Too many kids on pills

A new study warns that too many children are taking anti-psychotic medicines in the US and UK. The worry is that many of these medications haven’t been approved for children or tested for long-term side effects:

With scant long-term safety data, it’s likely the drugs are being over-prescribed for both U.S. and U.K. children, research suggests.

The most common drugs are used to treat hyperactivity. The logic behind that has never sat well with me. ‘He’s not paying attention, we better just tranquilize him.’ I realize it’s a difficult for parents and teachers to deal with a child who has one of those disorders, but messing with the chemistry of their brain isn’t a solution. Considering the fact that nobody really knows what the long-term effects of these drugs are, it might just make the present bearable but the future far more complicated.

Frontline did a series last year called “The Medicated Child” which explored that conundrum. They came to the conclusion that treating so many kids with such unpredictable drugs is an uncontrolled experiment on a massive scale: