The past 15 years have seen a 300 percent increase in the use of psychotropic medications for girls and boys under the age of 20, and prescriptions for preschoolers have skyrocketed. A stellar group of authors from across disciplines explains this increase, questions the causes, and presents disturbing thoughts regarding this phenomenon, analyzing the risks medication creates for children. While there are certainly extreme cases where drugs are the only option, medication, rather than psychotherapy and counseling, has transformed from last resort to the first choice for treatment.The experts who joined forces for this book take an in-depth look at the conditions that have led to "drugging our children," and stress how emotional, social, cultural, and physical environments can both damage and heal young minds. The so-called medical model, one maintaining that psychological disturbance is genetic and thus requires medication, is challenged in this volume. Contributors range from a pediatrician who has testified before Congress and been featured in a Time magazine cover story, to a top child psychiatrist who is an official for the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, along with a well-known child psychiatrist, psychologists, environmentalists, and a public policy consultant. This is riveting reading for all who care about the youngest members of society. Among other issues, this work looks at controversy over whether psychiatric medications are safe or effective for children—and what little we know about their effect on still-developing brains—as well as the role of corporate interests in the increased use of psychotropics for children. Chapters address the role of environment in both causing and curing disorders more and more often diagnosed in our youngsters: from ADHD, depression, and anxiety to eating disorders. The core questions addressed by this sage group of contributors are these: Why are so many children being diagnosed with "psychiatric" disturbances and given drugs? Why have dru
Sharna Olfman is Professor of Clinical and Developmental Psychology at Point Park University in Pennsylvania and the Founding Director of the Childhood and Society Symposium.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 IntroductionPart 2 Environments MatterChapter 3 The Building Blocks of Children's Mental Health: Care and CommunityChapter 4 The Dance of Nature and Nurture: How Environment Impacts Rain Development and Genetic ExpressionChapter 5 Toxic World, Troubled MindsChapter 6 Media Violence: The Drug of Choice for Young MalesPart 7 Medical RemodelChapter 8 Child Psychiatry, Drugs, and the CorporationChapter 9 The Development of Mentally Healthy ChildrenChapter 10 Diagnosis, Drugs, and Bipolar Disorder in ChildrenPart 11 Pathologies of NormalcyChapter 12 The Rise of Ritalin: Triumph and Tragedy of the Medical Model in Children's Mental HealthChapter 13 Why Medications Are Not Enough: Looking More Deeply at Depression and Anxiety in ChildrenChapter 14 Global Girls, Consumer Culture, and Eating Disorders
What People are Saying About This
Laura E. Berk
"Sharna Olfman has masterfully edited this extraordinary volume that critically examines our nation's gullible faith in drugs as the treatment of choice for the rising tide of American children and youths diagnosed with mental illness. Through compelling statistics, wide-ranging research evidence, and poignant case examples, a renowned cast of contributing authors expose the clinical, industrial, and social conditions that have led to unwarranted drugging of our children. The chapters offer an incisive reminder that family, community, and societal supports combine with biology and are crucial for the development of every mentally healthy human child. The clarity, passion, and power of the authors' writing strengthen their vital message. A MUST READ for parents, mental health professionals, and policy makers, and a forceful call to action."
Joel Bakan
"This is a must read for anybody interested in the health and welfare of children....In ten compelling, often chilling, articles, helpfully organized and introduced by Dr. Olfman, the various authors, leaders in their respective fields, and drawn from a number of disciplines, demonstrate how a medical establishment obsessed with finding genetic causes rountinely obfuscates environmental factors, and how a pharmaceutical industry obsessed with profits only sees self-interested opportunity in the suffering of children."
Susan Linn
"An important book raising critical concerns about childhood, drugs, and how unfettered corporate interests combine with the romance of a quick fix to undermine children's health."
David Healy
"Children in America are being given psychotropic medications at an ever-increasing rate, driven by the fashionable diagnoses like bipolar disorder. No Child Left Different charts the emergence of this phenomenon. The contributors grapple with the issues in a nuanced and constructive way rather than simply express their horror. But the bottom line is that the book labels what is happening as a folly in the classical meaning of the word—something that was or could have been recognized to be a mistake at the time it was happening. Follies can be amusing and harmless, but this one has the dimensions of a tragedy."
