Friday, December 2, 2011

WSJ: Foster Kids are Overlyy Medicated, Report Says


 December 2, 2011 page A4 print edition Wall Street Journal

[Excerpted]
"Foster children on Medicaid receive psychotropic drugs--including antipsychotics and anti-depressants-at a higher rate than other children covered by the government insurance program, according to a federal report released Thursday....

...The report found that drug amounts exceeding maximum doses for a child's age were many times more likely to be prescribed to foster children than to other children in the federal-state program for lower income people. The GAO...also found that foster children were several times more likely than other Medicaid youngsters to be taking five or more psychotropic drugs at the same time...."

Majia here: America drugs its most vulnerable children rather than providing secure therapeutic settings with loving adults that can help traumatized children recover from physical abuse and/or neglect.

I am not claiming that psychiatric drugs have no use or value.

Rather, what I am claiming is that these drugs are extremely over-diagnosed with little oversight and children are being overly and dangerously drugged in order to manage behaviors that stem from their neglect and abuse.

Drugging vulnerable children is a symptom of a very sick society, particularly because this use of drugs was actively promoted by psychiatric authorities on pharmaceutical company payrolls.




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