August 14, 2008
FDA Encouraging Drug Use for Kids
Seattle blogger Philip Dawdy, who covers mental health issues over at Furious Seasons, used to be a print journalist, and has won awards from the National Mental Health Association for his work.
Maybe that's why he thought he could get the director of the FDA's psychiatry products division, Thomas Laughren, on the phone to explain why the FDA approved two drugs (Risperdal and Abilify, atypical antipsychotics) for the treatment of something called "pediatric bipolar disorder," and then vouched for the existence of the disorder when it hasn't made it into the American Psychiatric Association's brain bible, the DSM, yet.
Atypical antipsychotics are serious drugs, the first-line treatment for schizophrenia. Now they can be given to kids 10 to 17 years old who show signs of being bipolar. Dawdy wanted to know when, exactly, since there is no established diagnostic criteria for the disorder in kids.
Since Laughren considers pediatric bipolar disorder the real deal, then he must have it all worked out whether the symptoms of "childhood mania" need to persist for 30 minutes or one week (as with adults) and whether signs of depression need to exist for, say, a day or two weeks (as with adults), and it would probably make sense for him to tell the world precisely what the hell he's talking about.Dawdy's request for an interview was denied, so we won't be learning, along with him, the answers to those questions.
This freaks us out. There's plenty of risk vs. reward gray area regarding the use of atypical antipsychotics for adults with established diagnoses--the side effects can be life-altering (and life-taking). But children are in a state of neurodevelopmental flux. To okay hitting them with the most powerful medications we have on the basis of a back-formed bipolar diagnosis (a tricky diagnosis in the best circumstances), strikes us as...well...crazy.
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There will probably be a bunch more school shootings now. Every one of the kids involved in those massacres was on some sort of meds.
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@ruffhauser: that's another thing--if you do have a bad reaction to these meds, you can have an even worse reaction getting off them. It can take months to taper off, and if you're a wacked-out teen, that might seem like too long.
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There was a good episode about this on Frontline earlier this year: The Medicated Child.
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I'm never having kids.
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Just another case of the FDA being in the pockets of drugs companies. As the parent of a young son, this just makes me completely sick.
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East coast influential researchers and self-appointed thought leaders have created the dx of pediatric bipolar disorder at the benefit of themselves and the pharmaceutical companies.
The FDA has been directly hit with their influence and as an agency that should be protecting the welfare of consumers and especially children! It is deplorable that it has gone this far.
I agree with the above comment to watch the PBS online (free viewing) of Medicated Child.
Joseph Biederman and Harvard created this diagnosis while lining their pockets with pharma money to do it.
Great job keeping us informed over at Furious Seasons!