Drugs Used for Psychotics Go to Youths in Foster Care

[groovedaddy]

Foster children are being prescribed cocktails of powerful antipsychosis drugs just as frequently as some of the most mentally disabled youngsters on Medicaid, a new study suggests.

The report, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, is the first to investigate how often youngsters in foster care are given two antipsychotic drugs at once, the authors said. The drugs include Risperdal, Seroquel and Zyprexa — among other so-called major tranquilizers — which were developed for schizophrenia but are now used as all-purpose drugs for almost any psychiatric symptoms.

“The kids in foster care may come from bad homes, but they do not have the sort of complex medical issues that those in the disabled population do,” said Susan dosReis, an associate professor in the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy and the lead author.

The implication, Dr. dosReis and other experts said: Doctors are treating foster children’s behavioral problems with the same powerful drugs given to people with schizophrenia and severe bipolar disorder. “We simply don’t have evidence to support this kind of use, especially in young children,” Dr. dosReis said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/health/research/study-finds-foster-children-often-given-antipsychosis-drugs.html?_r=1&hpw

[LeftishBrit]

1. That is scary,

[BanzaiBonnie]

2. There are some horrible side effects, some permanent

[CoffeeCat]

3. Children in foster care...

...are all ready traumatized, from being taken away from unfit parents. Many
are victims of abuse.

The LAST thing they need is to be drugged up on powerful drugs that they don't
need--thus victimizing them even further.

If they're in a drugged-up stupor, they are being emotionally crippled into
a state where they can't process their pain.

These kids need intensive talk therapy, and they need to be able to process
the horrors of what has happened to them. They don't have parents. There
are many good foster parents out there--but it's a roll of the dice. Many
foster situations are abusive as well.

This situation makes me sick. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the government
agencies that handle these kids, have some kind of "working relationship" with
big Pharma--and this is the reason that these kids are being drugged up.

This really is sick. These kids need advocates. It's just very sad.

[Odin2005]

4. Therapy is expensive, it's cheaper to drug them.

That's all there is too it. :(

[Chemisse]

5. No matter how good and loving the foster family is, they can't readily replace

the child's real family, who they love and miss no matter how bad the situation was.

Kids who have been removed from their homes are severely traumatized. both from the events leading up to removal, the removal itself, and, as time goes on and they adjust to the foster family, conflicts over loyalty.

It's a horrible situation, and it is not surprising that some pretty disturbing behaviors can result. But to bombard a small child with a cocktail of drugs, including powerful antipsychotics (and I have seen this happen during my years as a foster parent), is just adding to the damage being done to the child.

Therapy for these kids should be intensive and focused on helping the child. Instead, it seems to center on exploring the issues involved in the family abuse or neglect (frequently a self-serving therapy that adds to the body of evidence against the parents, at the expense of a confused and guilt-ridden child).

It's all pretty sad.