Dear FRONTLINE,

The number of children being medicated is not indicative of an increase in the number of children with clinical disorders; it is an indictment of our society, which has become very child unfriendly. It is an indictment of poor parenting skills and families in which both parents have to work because few families can live on one income alone. It is an indictment of a society where children cannot run and play to burn off energy naturally; their energy emerges in situations where it is considered to be inappropriate, and then there is a visit to a doctor, and a label, and a medication. Certainly some of these children do have legitimate psychiatric problems, but the 4000% increase cited in your report is indicative of a society that is not willing or able to let children be children. The tragedy is that we do not know what these medications will do to the nervous systems of these children as they grow up and some children will die as a result of being medicated. Why do we not ask ourselves,"How can we change our society to be more child friendly?" rather than asking, "How can we change these children?"

Laura Nelson
La Crosse, WI

Dear FRONTLINE,

I'm sitting here watching this show about the medicated child and in horror seeing these medicated children not only being posioned by the drugs they are taking but by the food they are eating. Why isn't this discussion about the effect junk/processed food has on our children. There is a proven effect of the junk we call food and the attitudes of our children. How about a real discussion about what is causing our children to be this way. This is new, we didn't have these problems 100 years ago we also didn't have processed food or eat the amount of sugar we do today. Please do a show about making american children healthy with REAL food and exercise, because drugs are not the answer.

Sharon Bartlett
Fort Worth, texas

Dear FRONTLINE,

I am struck by how reliant diagnoses and prescription modifications seem to be on what parents are reporting. A physician can diagnose and treat children's symptoms directly: a sprained thumb, a broken bone or a cough are easy enough to discover in the actual child. In contrast, the psychiatrists shown on Frontline seem to rely almost exclusively on reporting by the parents.

From everything I have seen of modern parenting in my friends and acquaintances, it is a moment of trauma in the parents' lives, and their ability to report on the experience shouldn't be trusted by a doctor prescribing untested drugs with serious side effects that have not even been studied in children. The parents may be well-intentioned, self-sacrificing and even wise about their children's condition, but the doctor has no way to know any of this without spending more time with the child; without, essentially, parenting for a week.

First, do no harm, and even before that, make sure you know that you know that you could detect harm, if it were occurring. As one interview subject said, 'We're still in the dark ages on this.'

Robert Monk
Philadelphia, PA

Dear FRONTLINE,

I am an adult living with this horrible disease. I wish I had been diagnosed at an earlier age. I was 25 when I was diagnosed. My son, now 7 is exhibiting some traits of mine. We are choosing to use therapy and work with him instead of trying medications. Maybe if I had interventions earlier on, I might not have to be on the five medications I am currently taking. Best of luck to everyone who has been affected by or with bipolar.

Salina, Kansas

Dear FRONTLINE,

I would like to see a program where these children have been put on a raw food diet and taken off these powerful prescription medications altogether. I am a natural physician who believes in the body and less so about powerful chemical interventions. I have met many people that have changed they're life around and gotten off all these medications just by incorporating healthy, organic raw vegetable diets. Invariably, I see these programs about these children and their horrible conditions and then you see them eating candy and sweets or eating fried foods an it is never mentioned, not even once by the doctors that are treating these children. So how would they ever know that it is not the horrible diet they are eating that is causing their problem. Even as a natural physician I cannot get people to try this approach it is simply a cultural taboo. Well I will leave a link if they will let me and those who are interested will watch it. It is about the benefits of the raw food diets. And I would like to see all the children in this "Medicated Child" frontline program go through this healthy change and see the results compared to the pharmaceutical results they got through the years they were on them. I know with certainty that the findings will be revolutionary! I hope that PBS is brave enough to publish this letter. Thanks, so here is the link. Please watch. Together we can make a change! http://www.openfilm.com/videos/real_n_raw/

Alan Boudreau
Saint Augustine, Florida

Dear FRONTLINE,

Thank you so much for taking the time to share information on BiPolar. I have spent 37 years of my life in a roller coaster I call hell. I wish I had all these Doctors in my life instead of the Dr who just kept putting me on heavy doses of antidepressants. I finally found One Dr who listened. She not only works with me on meds but also has guided me in ways I can help myself. I am still lost in the knowledge of BiPolar and may never understand the "why me" but I have now found some Peace in my life. I hope others take the time to understand and become educated for not only themselves but their children as well.

Angela P
Brooklyn, CT

Dear FRONTLINE,

I was myself a medicated bi-polar child of the 90's, As I grew up I decided to come off the meds and do behavioral therapy. I'm happily married and have one son. my son has asperger's syndrome and were trying to find away to control his behavior. We have also decided to do behavioral therapy with him and it's working. I don't know why the parents on the show would not stand up to the the doctors and say that is too much meds cut him down. lets try behavioral therapy. as a parent you have that right it's your child, I found myself getting mad as I watched this program cause of the high amount of meds being given cause if something happens to your child your are responseable not the doctor! but I do understand as a parent you can feel powerless on what to do. I suggest do your own research. cause your the one who knows your child the best!

Charly Shockley
waco, tx

Dear FRONTLINE,

My son is 12, at 4yrs he was officially diagnosed with Aspergers syndrom - sometimes called high funcioning autism. I refuse to allow any prescriptions, and the 2 shrinks he has seen have not pushed them at all. He is extremely bright, and has all the typical symptoms- non athletic, not coorditated, mood swings, extreme interest in areas such as the solar system, capitals of states and currently music. Mom & Dad are not together but are united in his treatment. He occasioally has episodes of "depression" and has threatened suicide, but his latest Dr. as well as us believe that that is not a "real" possibility. He has on one occasion (which we feel was for attention) wrapped a light cord around his neck (it would have pulled out of the wall socket if he had jumped or fallen),he was taken to a local psych center at a local hospital for observation and it was determined that it was just for attention, he had been punished by his step father (whom i trust with his care). He has everything that any kid his age would want (few exceptions), video games, profesional quality musical instruments and a lap top p.c. which he uses - as well as state of the art desk top p.c. which he uses with his best friends to record music that their "band" creates. I know that in the past, if mom and i had wanted an "easy" way to calm his "melt downs" and attempt to control his behavior, we could have medicated him. There are tough times, but they have very much diminished, and we are happy that medication has NOT been involved in his treatment. If a parent/ family can handle the difficult times I truly believe that you can get past these things and encourage your child to grow and mature and develope self control. So far he is "generally" a happy young man and parental involvement is paramount in getting through many situations. He still sometimes changes his likes (food that were his ablosute favorites which now causes an occassional melt down if it is for dinner), and likes things that he did not in the past. Parents please hang tough and try to avoid these experimental medications and hopefully you will get past that onto the next growing problem as they become teens and young adults.

Ray
buffalo, new

Dear FRONTLINE,

Hi,I'm one of those mothers who is raising a Bi-polar child. He was diagnosed when he was 5 yrs old and is now 13. The older he gets it seems the obsessions, depression, anxiety, rages, ect just seem to be getting worse. He has been in therapy for 8 yrs and he is taking a lot of medications. I was having him diagnosed every year just to see if we have the "right" diagnoses, and every year another diagnoses is added on. How can that be? Or should I say Why? He is diagnosed now with Bi-polar, ADHA, ODD,Tics, Asperberger tendencies, seizures and explosive rage disorder. We can't get through a day without a rage of some sort, but yet the Doctors continue him on the same meds and when I ask for some kind of help, meds or something else I get no answers? Why? He is screaming for help, we are screaming for help. He has no friends, he is bullied at school, he does very poorly with school grades. He tests out at a 4th grade level. I feel like we are in a hurricane and we just keep spinning down and down. He has tried to commit suicide in the past and most days he is screaming and crying. I feel very alone that the Doctors are listening to us but they don't really hear us. Every day is such a challenge for us and especially for him. My heart just breaks for what he endures daily. Thanks for listening it feels good just to vent and the program I saw tonight was very heart touchingLaurie Robinson

Laurie Robinson
Gwinn, MI

Dear FRONTLINE,

I just watched the special, "The Medicated Child" and was appalled at how many physicians were prescribing these drugs for children with symptoms of ADD/ADHD/autism and bipolar without looking at an underlying health disorder. Some children have reactions to excitotoxins in foods such as MSG, aspartame and food allergies and intolerances. My own son was diagnosed with severe autism at age 2, and the neurologist told us that medications were the only solution to control his behaviors. I refused to accept that, and researched other safer alteratives. My son began to improve by removal of gluten and casein from his diet (wheat and dairy) and then made more improvements with nutritional supplements and switching to a 100% organic diet. Today, he is speaking in sentences and making great cognitive gains and has not been on medication for over 5 years. I find it very unfortunate that children are being medicated so readily without looking into factors that may be causing their behaviors such as diet or environmental toxins.

Lisa R
Austin, Texas

Dear FRONTLINE,

Unfortunately, the REAL issue was not explored...the requirements for third party reimbursements based on the DSM code diagnoses required by the insurance companies and hospitals! Our children require a label to justify any accommodations,(either within the school or medical profession) for their differences while we adults with advocative skills cope with humor??? Where does justice reside? Children have no such linguistic, political or social skill. We as a nation should feel remorse for putting the blame for our dysfunction and ignorance on the weakest and defenseless of all citizens. We as professionals are to advocate for these without a voice.

Plus, psychiatric diagnosis and treatment is not a quantitative measurable science because it is impossible to measure brain chemistry until after one is dead and the brain can then be studied. At the very best, we are researchers who stay abreast of the latest drug interactions and equate the results with etymology.

Dr. Luwin Morgan Lewis
Manchester, Tn

Dear FRONTLINE,

Joseph Biederman, the Harvard psychiatrist who conveniently failed to disclose the millions of dollars in speaker fees from pharmaceutical companies, should be diagnosed with anti-social personality. As the film explores, many psychiatrists have predicated their diagnoses of children with bipolar disorder based on Biederman's biased and flawed research, which were probably designed to sell atypical antipsychotics and other psychotropic medications for pharmaceutical companies. It is an outrage that Biederman hasn't been stripped of his license for his unethical behavior, considering the little regard he has for the millions of lives of children he has damaged with unnecessary medications. The ramifications of being labeled with mental illness and the damaging, long-term side effects of pharmaceutical drugs among children is immeasurably profound and will probably continue to affect them long after they stop taking the medications.

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/joseph_biederman/index.html?scp=1-spot&sq=joseph biederman&st=cse

Pearl Park
jersey city, nj

Dear FRONTLINE,

I'm a licensed family therapist and use Dianetics and Nutrition in my practice to great success With NO DRUGS. My interest in mental healing began at 15 been studying Psychiatry and Psychology for over 35 years to understand my fathers diagnosis of Schizophrenia at 24. After years of Psych Drugging with dangerous psychotropics like Haldol, Thorazine and Shock Treatments it all came down to a simple Gluten Intolerance, but is was to late for him. This sudo-science (Psychiatry) cut his life short to 54 years and robbed us of a kind and decent father. Just the Label of a diagnosis (ADD, Bipolar, Depression,) is damaging to a troubled mind, a fraud in it's self as there is no clinical test for these "Mental Diseases" This is not about the "chemical Imbalance in the Brian debate" medical science has known for many years about body chemistry and the Mind Body connection and the effects of stress in the Endocrine system. They know 80% of illness is Psycho-somatic, but this systemis based in Profit not healing, there moto is "Normal Is Not Profitable". A large corprate machine that mantains its statis quo with massive lies and unlimited budgets.

CJ Bold
San Jose, Calif

Dear FRONTLINE,

I was interested in the video that Jacob developed rolling his head from his medicine. Both of my kids are on stimulants for A.D.H.D., but one of my sons had to stop his stiumulant for awhile because of the same heald rolling. I actually looked around on the internet and discovered that magnesium is quite low in many people with tics. Now my son takes magnesium and the stiumulants, and his head no longer rolls!My youngest son also has anxiety disorder, and a mild autism diagnosis thrown in. I have learned for both kids you really need to see a psychiatrist to monitor their meds well. I have also learned to keep very careful records on how they react to different doses and medicines. The psychiatrist only has so much time. It's up to me to figure out when my son has too much of a medicine. I make sure my kids have a very good breakfast, they don't skip meals and snacks, and avoid caffeine while they are on their stimulants. Just that can improve their moods tremendously. It takes a lot of time to do what is best for them. But I am glad I do. I know kids who are on three psychiatric medicines. One of the kids is extremely short for his age: I think his medicine crushes his appetite. Another boy on three psychiatric medicines is obese. These medicines can be helpful, but Mom and Dad have to be very involved in monitoring them.

Maureen Duffy-Guy
Tamaqua, PA

Dear FRONTLINE,

Please, please, please parents and caregivers; please explore every possibility you can before you put your child on these powerful drugs!!! As a teacher for 25 years I am appalled that any educator would tell a parent to consider medication, it is not their place!!!!!!!!! Many doctors are not qualified to deal with mental issues and should not be prescribing these types of medications!!! Parents should also consider themselves as a part of the problem too. Look at your home environment, look at parenting skills (sometimes the parents need the super nanny instead of medicating their kids). Plus think long term consequences of these meds. Short term gain may lead to long term pain. I hope PBS can revisit this issue and these families again in the future. A great show that really makes you think.

Lorain, Ohio