Drug Therapy vs. Alternatives for Foster Children's Mental Health
This paper examines the disproportionate use of psychotropic drug therapy among children in foster care and low-income households, and argues that this approach hinders rather than supports healthy development. Drawing on Erikson's model of adolescent identity formation and humanistic psychology, the paper contends that heavy reliance on psychiatric medication sedates children during a critical developmental phase, risking long-term cognitive and emotional impairment and future dependency. Through the case of DeAngelo Cortijo, the paper illustrates how animal-assisted therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy offer more effective, humanizing alternatives. Positive psychology frameworks are also proposed as complementary approaches that empower children to reclaim agency over their own lives.
- Introduction: Foster children, mental health, and drug therapy overview
- The Issue: Overmedication of Vulnerable Children: Risks of psychiatric drug dependency in at-risk youth
- The Case of DeAngelo Cortijo: Animal therapy success story versus drug treatment
- Drug Therapy Prevents Rather Than Fosters Growth: Long-term developmental harm of childhood overmedication
- Conclusion: Humanistic therapy as the preferred alternative
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What makes this paper effective
- The use of a concrete, named case study (DeAngelo Cortijo) grounds the broader argument in a relatable human story, making the critique of drug therapy more persuasive than statistics alone.
- The paper integrates multiple theoretical frameworks — Erikson's developmental model, Adlerian humanistic psychology, and positive psychology — to build a coherent case against purely pharmaceutical interventions.
- It maintains a consistent argumentative thread from the introduction through the conclusion, connecting childhood trauma, institutional overmedication, and long-term adult outcomes in a logical progression.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper effectively uses theory-to-practice reasoning: it introduces Erikson's Identity vs. Role Confusion framework as a conceptual lens, then applies it directly to critique how drug sedation prevents adolescents from resolving that developmental conflict. This technique of anchoring a policy critique in a developmental theory adds academic credibility to what might otherwise be a purely moral argument.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with epidemiological context establishing the scale of the problem, then moves to a focused section on the harms of overmedication. A detailed case study section follows, illustrating how alternative therapies succeeded where drug therapy failed. The penultimate section broadens the argument to long-term developmental consequences, and a brief conclusion synthesizes the humanistic alternative. Five sections in total, moving from evidence to theory to case study to consequence to recommendation.
Introduction
Foster children are more likely than children in the general population to have mental health issues (Polihronakis, 2008). Part of the reason for this is that foster children are in foster care because they have been neglected in their own homes — their parents are incapable of providing food, love, shelter, and nourishment — and they are in need of a nurturing environment. Many of them will have experienced a traumatic event, or the transition from one home to another will itself be traumatic, and so they end up suffering from mental health problems. It is estimated that approximately 8 out of every 10 children in foster care have mental health issues, as opposed to 2 out of 10 children in the general population (NCSL, 2019). For that reason, youths in foster homes and those who grow up in poverty are more likely to require a mental health intervention.
The primary means by which the medical industry treats mental health issues is through pharmacological intervention — that is, drug therapy. As Kutz (2011) shows, a higher rate of foster children receive psychotropic prescriptions than non-foster children. This is a problem because, as Korry (2015) and Whitaker (2001) both demonstrate, heavy medication can have a disorienting effect on children, making them feel disconnected from themselves and from reality, and leaving them in a thoroughly sedated state. Because children are going through an important phase of human development as adolescents — according to Erikson's model of human development (Shriner & Shriner, 2014) — they should be more fully aware, engaged, and actively participating in that developmental process so they can resolve the central conflict of the Identity vs. Role Confusion stage. If they are so sedated that they are stumbling through existence, this important conflict will go unresolved, and they will enter adulthood in a fog about themselves and their place in the world.
What is more worrisome is that there are alternative methods of treatment available — such as animal-assisted therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy (Korry, 2015). This paper examines whether a drug-therapy-heavy approach to treating poor and foster care children with mental health issues contributes to creating psychiatric drug dependencies in a new generation.
The Issue: Overmedication of Vulnerable Children
Because children of the poor and those in foster care are more likely to be diagnosed and treated with psychiatric drugs than other children, they are more likely to develop dependencies on chemical substances. It is analogous to adolescents who engage in risky behaviors — such as smoking marijuana or engaging in premarital sex — who are more likely to become teenage parents or to develop a drug addiction. Those who are exposed to greater risk are more likely to be affected by negative outcomes. There will always be exceptions, but generally speaking the exceptions prove the rule.
By treating children with drugs, there is a real possibility that they will become cognitively and emotionally impaired. Their cognitive and emotional development — as well as their physical development — can be negatively impacted, stunted, or altered (Whitaker, 2001). Although medical doctors prescribe these drugs because it is an accepted practice within the industry, there is evidence indicating that they are ineffective at actually helping these children to develop properly and normally (Korry, 2015; Whitaker, 2001).
References
Broaddus, M. E. (2017). A Demonstration Project to Address Juvenile Drug Addiction. Graduate Thesis, [University].
Korry, E. (2015). California moves to stop misuse of psychiatric meds in foster care. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/09/02/436350334/california-moves-to-stop-misuse-of-psychiatric-meds-in-foster-care
Kutz, G. D. (2011). Foster children: HHS guidance could help states improve oversight of psychotropic prescriptions. Testimony before the Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, US Senate. US Government Accountability Office.
National Foster Youth Institute. (2017). Aging out of foster care. Retrieved from https://www.nfyi.org/51-useful-aging-out-of-foster-care-statistics-social-race-media/
NCSL. (2019). Mental health and foster care. Retrieved from http://www.ncsl.org/research/human-services/mental-health-and-foster-care.aspx
Polihronakis, T. (2008). Information packet: Mental health care issues of children and youth in foster care. Retrieved from
Seligman, M. E., Steen, T. A., Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive psychology progress: Empirical validation of interventions. American Psychologist, 60(5), 410.
Shriner, B., & Shriner, M. (2014). Essentials of lifespan development: A topical perspective. Bridgepoint Education.
Whitaker, R. (2001). Mad in America: Bad science, bad medicine, and the enduring mistreatment of the mentally ill. Basic Books.
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