doctor disease redux

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Wed May 23 09:53:10 PDT 2001


At 09:23 AM 5/23/01 -0800, Marta R. wrote:
>A 10 year old child--who has been prescribed psychotropic drugs since
>age 3-- now suffers brain damage --tardive dyskinesia, a common adverse
>consequence of neuroleptic drugs in adults. The child was "diagnosed" at
>age 3 as having "conduct disorder" --whatever that means... Powerful

Marta, please spare us that tripe. The fact of the matter is that today you cannot control unruly children without risking being accused of child abuse (which unlike criminal charges do not require any "due process" to be followed by investigating agencies, a mere report can result in a child ending up in a foster care).

So if the brat that happens to be your child throws repeated tantrums, say, because you did not buy him what his peers have, you have basically two choices:

(1) sending the brat to a boot camp (if you can afford the $2,000 -$6,000 per month tuition), or (2) medicate him (most insurance plans cover prescription drugs).

Now, if you are, say, a single parent with a "hyperactive" (i.e. out-of-control) child, which option would you be able to afford?

Thank goddess for drugs - without them mental asylums and prisons would thrive.

Wojtek



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