Solving Children’s Behavioral Problems With Medication

I read with dismay Linda Marsa’s special report (“The Drug Dilemma,” April 3) and fear for the well-being of the children of this nation.

To suppress a child’s behavior with chemicals is morally, ethically and medically reprehensible in the extreme, and leads to a social condition in which anyone who does not conform to an arbitrary standard of normalcy can be institutionalized and drugged senseless against his will.

That the National Institute of Mental Health will be studying the matter is no great reassurance, being akin to asking the fox to inspect the security of the henhouse. I do not expect negative findings from NIMH simply because there’s too much money involved in the manufacture and sale of psychiatric drugs like Ritalin to permit that result. Instead, I fear that NIMH, under pressure from the pharmaceutical industry, will rule that these drugs are just as safe for toddlers as they’ve been deemed for everyone else.

I would urge readers to view with alarm any program that results in labeling and drugging kids as a solution to their behavior. I would urge parents to take an active and vocal stand against the idea that order in the classroom should be kept by making kids into zombies. I would urge school staff to mandate a physical examination for any child who has a so-called behavior problem, and not just run willy-nilly to the medicine cabinet for a quick “fix.”

I would expect that many of the kids who are now being diagnosed with meaningless alphabet-soup “diseases” are eating too much candy and not enough vegetables, live in an environment that drives them crazy or are simply victims of teachers who don’t know how to maintain order in a classroom. That pharmaceutical “solutions” are even considered is cause for alarm. It indicates that the “raising-kids-right” ball has been dropped and forwards a “solution” leading directly to the ruin of our society.

--DAVE SILBERSTEIN

Altadena

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Finally a balanced article on the subject of medicating children for behavioral problems. Too often reporters rely on the easy sensationalism for their angle, and in this case, parents who are already stressed come under attack unjustly. The assumption that parents who medicate their children lack the fortitude to handle willful behavior is unfair, cruel and very common.

Only someone who has never lived with mental illness could have the luxury to pass judgment on those who do. These parents are making a courageous, not a cowardly, decision, one that may allow their child to be part of the community. Many of these children couldn’t possibly benefit from behavior therapy until they are stabilized. These medications are not miraculous. They do not produce instantly docile kids. They simply make progress possible.

--JULIA LACY

Agoura Hills