Healthy Skepticism Library item: 13000

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

McKay M.
Forced Drugging of Children in Foster Care: Turning Child Abuse
Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine 2007; 22:(2):
http://www.psychrights.org/Kids/2784457McKayForcedDruggingchildren.pdf

Abstract:

The use of psychotropic medication by children and youth within the child
welfare system is examined. The increasing use
of these medications by this population is presented as problematic through
a case study and by identifying general
aspects of the social systems that have contributed to its development and
entrenchment. The needs of children and youth
in the child welfare system, the influence of the pharmaceutical industry
and historical trends in child psychiatry
supplement a narrative of a child who was misdiagnosed as severely mentally
disturbed and subjected to intense
psychotropic medication. The article concludes by stating that resisting the
forces that attempt to enforce the use of
psychotropic medication by these children and youth is possible through
self-education and assertive advocacy for
non-chemical alternatives.