No quick fixes …
John Freeman
Saturday, March 26, 2011
I have written already in my column about the prevalence of use of behaviour modification drugs in children and young people. Of course that there are medical brains-located conditions for which drug treatments are appropriate and highly beneficial; there are convincing reports from parents that drug treatments have changes their and their children’s lives. But on the other side there is evidence that some children are being treated without any consultation with the school; and in one reported case, the school has said that there was no problem at all in school, and the medication was requested because it made the parents’ life easier.
It’s now come to light (as reported in the Guardian) that the NICE guidelines – which recommend family-based therapy in the first instance, with drugs only as a last resort, and never for children under the age of six – are being widely flouted. So children under the age of six are being prescribed psychotropic medication, with no proper assessment of the long-term effects or even the short-term benefits. And reported side-effects include sleeplessness, appetite loss, and reduced growth rates.
The problem – of course – is that family-based therapy is expensive in time and money, and costs much more than medication. This is exacerbated by parental demand and expectation that medication will be prescribed, thus putting pressure on already-pressed GPs. There are three reasons for all this; one is that the parents think that medication is a quick route to improved behaviour and academic performance; second, that a diagnosis of ADHD can lead to access to benefits; and thirdly, medication is a cheaper and easier resolution by GPs for unhappy parents than expensive and time-consuming multi-agency family therapy. There is a real danger that cuts in children’s services, in both health and local authorities, will work together to increase further the unnecessary prescribing of mind-altering drugs with unknowable long-term effects.
