Behavior Drugs and Children

The use of medication to treat young people with behavioral health disorders such as depression an attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder is on the rise. Behavioral drugs should be used after psychotherapy has been implemented and the doctor approved the medication himself, and have not drawn conclusions just from the parents and teachers.

Some support the use of prescribing behavioral health medicine but the use of psychotherapy should be presented first to evaluate the seriousness and behavior of the child. It is best that they are evaluated and monitored to see if they really need the medication. People often just take their kids to get medicine and go home and do not know what the child could be suffering mentally. Mental health experts maintain that nobody should ever be given behavior drugs without psychotherapy. (Bailey, & Carson-Dewitt, 2009 page2). Psychotherapy is the process of treating mental and emotional problems with professional counseling, as in cognitive behavioral therapy or interpersonal therapy. It is also the rate of ADHD, which makes it hard for children to control impulses or pay attention. It is believed that as many as two million children in the United States suffer from ADHD. Stimulants have been found to have a converse effect in ADHD suffers, calming them down and helping them to focus. The best known stimulant is Ritalin; others include Strattera and Adderrall. These medications have been given to children as young as fifteen months. While experts agree that depression and ADHD must be treated, many are cautious about the drug treatment. These critics argue that behavior drugs are often prescribed for children "off label" meaning that the medications have been approved for adults and older children, but have not been tested for younger ones. Some mental health critics also reject the entire theory of depression as a biological disease. Drugs, they assert, treat only the symptoms; they are not a cure for the problem that caused the depression. These critics tend to consider the whole idea of antidepressants as a marketing ploy rather than a source of real help (Bailey, & Carson-Dewitt, 2009).

Ritalin may limit some behavior problems and end affects on children with ADHD and depression but psychotherapy can have long lasting affects and ultimately cure the child of behavior problems and depression just by them talking to a counselor and expressing their emotions. Sometimes that is all it takes for young kids is for them to express themselves and let them know someone is concerned about them and that teachers, classmates, and family are not isolating them or putting them off to the side. To be listened to or giving attention might be the cure. Medicine last for a couple hours while mentoring and counseling might last a lifetime. Personal experiences that I have had with ADHD are quite the same. My friends were often drugged to attend school and church and the effects were drastic. One