Health & Fitness
Foster Kids Being Given Psychotropic Drugs.
The Denver Post - April 13, 2014 - "About 4,300 of Colorado's 16,800 foster children — more than a quarter (being given psychotropic drugs)... Among teens in foster care, 37 percent were prescribed psychotropic drugs. .... Is weight gain and high cholesterol a good trade-off for being able to ... hurt her self-esteem, which is already suffering, and make her more depressed..." You get the gist of what the newspaper is saying. This is one of many articles which have appeared in the Denver Post in recent months. There is no clear explanation. Through tireless investigative reporting by Jennifer Brown and Christopher Osher the Denver Post has been wrestling with this crisis and with the help of Kaiser Health News has finally begun making some inroads into solving the problem.
The pharmaceutical companies who market these drugs very often use very aggressive tactics. Doctors who cooperate and put these foster kids on these dangerous drugs (most often for ADHD or behavioral problems) are given special gifts and perks such as tickets to major sporting events, hunting trips or skiing junkets to upscale resorts around the world. It can be lucrative for the doctors who play along.
The children who might suffer from the effects of bullying, poor self esteem, learning disabilities, behavioral problems or depression are given powerful psychotropic drugs without psychiatric evaluation. Many of these medications are used for the treatment of Schizophrenia or Bipolar Disorder. They are capable of changing the behavior of children who do not suffer psychosis or severe mental illness.
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Society wonders why there are so many troubled youngsters who find a solution to their problems by using firearms and killing other youngsters or authority figures who might have inflicted undeserved punishment upon them. The abrupt cessation of many of these drugs have undesired side effects which cause changes in behavior. Many of the youngsters become consumed by rage and violence.
Bravo to the Denver Post and its excellent reporters named above who have challenged the community to address these tragic problems affecting foster kids in particular. As if they didn't have enough stress and difficulty in their young lives already. This is an appalling situation and the issue of psychotropic drugs needs to be resolved without delay.