The case for therapy
This entry was originally posted on 5 February 2004 at 9:42 a.m.
According to this article over at Wired, "about three in every 1,000 American preschoolers were on antidepressants in 1995." I'm stunned and saddened by this.
I don't understand our culture sometimes. Over the past ten years we've medicated more and more of our population without really understanding the effects of the medication. We've allowed ourselves to become a society of victims--claiming that we are completely out of control and therefore must give our lives over to things like medication and "higher powers."
Now, i can't argue the effectiveness of this strategy in cases where it's appropriate. And there certainly are 3-year-old children who display the symptoms of some debilitating mental illnesses. But does it make sense to medicate a child for something like anxiety or depression or selective mutism when there are less intrusive, more empowering options (certain forms of psychotherapy) that are available?
I think it's high time the FDA or the Department of Health reconsider the impact of these kinds of drugs on children and teenagers, and begin regulating therapy.
As it stands, just about anyone can hang a shingle and "practice" therapy because it isn't regulated the way medicine is. Consequently, many people discount the power and effectiveness of therapy--in fact, most people don't realize that there's more out there than the stereotypical Freudian psychoanalysis (trust me, there is more, and it's far more effective than that Freud). If therapy were regulated so that practitioners would have to have either a doctorate in psychology or specific certificate training for certain forms of therapy, and if the media were willing to show the results of scientific studies proving that certain forms of therapy are just as effective as medication, we might find ourselves less a society of vicitms and more a society of informed, thoughtful people.
Then again, that would mean that we'd have far fewer melodramatic stories for 60 Minutes and 20/20 and the Lifetime channel, wouldn't it? *tsk* Tragedy.
According to this article over at Wired, "about three in every 1,000 American preschoolers were on antidepressants in 1995." I'm stunned and saddened by this.
I don't understand our culture sometimes. Over the past ten years we've medicated more and more of our population without really understanding the effects of the medication. We've allowed ourselves to become a society of victims--claiming that we are completely out of control and therefore must give our lives over to things like medication and "higher powers."
Now, i can't argue the effectiveness of this strategy in cases where it's appropriate. And there certainly are 3-year-old children who display the symptoms of some debilitating mental illnesses. But does it make sense to medicate a child for something like anxiety or depression or selective mutism when there are less intrusive, more empowering options (certain forms of psychotherapy) that are available?
I think it's high time the FDA or the Department of Health reconsider the impact of these kinds of drugs on children and teenagers, and begin regulating therapy.
As it stands, just about anyone can hang a shingle and "practice" therapy because it isn't regulated the way medicine is. Consequently, many people discount the power and effectiveness of therapy--in fact, most people don't realize that there's more out there than the stereotypical Freudian psychoanalysis (trust me, there is more, and it's far more effective than that Freud). If therapy were regulated so that practitioners would have to have either a doctorate in psychology or specific certificate training for certain forms of therapy, and if the media were willing to show the results of scientific studies proving that certain forms of therapy are just as effective as medication, we might find ourselves less a society of vicitms and more a society of informed, thoughtful people.
Then again, that would mean that we'd have far fewer melodramatic stories for 60 Minutes and 20/20 and the Lifetime channel, wouldn't it? *tsk* Tragedy.
posted by Circus at 12:25 PM
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