Friday, June 29, 2007

Taking Advantage of Parents

There is nothing worse for the parents of a baby or young child than having something wrong with the kid and no way to communicate to find out what is the real trouble. I know it was a relief for me when my daughter learned to talk: If she started crying I could ask her what was wrong and get an answer I could do something about.

But for parents with kids still too young to talk the situation can be horrible. They are desperate and are searching for help. So I find it abhorrent to learn of a psychiatrist taking advantage of such parents and recommending extremely powerful psychiatric drugs for babies and toddlers based on NO TESTS. The drugs aren't even approved for use on children, never mind babies. What are these drugs going to do to a forming brain and nervous system? What happens in 10 years when we find that these drugs have caused irreparable harm to these kids?

This sickening abuse of parents and young children is exposed in this article from the Boston Globe: Misguided standards of care. Not surprisingly this psychiatrist gets lots of funding (millions) from the pharmaceutical industry.

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