Medicate To Death

The story in the paper yesterday about <a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/D/DRUGGED_TO_DEATH?SITE=MTBIL&SECTION=US&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT">drugs and murder</a> was very interesting. It touched on a pet peeve of mine. The dosing of our children with prescription drugs to control them easier.<br />n<br />nIn a nut shell these sorry excuse for parents got prescriptions for ADHD and by hook and crook got more pills than were necessary and used them to keep their child in almost a coma so they wouldn't have to deal with her. Reading the story it is not really even for sure that the child had ADHD, it was just based on family history. At 4 years old did this kid really need to be on such medication?<br />n<br />n<blockquote>Kifuji told police Rebecca had been her patient since August 2004, when she was 2. She said she based her diagnoses of ADHD and bipolar disorder on the family's mental health history, as described by Carolyn Riley, and Rebecca's behavior, as described by Carolyn and briefly observed by her during office visits.</blockquote><br />n<br />n<blockquote>But Rebecca's teachers, the school nurse and her therapist all told police they never saw behavior in Rebecca that fit her diagnoses, such as aggression, sharp mood swings or hyperactivity.</blockquote><br />n<br />nI THINK NOT!!!!<br />n<br />nThis just shows in my worthless opinion how parents want to control their kids with medication to make their lives easier. I am sure glad I grew up when I did. I have been told I was a handful when I was growing up and My Well Seasoned Mom has told me if the drugs were available when I was growing up that are available today she would have got them for me.<br />n<br />nToday I can do nothing about how hard it might have been on my parents when I was growing up but I turned out pretty good without drugs to regulate my behavior. Nature has managed some revenge on me with my son who is also a handful. We have had people say we should get some medicine to control him better but we figure, you have to let a kid be a kid. Most of them grow out of it and turn into reasonably well adjusted human beings. By teaching them to use drugs to control their behavior seems to be a dangerous path to be on to me. What other drugs might they use to change their behavior since they have learned "better living through chemistry" thanks to their parents?<br />n<br />nI know, my rant about over medicating our children is old, you've heard it enough. But it does worry me. What really makes me wonder though is this so called doctor diagnosing ADHD and bipolar based mostly on family history. Is this moral/ethical? It sounds like poor doctoring to me.<br />n<br />n<strong>And while we are on the subject of medication you always need to look at risk versus benefit. Temple Grandin </strong>