them. I know kids who have been given detention after detention for doing the same things over and over. They just don't get it.

So for the hyperactive children, a simple spank or even a slap wouldn't do much of anything.

 

To get to the topic this is supposed to be about, I'm not all that familiar with ADD or ADHD, however, unless it's life threatening (ex. ALD and Lorenzo) I tend to agree with most of the FDA. I know very little about different drugs so I'll leave it to the people with the degrees.

[Marxist ßastard]

Currently, there are NO laws or even guidelines in place that can allow... doctors or psychologists to make any kind of logical diagnosis.

So then suddenly professionals should not be allowed to do what they have been trained to do (for the better part of their lives, no less) if there aren't laws dictating their every move?

 

The more you post, the more apparent it becomes that you have no idea whatsoever what the conservative political ideology is all about, or especially what free-market capitalism is all about. However, you claim to have extremely conservative, pro-capitalist beliefs. Why is this?