There is a story on Health central about the death of a four-year-old girl, who had been prescribed some pretty serious anti-psychotic medication since she was two years old.

Obviously, I don’t know any of the facts here but that won’t stop me commenting on it. There do seem to be some complicating factors – the parents have other kids on the same medication, they have been under the attention of social services before and were warned about giving the child an overdose.

The Health Central post says

… Seroqel, an anti-psychotic; Depakote, which was presumably prescribed for bipolar disorder; and Clonidine, a blood pressure drug that is apparently used “off-label” to calm children…. my jaw dropped when I read this list of drugs, especially as Rebecca had been taking them since she was 2, when she was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and bipolar disorder. ….prescribing several off-label medications together is even riskier, since their interaction has not been tested.

A two year-old on anti-psychotic medicine? Anyone who has met a two year old knows it’s quite hard to distinguish normality from craziness. Attention deficit disorder and bipolar disorder. Don’t these define two-year-old behaviour?

Taking up a point made a couple of blogs ago and made more strongly in a comment by Chris, we seem to be ever more willing to find medical solutions to problems. And to see psychiatric problems where we might not in the past. Continue reading →