Psychotropic Medication for Kids Essay

I feel that psychiatric issues in children are highly unrecognized and under-treated. It is necessary to study a child and their behavior and various tests to be carried out before diagnosing mental conditions. It is normal for children to go through mood disorders but that does not mean that they should be treated using psychotropic medication. The bipolar condition in children is different from that in adults. In children, the children uncooperativeness and being too impulsive, something that can be regulated with prescribed mood stabilizers depending on the age of the child and severity of their condition. I feel that the child will develop a mentality that they are sick and special unlike other children, thus should be treated so. It is wrong, as the way a child is brought up; they will develop the same. When an uncooperative child is shown that they should be done with an assignment and if not they will receive a punishment, they will follow the same route. However, when a child throws tantrums and is given medication, a habit will develop and chances of ever recovering from the mood disorder will be minimized, worsening the situation for the future where they will receive mental-illness drugs all through (Wilens, 2009).

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

I believe that the psychotropic medications are not safe or necessary for the children. It could be because of the worry that the drug may affect the young growing brain of the child. It is essential for further tests to be conducted before psychotropic medication can be administered. There are high cases of inconsistent diagnosis on the bipolar disorder, which means that the child will be receiving medications which will end up inhibiting the development of the brain. In addition, the psychotropic medication results in behavioral symptoms of uncooperativeness and impulsiveness. The more a child takes the drug, and they learn that they are mentally ill; they will start behaving so as a way of attracting the attention of the people around. There are other effects which are also associated with these drugs, and they end up worsening the health condition of the child, for instance, increase in weight gain and the more the medication, the higher the chances of being overweight and future risk of diabetes (In Bezchlibnyk-Butler, In Elbe, In Procyshyn and In Virani, 2014). The prescriptions should also be administered with age; a problem experienced mostly since the drugs are given without considering the age of the patient. The wrong dose may end up being given to the child, thus risking their health.

Conclusion

There are parents who are not willing to consider medication as a way of regulating the moods of the aggressive or violent children. In that case, the school should come up with a counseling program for such children. The psychotropic medications have adverse effects on the child while the counseling programs can be used as an alternative as there are no side effects. In the plans, the student with violent tendency will talk to a teacher-counselor about their feeling and fears, and they will be assisted on how to calm down instead of taking the anger on someone else. In addition, the school should have a punishment system. Violence is against the school rules and any person, despite their mood disorders should be punished if they cause harm to another person. It will act as a lesson to other students with a bipolar condition.

References

In Bezchlibnyk-Butler, K. Z., In Elbe, D., In Procyshyn, R. M., & In Virani, A. S. (2014). Clinical handbook of psychotropic drugs for children and adolescents. Toronto: Hogrefe.

Wilens, T. E. (2009). Straight talk about psychiatric medications for kids. New York: Guilford Press.