Is Childhood a "Brain Disease"?

The link below is to a letter by Dr. Mark Foster, a board certified family physician. Dr. Foster tells the story of a six year old boy he saw in an urgent care facility one weekend when his mom brought him in to get an Adderall XR refill. The story is chilling precisely because it is so ordinary and because it reveals what has now become the standard of care in treating childhhod behavioral concerns. It is frightening.

Medicating Kids

Unintended Consequences: Do Antidepressants Increase Risk of Recurrent Depression?

There is strong evidence that long term use of many psychiatric medications actually increases the severity, disabling effects, and recurrence rates of the conditions they purport to treat. I've written about this before (http://raybepko.blogspot.com/2011/01/epidemic-or-marketing.html) in discussing Robert Whitaker's landmark work, Anatomy of An Epidemic. Below is a link to a new study that indicates taking antidepressants actually may lead to rather than prevent chronic depression. They do so by interfering with the brain's natural regulatory mechanisms for managing neurotransmitters, actually creating the "chemical imbalance" they are supposed to treat. It suggests that the reason people experience an increase in depressive symptoms when they stop antidepressants is not because "the depression is coming back" but because the medication has altered the brain's ability to regulate itself. This may also  help in understanding why depression has become a much more chronic condition than it was prior to the Age of Prozac.

Antidepressants May Increase Relapse Risk

Prevention Rather Than Medication???

This interesting article describes a program designed to prevent the development of antisocial behavior in at risk children. The three month program engaged children in activities designed to improve self-management and social interactions. Oppositional and disruptive behavior decreased significantly and there was also a decline in reported hyperactivity and inattention.

This study has important implications that I will be developing over the next several weeks: Prevention works and is much less expensive than treatment in the long run. There are effective non-drug treatments for most behavioral problems. The trend toward identifying all problems as discrete "brain diseases" requiring long term medication is dangerous and disempowers the very people it intends to help.

Prevention Works