|
|
|
|
Valiant Dancer
Forum Goalie
USA
4826 Posts |
 Posted - 03/17/2006 : 09:06:07
|
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11861986/
Yeah, this is a sore point for me. And why I object to what I percieve as a "drug em' first, ask questions when we're not so busy drugging em'" attitude by schools and psychologists.
|
Cthulhu/Asmodeus when you're tired of voting for the lesser of two evils
Brother Cutlass of Reasoned Discussion |
|
|
Ghost_Skeptic
SFN Regular
Canada
510 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2006 : 23:46:02 [Permalink]
|
I am glad that the ADHD fad and Ritalin weren't around when I was a kid. I am sure I would have been labeled as ADHD simply because I was bored silly in Elementary School and Junior High.
Here is a real horror story of achild being drugged into a stupor in a group home while the real cause of his problems is ignored. The quack responsible for this was not disciplined. Things like this just provide the scientologists with more ammunition.
It amazes me how an adverse response to a drug is dealt with by adding more drugs instead of discontinuing the first drug. It is as if the doctor cannot admit they made a mistake.
I think we should be as skeptical of conventional medicine as we are of alternative medicine. Doctors are often appallingly ignorant of the effectiveness or the side effects of the drugs they prescribe. You have to do your own research.
|
"You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. / You can send a kid to college but you can't make him think." - B.B. King
History is made by stupid people - The Arrogant Worms
"The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism." - William Osler
"Religion is the natural home of the psychopath" - Pat Condell
"The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter" - Thomas Jefferson |
 |
|
|
Wendy
SFN Regular
USA
614 Posts |
Posted - 05/22/2006 : 07:53:31 [Permalink]
|
quote:
Originally posted by Valiant Dancer
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11861986/
Yeah, this is a sore point for me. And why I object to what I percieve as a "drug em' first, ask questions when we're not so busy drugging em'" attitude by schools and psychologists.
Who brings them to the psychologist? Their parents!
My husband is a psychologist. His schedule is full of parents who want their children on these drugs, either so they don't have to deal with the children, or so they (the parents) can take the drugs themselves.
He refers to A.D.D. (Attention Deficit Disorder) as "Adults Don't Discipline". In other words, he tells parents he thinks it's bogus. And don't even get him started on Adult Attention Deficit Disorder. 
Edited to add: I make him sound like a Nazi. The "Adults Don't Discipline" is not an absolute. He also sees many children who are obviously bored, and children who are well-behaved whose parents insist they are monsters.
|
Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do on a rainy afternoon.
-- Susan Ertz
|
| Edited by - Wendy on 05/22/2006 08:01:21 |
|
|
|
Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 05/22/2006 : 08:58:58 [Permalink]
|
Just a comment:
Psychologists and schools can't prescribe medications. An MD has to do that. It's my opinion that a full psychiatric evaluation should be done before any child is prescribed a psychotropic medication. Of course, that is not always done. Pity too because they are pretty good tests. My guess is that if that were done, there would be many less drugs prescribed and more importantly, the correct drugs would be prescribed in their proper dosage.
The above stories should be taken seriously. But to condemn an entire field would be overstating the case. As always, parents should ask a lot of questions when a treatment is suggested by any one doctor. But to suggest that conventional medicine is on a par with alternative treatments is, again, overstating the case.
One other thing to expand on what Wendy points out. Those parents looking for a magic bullet are probably the same parents who would be open to alternative methods of treatment. They may have unreasonable expectations. I think it is unfortunate that there are doctors who will cave under their pressure. But I doubt that they represent the norm…
|
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
|
|
|
Wendy
SFN Regular
USA
614 Posts |
Posted - 05/22/2006 : 10:58:11 [Permalink]
|
quote:
Originally posted by Kil
Just a comment:
Psychologists and schools can't prescribe medications. An MD has to do that.
True. My post is not as clear as it should have been on that point. Many of the clients he (my husband) sees have been to a physician who has (according to the parent) said he/she will write the prescription IF a mental health professional is consulted and agrees it is necessary. He seldom agrees it is necessary.
quote:
Originally posted by Kil
It's my opinion that a full psychiatric evaluation should be done before any child is prescribed a psychotropic medication.
I couldn't agree more.
Edited because it's Monday and nothing I say makes sense. |
Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do on a rainy afternoon.
-- Susan Ertz
|
| Edited by - Wendy on 05/22/2006 11:06:51 |
|
|
|
Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 05/23/2006 : 00:12:15 [Permalink]
|
quote:
I am glad that the ADHD fad and Ritalin weren't around when I was a kid. I am sure I would have been labeled as ADHD simply because I was bored silly in Elementary School and Junior High.
Ditto. I didn't do well in school in those young ages because the content bored me to tears. I was always doing something else, usually something that irritated a teacher. If the ADD fad had been going strong, I have no doubt they'd have drugged me.... but I can honestly say that I think giving me a stimulant would have been an egregious error 
I have a friend of mine who has her kid on ADD drugs. She had to take them when she was a kid, so she just assumes that her incompetent parenting isn't to blame and had the stuff prescribed for the kid. Makes me kinda angry, but the one time I even started to talk about it she nearly bit my head off... heh.
You just can't tell people what to do, even in a nice, friendly, offering of advice kind of way.
The drugs should be, imo, an option of last resort. Not a crutch for lazy parents/teachers. Yeah, there are plenty of kids who legitimately need to be on the drugs, but there are prob many more who don't need to be on them.
|
Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
|
|
|
|
Ghost_Skeptic
SFN Regular
Canada
510 Posts |
Posted - 05/25/2006 : 22:11:53 [Permalink]
|
quote:
Originally posted by Wendy
quote:
Originally posted by Kil
Just a comment:
Psychologists and schools can't prescribe medications. An MD has to do that.
True. My post is not as clear as it should have been on that point. Many of the clients he (my husband) sees have been to a physician who has (according to the parent) said he/she will write the prescription IF a mental health professional is consulted and agrees it is necessary. He seldom agrees it is necessary.
quote:
Originally posted by Kil
It's my opinion that a full psychiatric evaluation should be done before any child is prescribed a psychotropic medication.
I couldn't agree more.
Unfortunately (at least here in Alberta) psychotropic medications are often prescribed by GPs that don't have a clue about effectiveness, side affects or addictiveness. |
"You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. / You can send a kid to college but you can't make him think." - B.B. King
History is made by stupid people - The Arrogant Worms
"The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism." - William Osler
"Religion is the natural home of the psychopath" - Pat Condell
"The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter" - Thomas Jefferson |
|
|
|
Snake
SFN Addict
USA
2511 Posts |
Posted - 05/25/2006 : 23:42:18 [Permalink]
|
quote:
Originally posted by Ghost_Skeptic
I am glad that the ADHD fad and Ritalin weren't around when I was a kid. I am sure I would have been labeled as ADHD simply because I was bored silly in Elementary School and Junior High.
Wish I would have read the 1st post in this folder before Ghost Skeptic. LOL, that would have been my line. Except I don't remember being bored. I was just different. Which even now, I don't care but my mother took me to a psychologist to make me be like everyone else.
I HATE psychologists, they don't know what the hell they are doing.
Instead of 'kill all the lawyer', it should be kill all the psychologist. |
|
|
|
Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 05/28/2006 : 12:25:22 [Permalink]
|
quote:
Ghost_Skeptic:
Unfortunately (at least here in Alberta) psychotropic medications are often prescribed by GPs that don't have a clue about effectiveness, side affects or addictiveness.
I know. That is a problem down here too, as the opening posts in this thread demonstrate, though most physicians I know have some idea of what they are prescribing. Still, any physician can refer a patient for psychiatric evaluation and get a recommendation from the referred physician. In my opinion, this should always be done, as have I said. I suppose it comes down to money, though that kind of exam can often be had for free.
There are obviously parents who can't afford a psychiatrist or a weekly visit to a psychologist, even though many do work on a sliding scale. So they rely on their GP to do the right thing. It's a dilemma that I don't know the solution for. Perhaps if psychiatric evaluations were mandatory before prescribing psychotropic meds, things would change.
|
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
|
|
|
 |
|
Topic Locked
