Children, drugging, and Traumatic Situation
Childhood trauma and its resulting psychiatric morbidity are common in the USA. One-quarter to one-half of children and youth under the age of 18 years (hereafter referred to as children) experience at least one traumatic event during childhood (Finkelhor et al., 2011; Adams et al., 2013; Kilpatrick et al., 2013). Childhood trauma refers to extremely stressful events such as physical or sexµal abuse, or witnessing violence. Children who experience trauma tend to show developmental, social, and educational difficulties that extend into adulthood.
Antipsychotic medications present significant risks for children. The common side effects include somnolence and sedation, weight gain, metabolic syndrome, hemophilia (blood disease) and accompanying galactorrhoea (lactation) and breast tumors in males, irregular menses and growths of altered cells, potentially irreversible neurological effects and direct cardiovascular damage (Zuddas et al., 2011; Cohen et al., 2012). Across trials, numbers needed to harm begin at one or two precriptions only even for somnolence and sedation, weight gain and neurological effects.
Any genuine medical disease underlying psychiatric symptoms would be reclassified as a medical condition, not mental disorder.
The topic of drugging traumatized children generally refers to two distinct but serious issues: the malicious use of sedatives/medications by caregivers for control or convenience, and the over-prescription of psychotropic drugs (like antipsychotics and sedatives) to manage trauma-induced behaviors in child welfare or foster care systems.
This system transforms episodic and even typical variations in behavior into chronic disabilities. It creates the very conditions it claims to treat.