Medicating Children Diagnosed With Bipolar Disorder – Whose Peace of Mind?

Children are being diagnosed with mental illnesses with increasing frequency.  Managing with stress is very difficult for persons who suffer from the illness known as Bipolar Disorder, formally known as Manic Depressant; it is just as difficult for children who are victims of this disease.

Tahree Lane, a staff writer for The Blade wrote, “An estimated 7.5 million American children 17 years and younger – 12% of the population suffer from mental disorders” (Lane full text).  Are our children being properly treated or is the medication doing more damage?  In Lane’s article “Labeling kids Bipolar, AD/HD, and oppositional defiant displace words like crazy, devilish, and bully” she writes, “Fewer than one-fifth of these children receive appropriate treatment. . . and many of those treated – even by the best clinicians – fail to recover because their disorders are not adequately understood” (Land full text).

Diagnosing a child with Bipolar Disorder is difficult because children often don’t express their feelings well.  This illness is difficult to diagnose in the case of an adult and often many medications must be tried before one is found that helps the symptoms of this disease.  In an article in Child Welfare magazine, Edward H Taylor confirms, “Children have difficulty communicating internal experiences, sensations, perceptions, emotions, and thoughts” (Taylor 311-332).

Bipolar Disorder was formerly called Manic Depressive Illness; it is a mental illness which causes the person’s moods to cycle from manic states to depressive states.  Each person’s cycles are different and some only experience the manic cycles.  These mood cycles can last for months, but there are also persons like myself, who cycle moods several times within a day; this is known as rapid cycling.  Some persons only experience the manic cycles.  It is easy to see why there is so much difficulty in treating children.  Many of the symptoms of the disease in children can be confused with irritability.

Children experience different symptoms than adult suffers of Bipolar Disorder, Charles Schwarzbeck explains, “That the early signs of childhood Bipolar Disorder includes distractability, an ability to settle down and impulsive over activity is similar to ADHD.  Other symptoms of childhood Bipolar Disorder are similar to conduct disorders in young children, they are primarily oppositional and destructive.  Children’s irritability is more constant and they are not euphoric” (Schwarzbeck full text).

Schwarzbeck adds that in general even the doctors don’t agree on the methods that should be used to treat those who suffer from Bipolar Disorder.  Each individual with the illness can have different symptoms. (Schwarzbeck full text).  Treating children with these drugs is really complicated because no one knows what the long term effects will be.  Treatment is often done by trial and error.  Since it is the child who will suffer from any mistakes that are made.  It is important to make very careful decisions.

William H Benefield Jr., Clinical Assistand Professor of Pharmacy.  The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, and Clinical Pharmacologist, San Antonio State School lists the most commonly used prescription drugs for childhood Bipolar Disorder.  A few of these drugs are Imipramine, Zoloft, Prozac, Lithium, and Carbamazipine (Benefield full text).

My doctor diagnosed me with Bipolar Disorder in 1996; I am a rapid cycler which means my manic moods and depressed moods cycle several times a day.  I was put on Prozac for many years.  Many drugs have been prescribed for me, but I was not able to tolerate the side effects; it took many years to find a concoction that helped me stabilize my moods.

The doctors claimed that Prozac was one of the safest drugs prescribed for depression, but during my research I found enough information on the adverse effects of Prozac to till ten pages (Prozac Oral Adverse Effects List and Discussion).  Carbamazepine, Lithium and Imipramine share many common side effects: diarrhea, nausea, trembling hands, drowsiness, double or blurred vision and headaches (Carbamazepine Oral Advers Effects List & Discussion).  These are just a few of the more common side effects, each medication has several pages of the less frequent adverse effects.  My doctor prescribed me those medications and I experienced many of the less frequent side effects.

Dr. McGough from UCLA said of children between the ages of 3 and 6 years who take anti-psychotics, “Your brain is wired to learn things during that period that you can’t learn later.” (Weber full text) he adds, “There is a risk.  Nobody knows the long term effects” (Weber full text)

Dr. Chadic from the Center for Child Protection in San Diego states, “These drugs can result in a toxic reaction, either something that makes the child really sick or makes the kid dead” (Weber full text).

As a Bipolar Disorder sufferer, I have first hand experience on the side effects of these drugs.  They are very common and almost as bad as the illness itself. Many of these drugs have very dangerous side effects, especially combined with alcohol or other medications.  These drugs change the way the brain transmits information.  Do we really know what effect this has on a young mind that is still developing?  Lane agrees that, “Children’s bodies are growing and changing, and so are their behaviors” (Lane full text).

Naakesh A Dewan discusses the care and treatment of Bipolar Disorder explaining that this is one of the most researched mental illnesses; it is a life long illness and often many different drugs need to be used at the same time (Dewan full text).  Dewan stresses that it is important to take the medications, even when feeling well.  Persons taking medication for Bipolar Disorder often quit taking their medications when they feel well.  They don’t like being controlled by the drugs and often miss the manic cycles that the drugs take away.  During these manic cycles it is very easy to accomplish a lot of work because of the feeling that they can do anything.  Stimulants will have adverse effects on the sufferer’s body when mixed with these medications, especially cocaine.  Alcohol should be avoided completely.  Young teens often experiment with drugs and alcohol.  The mixture of the prescription drugs and other drugs or alcohol could have deadly effects on these children that choose to mix these substances.  The sufferer should tell his or her doctor if warning signs occure and try to be aware of circumstances that cause the disorder to become worse. (Dewan full text).

How can we expect a child to be responsible for these actions?  Substance abuse is a big problem for adults with this disorder.  Young teens are under peer pressure daily to try drugs or consume alchohol.  It only takes trying it once with the combinations of the prescribed drugs to have lethal results.  How is a small child going to tell the doctor of warning signs, if they cannot even understand them?  If a teen is in an emergency situation, do they know to tell the doctor what drugs have been prescribed to them.  If not, this could have deadly results.

Young teens do not always use the best judgement, and Bipolar sufferers often don’t use good judgement when they are experiencing manic cycles.  A young teen suffering from Bipolar Disorder and experiencing peer pressure can be a dangerous situation, just like a time bomb waiting to be ignited and ready to explode.

There is also a big problem with the abuse of these drugs when they are prescribed for our children.  Tracy Weber writes about the abuse of Caretakers and Foster Homes.  Weber’s article titled “Caretakers Routinely Drug Foster Children” uncovers how California group homes and foster homes are misusing “dangerous psychiatric medications” to keep children quiet.  These adults are responsible for the care and safety of children that have already been abused, but they feel so overburdened and use these dangerous drugs to control the behavior of an energetic child (Weber full text).

Weber also states, “In Los Angeles County — the court judges approved the request to medicate about 4,500 kids in 1997.  A county grand jury found in 1997 that nearly half the group home children it examined were drugged without the court or parental consent” (Weber full text).

Weber gives many examples of children being medicated, but one of the most frightening was the case of a five year old little boy in a Tustin group home that was given an anti-psychotic drug along with massive doses of Ritalin and Clonidine.  This combination has caused sudden death and heart problems (Weber full text).

This illness is so hard to recognize and yet many of these doctors come in the middle of the night while the child is asleep and prescribe these drugs in a matter of minutes.  “They only go by what they read in the charts” (Weber full text).  A matter of minutes is not enough time to prescribe drugs, especially –life threatening drugs.

Weber’s article stresses the abuse of drugs prescribed for depression disorders.  Many adults in this world believe children should be seen and not heard.  These powerful drugs have the ability to do just that, but at what cost?  Too often these drugs are used in an irresponsible manner on children that have no choice.  No one knows what these drugs are doing to their minds.  Not only does no one know what effect these drugs are having on the children, but no one knows what damage will be caused in society as these children grow up.  The benefit of these medications need to be weighed against the damage that long term effects can cause to our children.  A diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder can be so easily confused with just an irritable child, so we need to be careful that we are not giving these powerful drugs to–just an irritable child.  Children should only be medicated if their life is at risk or if their behavior is doing themselves harm.

Works Cited

Benefield William H, Jr. Drug Topics. 7 Sept. 1998. Health References Ctr– Academic Full Text.

Carbamazepine Oral: Adverse Effects List & Discussion.”  Medscape Drug Info. 26 April 2000.  http://promini medscape.com/drugdb/drug.adverse_effects.asp?DrugCode=1%2D1893 &DrugName=CARBAMAZEPINE+ORAL&DrugType=1,

Dewan, Naakesh A. “Bipolar Disorder–Care and Treatment.” Clinical Reference Systems. 1 July 1999.  Health References Ctr–Academic Full Text.

“Imipramine HCL Oral: Adverse Effects List & Discussion.”  Medscape DrugInfo. 26 April 2000.
http://promini medscape.com/drugdb/drug_adverse_effects asp?DrugCode=1%2D1641&DrugName=IMIPRAMINE+HCL+ORAL&DrugType=1.

Lane, Tahree.  “Labeling Kids: Bipolar, AD/HD and oppositional defiant displace words like crazy, devilish, and bully.”   The Blade.  16 Nov. 1997.  NewsBank Full Text.

Lithium Carbonate Oral: Adverse Effects List & Discussion.”  Medscape DrugInfo.  26 April 2000.  http://promini.medscape.com/drugdb/drug_adverse_asp?DrugCode=2D1669&DrugName=LITHIUM+CARBONATE+ORAL&DrugType=1#972158.

“Prozac Oral: Adverse Effects List & Discussion.”  Medscape DrugInfo.  26 April 2000.  http://promini.medscape.com/drugdb/drug_adverse_effects.asp?DrugCode=1%2D1655&DrugName=PROZAC+ORAL&DrugType=1#972148.

Schwarzbeck, Charles.  “New Findings Show That Children May be Manic-Depressive.”  Scripps Howard News Service.  2 Sept. 1999.  NewsBank Full Text.

Taylor, Edward H.  “Advances in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Children.” Child Welfare.  New York; May/June 1998: Proquest; (311-332).

Weber, Tracy.  “Caretakers Routinely Drug Foster Children.” Los Angeles Times (CA).  17 May 1998.  NewsBank Full Text.