Kiddie Depression

Are children in America are being over-diagnosed and over medicated by doctors, parents and schools more concerned to make them better behaved than for their wellbeing? This question is asked by Judith Warner, author of new book “We’ve Got Issues: Children and Parents in the Age of Medication”. She says she used to believe that kids were being medicated for the wrong reason. Until, that is, she began researching her book: “Surveys and statistics showed that the story of over-diagnosis and overmedication was wrong; 5 percent of children in America take psychotropic medication, while 5 to 20 percent are estimated to have mental health issues. The vast majority of those in need of help never get any care at all. The facts are incontrovertible: Kids’ mental health issues are real, they’re serious, and they often cause profound suffering. And they’re not new. Listening to parents gave me a very concrete answer to the question so many skeptics ask as to where all the kids with ‘issues’ were a generation ago. We existed, many of the parents of kids who now are getting diagnosed told me. And no one noticed that we were suffering. And, they said, they weren’t going to let the same not-noticing, or the same labeling with words like ‘lazy’ or ‘stupid’ or ‘bad,’ happen to their kids today.”