Dana Blankenhorn

Rethinking Healthcare

Troubled teens on powerful drugs

By Dana Blankenhorn | Oct 28, 2009 |

Has your teen’s best friend just transformed from Taylor Swift to Rosie O’Donnell overnight?

She might just have ADHD.

A study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association says second-generation anti-psychotics like Risperdal, Ablify, Zyprexa and Seroquel are being given to teens with common conditions like ADHD, leading to obesity in just 11 weeks.

The side-effects common to these drugs may be worse in kids and teens than adults, the study concludes.

If you detect a bias in this report, there is a barely submerged rage.

Some disclosure is called for.

My son, then 9, was given Risperdal in 2001, leading to several distressing side effects before his regular therapist took him off the stuff. It later turned out the head of Emory’s Psychiatry Department, Charles Nemeroff (left) was taking what became $2.8 million in drug pay-offs for pushing studies of this unapproved use.

Nemoroff later resigned under pressure from Congress and, while my son is fine, he doesn’t completely trust me.

Can you blame him?

Now it turns out these drugs can cause teens to become obese in just 11 weeks, and acquire the high cholesterol numbers that accompany obesity. Kids and teens may be more prone to this weight gain than adults.

Lead author Dr. Christoph Correll told the Associated Press “we’re a little bit between a rock and a hard place” when it comes to these drugs and side-effects, but the question occurs, are we really? Are powerful psychoactives really a logical step to take for a kid with, say, Asperger’s Syndrome? (Here, Albert, try some Zyprexa and you’re sure to pass geography.)

Fact is drugs are not the total answer. Many adults, however, are getting good results with a combination of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) and common ADHD medications.

Again, full disclosure. My son was in line to be part of an Emory study on CBT for ADHD in high school, while the disgraced department head was still on the job, but somehow it never came off and he was given standard talk therapy instead.

Now the kid doesn’t trust the psychiatric profession either. I sympathize.

Drugs are not a cure for ADHD, Asperger’s or anything else. They reduce symptoms and may help enable relief, when combined with high-quality therapy and supervised by a doctor who knows what they’re doing and has no axe to grind.

But can you blame parents for distrusting the profession when this sort of thing happens?

I can’t.

 
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  •  
    1

    marie curie

    10/28/09 | Report as spam

    RE: Troubled teens on powerful drugs

    I can't too
    What is ADHD ??? Can you give me more details about it ?
    My education: http://mariecurie.biz

  •  
    2

    davetracer@...

    10/28/09 | Report as spam

    I am so sorry to hear of this...

    I'm very sorry that this happened to your son, Dana. I'm glad your son was pulled off the med that was not right for him.

    I had to take my son in to a hospital when a med had an unforeseen side effect, and that's a grim memory. (He is okay; he just needed to get it flushed out of his system, which just took a few days.)

    There is always the possibility of side-effects and even "paradoxical" effects (the reverse of what the med should do). For example, Buspar, which is supposed to help prevent panic attacks, set them off in me.

    People are vastly different. I don't blame the meds. I know of specific cases where these meds have done an enormous amount of good, such as, in *me*. However, they have to be carefully "dialed in", which takes many visits to the doctor, and a lot of insurance plans just don't allow that.

    These meds, Seroquel in particular, are vastly better and much more selective than the "blunt-hammer" meds that preceded them, such as Thorazine. And older tricyclic meds like imipramine usually cause body weight to go up.

    We agree: meds need to be prescribed carefully, and the people they're given to need to be watched carefully. If that's done, these meds can do a lot of good.

    It sounds like your son is okay now, Dana. I'm very pleased that's the case. After all: "We are all parents out here".

    Have a good day,

    David Small

    p.s. I am not a doctor. This is not a doctor's advice. And my memory sucks. So go talk to a good doctor before using anything I wrote here! This is just my opinion.

  •  
    3

    DanaBlankenhorn

    10/28/09 | Report as spam

    Marie Curie

    I apologize. I've written about ADHD so much I do forget to explain it, even on first reference.

    It stands for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The best primer on it is Edmund Hallowell's "Driven to Distrcation." http://www.amazon.com/Driven-Distraction-Recognizing-Attention-Childhood/dp/0684801280/?tag=nosimacluecom

    He's not only a doctor, he's a client. He admits to having ADHD. So do I.

  •  
    4

    JohnMcGrew@...

    10/29/09 | Report as spam

    The number of kids on psychotropic drugs is simply scary

    I am not a doctor. And unlike some people, I do not like second
    guessing medical professionals diagnosis of people I don't even know.
    But at the same time I have to question is the sheer number of
    children today, especially boys, who are diagnosed with ADHD or
    similar disorders and are prescribed very powerful psychotropic drugs
    to "correct" their behavior.

    I have little doubt that if I was born 25 years later, I too would
    have been diagnosed as ADHD and offered these drugs. (I certainly
    remember some teachers wish I had) I thank God that never happened.
    I doubt my life would have turned out as well.

    We know today that the brains of children are literally "under
    construction" until they're through their teen years, and even into
    their 20s. We also know that most clinical drug testing is done on
    adults, not children. From my reading on this topic, I sense that
    there is woefully inadequate knowledge of what the real long-term
    implications are when these drugs are used on brains that aren't yet
    "hardwired".

    But what I fear is really happening is that teachers, other
    institutional workers and even parents are defining down what
    "normal" kid behavior is, and have found it much easier to deal with
    drugged and sedate kids than otherwise normal but boisterous
    behavior, especially that of boys.

    Dana, I'm so sorry this happened to your family. Too often, we have
    to take it on faith that the "professionals" we've entrusted have
    integrity and the best answer, because when it turns out they are
    wrong, the consequences are extreme.

    (Perhaps you can now see my paranoia with government health care; the
    only thing worse than ethically questionable doctors making decisions
    are politicians with their own agendas)

    And you're right to be paranoid about the side effects of these very
    powerful drugs. In the long run, the side effects can be worse than
    the supposed disease.

  •  
    5

    Daniel Haszard

    10/30/09 | Report as spam

    RE: Troubled teens on powerful drugs




    Eli Lilly sells a drug {ZYPREXA} that can cause diabetes and then turn a profit on the drugs that treat the condition that they may have caused in the first place!

    Eli Lilly has made $38 billion on Zyprexa and it was way oversold and caused diabetes and in some cases sudden death.
    Eli Lilly has received a huge criminal fine over their Zyprexa cash cow,add it all up comes to $4.6 billion, in Zyprexa settlements,fines,litigation.

    Addictive Zyprexa was pushed by Lilly Drug Reps.
    They called it the "Five at Five" (5 mg at 5 pm to keep nursing home patients subdued and sleepy) and "VIVA ZYPREXA" (Zyprexa for everybody) campaigns to off label market Eli Lilly Zyprexa as a fix for unapproved usage.
    Eli Lilly is 'reaping the whirlwind' for aggressive marketing of Zyprexa that has caused suffering and deaths.
    There must be millions out there harmed by this drug.
    Did you know that Lilly made $ billions last year on diabetic meds, Actos,Humulin and Byetta?

    Yes! They sell a drug that can cause diabetes and then turn a profit on the drugs that treat the condition that they may have caused in the first place!
    ----
    Daniel Haszard http://www.zyprexa-victims.com



  •  
    6

    zackers

    10/31/09 | Report as spam

    RE: Troubled teens on powerful drugs

    "...while my son is fine, he doesn?t completely trust me.

    Can you blame him?"

    Well, heck, he's a teenager now. Something would be wrong if he did completely trust you. happy

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Dana Blankenhorn

Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for nearly 25 years and has covered the online world professionally since 1985. He founded the Interactive Age Daily for CMP Media, and has written for the Chicago Tribune, Advertising Age's "NetMarketing" supplement, and dozens of other publications over the years.

Dana Blankenhorn

Dana Blankenhorn has been a technology reporter since 1982, a business reporter since 1978, and a writer for as long as he can remember. His Schwab IRA has a few tech stocks in it, most notably some Intel and Applied Materials bought over 10 years ago. But the vast majority of his tiny fortune (emphasis on the word tiny) is invested in mutual funds. He presently writes for no one else but ZDNet, SmartPlanet and himself. But if you've got an opportunity let him know. If he takes the gig he"ll first add it to this disclosure page.
Rethinking Healthcare examines innovation in the health care industry covering topics such as electronic and personal health records, treatment, privacy, regulation and using information technology to manage and monitor chronic conditions.