How on earth...?

Specialties Psychiatric

Published

Does someone get diagnosed with bipolar affective disorder at the age of TWO??

I read this on another American board and my eyes nearly popped out of my head!

:eek:

Like that!

This just would not happen over here in the UK.

How could the deliberate alteration of an individual's brain chemistry, especially when they can't possibly consent, not be abuse?

This is no urban legend. I remember back in nursing school, I was doing my psych rotation in a ped psych unit. There was the cutest little boy,looked about 2 yrs old but was almost 4. He was in lock-up. Diagnosed with ADHD and ODD at the age of 2 and if he misbehaved (such as getting up from the table before he finished his dinner) he was put in the 'time out' room. That room was a tiny room with a small window in the door. If the child received "time out' he/she was placed in the room on a bare mattress and another mattress placed against the window so no light entered. I was horrified!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The patient in questioned had been kidnapped at the age of 1 by his natural father and tied to a bed while the father was at work. His mother finally got him back but she and her new husband were too stressed by his "acting out" and agreed to put him on medication at the age of 2. He was so cute an sweet when I had him for a patient. His doctor (and I use that term very loosely, what a charlatan!) would only spend about 5 minutes a week with him but was very heavy on the meds. It is painful to see an almost 4 yr old who is so drugged that he can barely walk or open his mouth. Disgusting! And- what would be the long term prognosis for a child who had suffered as he had and then get that kind of treatment. I almost gave up any ideas on becoming a nurse. I tried to complain but what do student nurses know?

RNGranny, that is a terrible story! Good grief, I can barely believe it - his father's a bastard, his mother and his new father can't cope with a toddler and who has his liberty removed? The kid. It's so sad. What happened to him - do you know?

Specializes in ER, ICU, L&D, OR.

Howdy yall

from deep in the heart of texas

Clive in this country, he probably grew up to be either a mass killer, or a lawyer. Sometimes its hard to tell which is worse

doo wah ditty

Oh my RNGranny~ How awful!

And I have to agree about medicating children....seems it's gone out of whack in this country! Every time you turn around, there's another kid on Ritilin or something else like that!

What happened to busting a kids backend when they got out of hand? My kids grew up strict, knowing what they can and cannot do. I talk to them, I don't drug them up....

I too have seen children hospitalized. During the 80's it became common for working parents to shower their chilren with "stuff" rather than nurture and spent time with them as children so clearly need their parents to do. If the children "acted out", they were often hospitalized because of "issues". Often these kids were dumped by exhausted parents too busy chasing a buck to step back and take a good look at their lifestyle. Often they needed parenting guidelines, Their kids were brats, spoiled brats, but it wasnt too late. Mind you, these are affluent families I'm seeing. It was rare that a child had a true psych diagnosis. It was a money making endeavor on the part of the for- profit hospitals and the psychiatrists that were well compensated by the insurance companies.

Enter" managed care". The funds dried up, the beds emptied. The children we did see were the "throw away "ones described by RNgranny. These kids always exsisted but were not seen in a hospital setting. (I can speculate where they were- other relatives took them in, orphanages, group homes, juvenile hall,on the streets. )

These throw away kids are a profound social concern.Many of their parents are drug abusers or any other type of petty criminals; many of them are not much more than children themselves. As social programs continue to dry up, it will be worse I assure you. (We Americans cant have butter AND guns)

This still does not legitamize diagnosing and medicating these kids because" we dont know what else to do with them"

Dennie-" Earned income credit "is for working people living in poverty, like single moms who are nurses and have to pay phenomenal child care fee. It amounts to several hundred dollars per tax year. Hardly incentive to have another child. It takes brains and cunning to rip off the government and make it lucrative. I've yet to meet one of those welfare queens I hear so much about. I have met plenty of teens that had babies that they resent the shit out of and try to pass the child to mom ,granmom and even greatgranmom. Maybe we should work on preventing teen pregnancy. Fodder for another thread I guess

OH and does anyone still tell their clients ther super egos are underdeveloped? Just curious.

I worked on a child psychiatry ward in the early 90s as part of my training, but there were no drugs to be seen. The ward operated as a sort of therapeutic community. The emphasis was on addressing problems with talking, boundary-setting &c &c. The nurses worked quite extensively with the parents as well (and some of them needed a kick up the orifice as regards their parenting skills!) It seemed to work.

If the child were diagnosed based on behavior,it could be learned behavior. How would you like to be the child of a Bipolar and a shizophrenic? There are many of those children on psych units. However,I think I babysat with a child who maybe should have been diagnosed Bipolar. He was about 3 and the first day I allowed him to use the BR alone and looked in on him and found him climbing up on the sink and getting into the medicine cabinet. He knew what he was doing as the grandma told me he had swallowed ASA and had an ambulance trip to the hospital and had his stomach pumped. Grandma said he never slept for more than a few hours even as a newborn! I watched that kid like a hawk.We moved away so I don't know how he matured-hadn't thought of that kid in 35 yr. But I do know that kids in the psych unit at the hospital generally do not come from normal,caring families. There is often a genetic component.

Specializes in ER, ICU, L&D, OR.

Howdy yall

from deep in the heart of texas

Well Patadny, Just out of curiosity. How would defferentiate between genetic vs learned, or enviromental factors. If a child has screwed up parents and grows up in a atypical household. How would you tell the difference between genetic vs learned or enviromental.

doo wah ditty

Some people benefit from drugs. Some [very few] children have mental disorders. But every/any symptom ought not a mental disorder or medicated be. Whatever happened to 'adjustment reaction'? What ever happened to looking at whole systems? Why not consider nutrition, social isolation, learning, toxins, exhaustion, and other factors? Why are drugs increasingly the first and often only tx? Are drug companies running the show?

Any one else here remember telling pts. 'lithium won't hurt you within theraputic blood levels' ; pts. whose kidneys are now ravaged?

What will be the long range effects of years of SSRI use?

Believe it or not, my husband went to a conference where the presenter suggested most dogs could benefit from SSRI's. You see they are lonely home alone......

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