This is an unfortunate appraisal of our society's way to control behaviors of misbehaving children in an era where psychiatry, especially child psychiatry, carries the stigma of needlessly medicating and subduing patients wrongly.
- Antipsychotics undergo a rigorous process to gain approval for use in children as overseen by the FDA.
- The “off label” use of antipsychotic medications to treat children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and other disruptive behavior disorders, are based on well-established, effective, evidence-based treatments established by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry for children with these diagnoses.
- The main reason for this finding is the fact that there is a large cohort of poor children and adolescents dependent on Medicaid in residential treatment centers, foster care, group homes and juvenile justice facilities.
The most affordable and cost-effective way a parent can seek help for misbehaving children is through the school system. All schools have guidance counselors, and some even have elaborate school-based mental health clinics that deal especially with oppositional behaviors and ADHD.
