In a recent article that I browsed in The Austin American Statesman, I found a topic that seems to have hit home in many states. Earlier this year previous discussions happened in other parts of the US; Science Daily speaks their mind with more facts regarding the well being of children being treated with pharmaceutical medications, in lieu of a solution to their behavioral issues.
The subject that caught my eye was pharmaceutical medications that have deemed fit for many children under 13. I noticed there was a discussion regarding the distribution of Serequel on behalf of the Texas Youth Commission. Although this anti-psychotic drug has been designed to help people get a handle on their bipolar and schizophrenia disorders, it has been proven to be more of a hindrance then a helper. Earlier this year there were stories regarding doctors prescribing anti-psychotic medications to children as young as 3 years old. "According to this recent article in the New York Times, the use of anti-psychotic drugs among even children as young at two years old has soared in recent years." In fact it seems to have become an easier option for some parents, who would rather have their children heavily sedated then have to deal with their ADD or ADAD episodes. To diagnose Seroquel, Zyprexia, or Risperdal, is more than not ok. It's setting up children for a life on a pharmaceutical path. Not to mention the fact that children are merely trying to be children, and how can a doctor diagnose someone who is in the beginning learning stages of childhood, and behavioral issues. The side effects of these anti-pshychotic drugs are even worse! Anti-psychotic medications do not make you feel all warm and fuzzy, but the rather, they make you feel fuzzy and like you were dragged behind a train for miles on end, some of them can cause you to gain an astronaumical amount of weight, as many of these drugs were first prescribed to treat diabetes and seizures. Sometimes the medications doses are prescribed at a higher dose then is recommended, and the results from that include lethargy, inability to talk, eat, and walk properly. Yet this is ok to be given to our youth, our future of America, because teenagers are too hard to handle, or we don't understand what's going on? Many of these teens have been mentally or physically abused and may not even have parents or guardians. They are dealing with adolescence which is probably the most awkward and uncomfortable time in most peoples life. Teenage years are unnatural with out the sedation.
Although their claim is to help reduce the amount of aggression in the living facilities, it isn't healthy, and it doesn't teach teenagers how to adapt and deal with difficult situations in a productive manner. Having youth sleep through their days instead of having a meltdown in the lunchroom helps no one. They are already detained in a lock down facility with plenty of preventative measure options available. Teenagers who hurt themselves more then they hurt others are in another class entirely, and each child should be evaluated properly before getting their forehead stamped "manic". The writer is clearly addressing not only Texans but Americans in this blog. This issue directly effects children, teens, parents, schools, doctors, hospitals, and our communities. The writer states some facts regarding the dangers of the medication and what Seroquel and what other anti-psychotic meds were designed to do.
In TYC's $60,000 a month Seroquel Bill Eric Dexheimer writes about a report found in Youth Today, a newspaper published for workers in the youth corrections field. It notes that "in 2008, the Texas Youth Commission was spending an average of $60,000 a month on the powerful anti-psychotic drug Seroquel.
For those keeping score, that’s a rate of $720,000 a year; on the powerful anti-psychotic drug Seroquel, and before the agency changed its policy this year, following an in-house review, psychiatrists working on behalf of the agency prescribed Seroquel 2,553 times in 2008".
Many of the other "atypical" drugs have been prescribed for less severe mental disorders than schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, which both are very hard to diagnose at a young age because the signs truly start to peak in the late teens and early twenties. "This appears to be especially true with children, despite little research on how the powerful atypicals affect adolescents. According to the youth commission, in 2008 more than a quarter of the 1,600 to 1,900 incarcerated juveniles in the agency’s care were on the anti-psychotic medications. Many already had prescriptions when they entered the Texas system." It noted that Seroquel was being used as a sleep aid and that 70% of the TYC youth were using the drugs off-label.
The article goes on to quote the newspaper further by stating the "TYC Executive Director Cherie Townsend at length, said a total of 4,000 prescriptions for atypicals were written in 2008, suggesting that many of the incarcerated Texas youth were on more than one of the drugs. The agency reported that only 29 percent of the TYC adolescents taking the drugs had a diagnosis of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder." They have shown that they have put forth in an effort to get those numbers down however, and in "October 2009, TYC spent about $61,000 on Seroquel. By January 2010, it was down to about $38,500. For June, the last month for which Hurley said the agency had numbers, TYC spent $16,021 on the anti-psychotic drug. According to the agency, 123 incarcerated youth were on Seroquel at the beginning of the year. Last month it was only 23. The cost of atypicals generally has also dropped. Last October, TYC reported spending $127,737 on a half-dozen different brands of anti-psychotic. By this past June the figure was $54,000."
It seems that the organization is putting forth an effort to change and greatly reduce numbers that were much greater than they should of been. It makes me wonder if organizations get an incentive to prescribe copious amounts of certain prescriptions, and that is an anterior motive if they aren't truly concerned with the teen or child's well being. I am glad that they are changing their ways substantially and trying to become part of the system that fixes the problem at the core; for this issue its adolescents struggling with change. It's good to keep an eye on programs that are putting forth the effort to develop solutions and not just rearrange the situation and circumstance, by adding more problems and prescribing something else. Anti-psychotic meds or any prescription for that matter, should not always be, "just what the doctor ordered."
Dexheimer, Eric. (2010, October 14). TYC's $60,000 a month Seroquel Bill. Statesman.com. Retrieved October 21, 2010 from http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/investigative/index.html
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