Medicating Children

Medicating children comes with a great number of risks, as the Frontline (2001) video Medicating Kids shows, medication changes the child—it changes the behavior, creates a more subdued version of the child, and can alter the brain’s chemical makeup. Encouraging medication at such a young age is also not without its risks, which can be social and familial. In the case of Robin, for instance, his own will and feelings on using Adderall conflicted with his mothers’ and the family struggled to cope with his development into a teenager. Robin’s mother wanted to obtain a court order to force Robin to take the medication, which he ended up refusing to take. He turned to rock music and played in a band and embraced that lifestyle in order to cope with his feelings. However, a lot of what he was going through as a teen could easily be understood from a sociological perspective or at least a psychosocial perspective. Robin’s behavior did not necessarily mean there was anything wrong with his brain. What it likely meant was that there was something wrong in his family dynamic and the relationship, culture, and life that he was living with his parents.

The factor that need to be taken into account when considering this type of pharmacological therapy really are the severity of the situation and whether the individual is at risk of harming himself or harming others. Just because the child, at 3 years of age, is highly rambunctious or full of boundless energy and a compulsion to bombard others with his personality does not mean that a mental condition such as ADHD is the problem. It could easily be the effect of the fact that the child is 3 and is still developing and going through the stages at his own speed. It could be that the parents or siblings (or lack thereof) are a factor. Some children receive very little discipline, or very little affection, or very little instruction or reinforcement from parents, and so they are essentially like unformed beings for a time. Medication should really be used only in extreme cases.
References
Frontline. (2001). Medicating kids. Retrieved from https://www.pbs.org/video/frontline-medicating-kids/