The Medicated Child

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The Medicated Child

The issue of bipolar disorder has been a problem in the American society for a long time. A lot of people have been diagnosed as depressed and having psychotic issues and one of the most rampant issues that have been making parents worried is the issue if their children developing bipolar disorders when they are so young and still developing. Because of this, parents have become worried and they have tried different types of medications to prevent their children from becoming fully bipolar. Some of these medications have worked while others have not been able to work because according to doctors, children are still developing and the drugs which are used are the drugs for adults and they do not affect children the same way that they affect the young children (Barlow et al, 2020). It is a difficult situation because even the doctors seem to be not aware of what kind of medication to give to them children to do away with the psychiatric diseases that afflict them. This is from a documentary called ‘The Medicated Child’ by PBS frontline that was produced on 8th January 2008 and seeks to illuminate the issue of children not getting medication for the different diseases they might have and in particular focus towards the high amount of medicine given to children instead of psychotherapy and the manner in which these medications affect the children. This paper discusses the documentary and gives insights towards what it presents.

Firstly, the documentary presents the cases of different children who have been diagnosed with symptoms that are related to bipolar disorder and the cases are discussed in a very good way as even the doctors of the children are even interviewed. This presents the information in a very clear and straightforward or even investigative manner (The Medicated Child, 2018). This kind of information presentation makes the information presented more trustworthy and believable and it is directly from the people involved into the different cases of children who were being treated for such disorders. Parents are also interviewed and their emotions and love for their children make the documentary emotional. The parents of Jacob are presented as one who had a lot of difficulty when it came to their child Jacob. He was a good healthy kid but later as he was growing developed problems after his first three years. However, his teachers at school complained of hypersensitivity and even though the parents of Jacob were reluctant to take him to a doctor because to them he seemed perfectly normal the teachers continued to insist. According to the documentary this is one of the worries or issues that make American society spend a lot of money on treating very little conditions or even conditions that never existed and actually develop a serious problem from the medication from a problem that did not exist.

After Jacobs parents took him to hospital, he was diagnosed with attention deficit hyper activity disorder. This was after they had resisted taking him to hospital for almost a year. This condition forced them to begin medication for Jacob who to them seemed perfectly normal. Therefore, they began the medications and that medication led to another condition and after that they had to take another medication that was to deal with the side effect of the second medication (The Medicated Child, 2018). The story of medication seemed to continue growing and every time they wanted to him to have a normal life there was a medication he was supposed to be taking. This was a difficult situation for them because as his father describes the situation, its like taking a lot of medications just to treat a disease that has been caused by the other medication that was taken and it was too much for them. In fact, they decided at one point to just stop all the medications because it was too much and maybe even nothing. They were very worried of the effects the medications had on their little child and they had to do everything within their ability to make the medication go away.

Not only the case of Jacob, other cases are presented in the documentary and they are quite astonishing because children are given very heavy medication when they are a very young and this to some extent affects their development and growth. In fact, deducing from the examples and the cases given as well as the views of the different doctors who present their points of view for the documentary, it might be true that some medications for the cases presented were completely unnecessary. The best thing that could have been done would have been to see a psychologist and make sure that the psychologist tries to understand the behaviors of the children and try to modify them (Crego et al, 2020). It is also concerning how the doctors even state that the medications that they gave to some of the children were just try and error because there were no drugs developed for kids. What is even more disconcerting is the fact that these doctors preferred to use medications they were not fully aware of their effects on children for treatment of the conditions instead of preferring a better way like psychological methods.

The film therefore is an overall point of view and there is no bias since all the sides are involved and they all present their ideas as to what they believe is the right thing and what could have been done better as well as the way forward. The documentary even goes ahead to bring in the governmental body in charge of medications and ask them about medications for children and why doctors keep prescribing drugs that they are not sure about. The response is that the medication for young children is tricky because its effects are not static but rather varied since children keep developing and medicine affect them differently. The purpose of the documentary seems to inform and make parents aware of the issues that take place in the medical world so as to enable them to take the necessary precautions for their children. The sources of the documentary are narrator, parents, personal doctors, university and other researchers, FDA researchers and doctors, the children and other people involved in the cases of the children.

The parents seem more effective and able to communicate more effectively since they are not just stating the facts but they are narrating the events with some kind of emotional attachment and that is to their children. Therefore, they seem more convincing that the medication they were being given even though understood to be of good help seemed more harmful than helpful to their children. The film does not differ in any great from what I have learnt (Gershon et al, 2020). This is because all the facts presented are medical facts and personal stories which are manifestations of how some things like medication affect the behavior of a person or even change it.

In conclusion, the medication that were given to the different children cases presented in the documentary seem to have affected the behaviour of the children in a great way. However, this is not everything since some of the medications have actually worked and helped the children get better. The documentary is informative and it is an important thing to be looked at and researched so that proper medication for the different psychiatric diseases for children are developed.

References

Barlow, D. H., Ellard, K. K., Cummings, J. A., Deleurme, K., & Campoli, J. (2020). 4.1 Anxiety and Related Disorders. Abnormal Psychology.

Crego, C., Widiger, T., Cummings, J. A., & Strauss, C. (2020). 9.1 Personality Disorders. Abnormal Psychology.

Gershon, A., Thompson, R., & Cummings, J. A. (2020). 3.1 Mood Disorders. Abnormal Psychology.

The Medicated Child. (2018). FRONTLINE. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/medicatedchild/