Medicated Child
“The Medicated Child” The documentary “Medicated Child” shows how there is a lack of knowledge on how to diagnose and treat children with Bi Polar Disorder. Early on before proper research was done, children were often diagnosed with ADHD instead of the proper BI Polar diagnosis. This can be attributed to the fact that the symptoms are so similar. Doctors often feel treatment of such disorders can only be treated by medications, however, some psychologists believe that there are other methods that can be used. They do not want children to be on so many daily medications.
In my opinion the doctors in this documentary were to quick to diagnose and medicate the children with these disorders. They used educated guesses on the type of treatment to use. In some cases the children were on 8 or 9 different medications daily. This much medication or any mind-altering substance given to a child whose mind is still developing could have and is shown here to have long term effects on the rest of their lives and development in society. There is a chance that the children may have grown out of these stages in their lives but were never given the chance to come into their own.
The parents seemed to be looking for a quick fix to their kids acting out. When in reality, what child from 3-5 doesn’t have emotional outbursts and the inability to control their impulses? Parenting and guidance need to come into come into play for these children. Children in this age range are easily molded and might just need some guidance and structure added to their life before going straight to medications. This is not to say that mental illness does not exist in some young children, but in some cases other outlets of help and treatment should to be sought out before giving strong and heavy doses of medications to your child.
The health care providers in the video seemed to neglect further testing or options of treatment for the young patients and just opted to add more prescriptions and raise dosages of already existing medications. The parents appeared to have a feeling that something wasn’t right but went along with doctor’s orders anyway due to their lack of knowledge on the subject and situation. Jacob was diagnosed with Bi polar disorder at 3 years old when his teachers suggested to his parents that he was to hyperactive and needed ome sort of treatment. He was initially diagnosed and treated for ADHD but soon after his parents decided that he was being too heavily medicated and wanted him to be taken off the meds. It was discovered shortly after the hospital stay where he was being detoxed, that he actually had Bi polar disorder. At 16 Jacob is still on medications to treat bi polar disorder, but I feel that the over medication and vast array of chemicals he was exposed to when he was a child heavily influenced and distorted his development into adolescence.
It is my overall opinion from this video that we need to look at all options when treating children with mental illnesses. Medication can be useful but needs to be monitored carefully and combined with therapies. Parents need to be educated on what the medications can do to their child. The young children in this video will grow up to be adults living in our society and we want them to be as happy, healthy and productive as possible.
