Essay Example on Suicidal Behavior in Children: 60-77% Exposed to Abuse/Violence

Suicidal behavior is an action intended to harm oneself and includes suicide attempts, suicide gestures, and completed suicide. Suicide is the third leading cause of death in children aged 10 years and older (Elia). Children who are more likely to portray suicidal behavior are those who have been exposed to abuse such as physical violence, sexual violence between birth, and when they are four years. 60 percent of children in the 5-9 year age group are also prone to violence or abuse. 77 percent of the children age from 10 to 14 years are affected by abuse and violence. In 2014, 17 percent of high school students considered committing suicide, while 13 percent had a suicide plan. 8 percent attempted committing suicide while some attempted more than once. Suicidal behavior is more prevalent in Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) than heterosexual students. 29 percent of LGB students attempted suicide as compared with 6 percent heterosexual students.

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Apart from abuse, suicidal risk factors in children and adolescents also include mood disorders, alcohol or drug abuse, and depression. Underlying conditions and stressful situations in life sometimes lead to suicidal thoughts, which may result in suicidal behavior (Elia). Some of the stressful events for a child and adolescent include the demise of a loved one such as a parent, sibling, girlfriend or boyfriend, suicide in school or a group of peers, failure in academics, fear of being arrested, humiliation from friends and family as well as being bullied. Being bullied affects lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender than heterosexual students. However, these events can rarely lead to suicidal behavior if the child or the adolescent does not have any underlying condition. Some of the suicidal behaviors in adolescents are due to poor impulse control—adolescents who, for example, have conduct disorder act without thinking. Alcohol also contributes to suicidal behavior has it affects an individual’s ability to inhibit danger and the consequences for his/her actions.

Depression leads to hopeless feelings and makes an individual think that there is no alternative to suicide (Elia). People with depression are given antidepressants, which depending on their effects on neurotransmitters, may harm than good. Alternatives to antidepressants have been used especially for the youths and adults. These interventions include pharmacological and psychotherapeutic treatments. The reason psychotherapeutic treatments have not been successful is that there has been no reported evidence of long term effects of the intervention in reducing suicidal behavior.

The world health organization has stated that there is evidence that increased use of antidepressants affect children and adolescents where they begin to have suicidal thoughts. Different strategies have been proposed and encouraged to reduce the effects of antidepressants on young people. Data from the world health organization indicate that more than 50% of the people who use antidepressants have shown signs of suicidal behaviors after they began using antidepressant drugs (Lopez-Leon, et al., 6). Different countries have different regulations and perspectives on the use of antidepressants among the youth facing depression and anxiety challenges. Antidepressant drugs enhance suicidal behaviors in children and adolescents, where many youths have committed suicide after they began taking antidepressant drugs.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has raised concerns in the past, warning the people on the use of antidepressants to make the people know the dangers they expose themselves to when they use antidepressants to treat depression and anxiety. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has advised the public to consider other treatment options instead of using antidepressant drugs in the treatment of depression and anxiety diseases (Lopez-Leon et al., 7). Based on the threats brought by antidepressant effects among the youths and children, the use of antidepressants needs to be limited where healthcare professionals must try alternative treatment options before they can consider using the antidepressants.

Limiting the use of antidepressants will reduce the effects that the children and youth are suffering from when they use drugs. Antidepressants are highly addictive; hence the patients that are already using them can begin to stop using the drugs slowly, and with time they will be able to live without relying on the antidepressants (Lopez-Leon et al., 8). The use of the drugs needs to be restricted such that too young children are not allowed to use antidepressants for medication because of the adverse effects of the drug.

The plan to reduce the use of antidepressants needs to be planned in a manner that people of different ages have different limits in terms of the limitations that the young person can be allowed to use the drugs. Children below the age of ten years should not be allowed to use antidepressant drugs because the drugs affect health more than older kids (Lopez-Leon et al., 9). Physicians need to be encouraged to try alternative treatment methods such as therapy. The use of antidepressants has been accused of causing suicidal behaviors in children and adolescents; hence the use of the drugs need to be limited to people with extreme anxiety and depression cases to reduce the number of people using antidepressant drugs.

The reason for not using antidepressants among young children below the age of ten years is to safeguard their health by ensuring that they do not begin getting the consequences of antidepressants while they are still too young. The less they use the antidepressants, the less the chances of getting the side effects, which include suicidal behaviors (Barthez et al., 3). Younger people have healthier bodies; hence they have higher chances of recovering from alternative treatment methods such as therapy. Classifying the extent of use by age is important to enabling healthcare providers to get information on how children get affected.

Using the antidepressants and alternative safe treatment options will give the doctors the opportunity to use fewer antidepressants and hence reduce suicidal behaviors among children and adolescents. When the children are aware of the side effects, they will be in a better position to handle the side effects are reduce the chances of committing suicide (Barthez et al., 7). Doctors are also advised to use after antidepressants without the side effects of suicidal behaviors among the youth. Alternative treatment options do not have suicidal behavior side effects; hence they will work.

Limiting the use of antidepressants in children will help in reducing suicidal behavior. Before prescribing antidepressants to children, pediatricians should assess the severity of the depression (Cooper et al., 205). If children or adolescents have depression, they can be assisted through talk therapy, interpersonal psychotherapy, and cognitive behavior therapy. To maximize the outcome, these interventions can be combined with safer antidepressants such as Fluoxetine, which is approved by the FDA for children and adolescents as well as Escitalopram, which is approved for adolescents. However, cognitive therapy is as effective as antidepressant medications as it seems to reduce relapse after discontinuation. Through cognitive therapy, patients learn prefrontal regulatory brain mechanisms, which are beneficial after discontinuing the treatment.

Pharmacologic treatment is one of the alternative treatments for major depressive disorder in adolescents. A major depressive disorder is chronic and recurrent; thus may heighten in adulthood. However, pharmacological intervention sometimes may fail, thus creating the need for an alternative treatment. Some adolescents suffer treatment-resistant depression (TRD) and can be assisted with a combination of safer antidepressants and cognitive behavior therapy (Hamill-Skoch, Paul and Ximena, 95). This approach is more effective as compared to switching medications alone. Therefore, the antidepressants should not be banned as they are a perfect complement for patients with severe depression.

Limiting the use of antidepressants on children and adolescents is a better alternative than completely banning their use. Safer antidepressants can be used for patients with severe depression and not willing to undergo therapy fully. Limiting the use of the antidepressants will reduce its use when other alternatives could be used. Therefore, this means that for patients with mild depression, other alternatives such as cognitive behavior therapy will be used (Hamill-Skoch, Paul and Ximena, 95). By limiting the use of antidepressants and complementing it with non-medical interventions, there will be improved long term outcomes.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the use of antidepressants needs to limited in children and adolescents to reduce the side effects, which include suicidal behaviors. The proposed limited use of antidepressants will work because there are alternative treatment options that can be used to treat depression and anxiety. The impact of limited use of antidepressants is that suicidal cases will reduce among the children and adolescents living with mental illness challenges. If the antidepressant drugs continue to be used, the cases of suicides among the children and adolescents will continue to rises, which is a side effect of the use of antidepressants.

Works Cited

Barthez, Simon, et al. "Adverse drug reactions in infants, children and adolescents exposed to antidepressants: a French pharmacovigilance study." European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology (2020): 1-9.

Cooper, William O., et al. "Antidepressants and suicide attempts in children." Pediatrics 133.2 (2014): 204-210.

Elia, Josephine. "Suicidal Behavior In Children And Adolescents - Children's Health Issues - MSD Manual Consumer Version." MSD Manual Consumer Version, 2019, https://www.msdmanuals.com/home/children-s-health-issues/mental-health-disorders-in-children-and-adolescents/suicidal-behavior-in-children-and-adolescents.

Hamill-Skoch, Sarah, Paul Hicks, and Ximena Prieto-Hicks. "The use of cognitive behavioral therapy in the treatment of resistant depression in adolescents." Adolescent health, medicine, and therapeutics 3 (2012): 95.

Lopez-Leon, Sandra, et al. "Psychotropic medication in children and adolescents in the United States in the year 2004 vs 2014." DARU Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences 26.1 (2018): 5-10.