Dear FRONTLINE,

Many years ago my brother would have been diagnosed ADHD - if it had existed then. The doctor took him off sugar, hotdogs, white flour and milk. Within a month, my brother had dramatically improved.

Bunny Smith
Belvoir, VA

Dear FRONTLINE,

Dear Frontline, PBS, the weary and tired parents of the highest strung children:

I am a mother to seven wonderful children, 5 of whom were adopted. Our child Jacob will be turning 6 soon is on several medications that would knock an adult out for days, but Jacob still goes on and on like the pink rabbit that just keeps going. He never has slept through the night even with very powerful medications until I made him a 8 pound weighted blanket which was recommended by his Occupational Therapist. Mind you that he still needs the medication to help him to sleep but, now he sleeps all night completely, fully rested sleep.

We brought Jacob home from the hospital at 23 days of age, he had RSV, FTT (failure to thrive), low birth weight (5.1 lbs down to 4.1). After bringing him home he did great, he was on target for all his milestones until he rolled over by his self and then it seems that he had for gotten how to and his feet would shake. The doctor said that he had an immature nervous system, and to take him home and roll him over to remind him how to do it and yes he did start again rolling over but his feet would still shake at times. Then about the age of 6-7 months the shaking subsided and the crying fits started. He had on summer sandals and kicking and screaming in one of his crying spells and I noticed something black on his car seat, it was the soles of the scandals that he shredded by rubbing his feet together rapidly during his episode.

I had raised a lot of children and knew that Jacob was different from the start. I have worked with toddlers and infants in the Head Start program and received training upon trainings on early childhood development, so I knew good and well that there was more to Jacobs crying spells than what was being told by the doctors that infants can be a handful or stressful or that toddlers was just difficult at times, or my personal favorite it must be teething because there is no evidence of an infection. All of which many people have heard over the years when a professional cannot explain the cause of behaviors of a child under the age of 3.

Mind you all, there is no mental health for any child under the age of 3. First Steps ( the early childhood program) said that he didn't meet their criteria for services. He didn't qualify because I had worked with him. I knew what to do and what to work on and what goals that he needed to meet. More or less I played with Jacob daily and there to meet his needs from 23 days of age, with a very stable environment. My husband a Southern Baptist Minister and a full time stay at home mom.

And before the no medication no matter what group starts on me about the dosing, Jacob is and has been in counseling for years, goes to OT, and sees a Psychiatrist monthly, we have been trained through our state to be a foster home, and then a Care Plus home for behavioral children and Medically Fragile for the child who has a chronic medical condition. We attend trainings yearly and attend trainings that our counselor does and do what the OT recommends. And yet we still have a child which gets out of control daily and cannot go out into the public without having a full rage fit.

So when you see me or another and that their child is acting out very badly please don't judge that parent and say things like "if he was my child then he would get a good old fashion spanking", or jerk the ink pen that was on a chain away from him when he was playing with it. You might want to think and remember sometimes a child might have special needs and just because I don't seem upset or seem to be at my wits end and I am talking in a very calm and quiet manner trying to keep my child from a full rage explosion and know what is best and now having to deal with my out of control Bi-Polar child and I have to set onlookers straight when my child has made them feel uncomfortable for one moment in time. Watch out because you might get more than you bargain for, like the child's entire story of early child neglect and how he wasn't feed, or the story how he or she got so many scars or for the other cases where none of these apply, do you want to baby-sit, they would not make it through 15 mins with that child, once the game board went flying so would they.

Our story continues on and on and there are many out there that are alike. Also, there are many who need the Early psychological help and the medication that goes with it. The medications need to be tailored and studied for children younger than 18 and yes even 6, there is a great need out there and no one is meeting that need.

Let me be the first one to say that there is a new early onset breed of mental illness that is attacking our young and what is the cause and what medication will be used if it is not safe or not have been tested for the young child. I agree with Dr. Chang about an early start on trying to determine who and why a child may develop these issues. My questions are they permanent or just a short term illness that has caused symptoms to appear and a child takes that as a learned behavior and now will always respond in that manner or can we change it and put a different reaction or different emotion in place of the negative ones? Only time will tell. If and when there are a few and brave specialist who are willing to step out of the boundaries and dare to do what is needed, only then will we start to get the answers that we all need so desperately.

Ronda, Bob,Bobby 17 (Tourette Syndrome, Risperdal) , Rachel 16, Joshua 9 (ADHD, no meds), Elizabeth 9 (passive aggressive, no meds), Isaac 7 (General Anxiety Disorder, Diazapam, Straterra), Jacob 5 ( Bi-Polar/ mood disorder, Adhd, Seroquel 800 mg a day, Clonidin 2 at bed, Trazodone 150 mg at bed) and one 8 lb weighted blanket, and little Miss Whitney 5, CF (Cystic Fibrosis).

The Whitters

RONDA WHITTER
BURLINGTON, KY

Dear FRONTLINE,

I am a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist who works with children and families in an intensive outpatient community setting. I replied to one of my colleague's email posts about the program and she asked if I wouldn't mind sharing it with Frontline. This is my email:

Hello, I am from Washington state, but these are my personal views. I was similarly concerned about the choice of the face of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (CAP). I spend an extensive amount of time in session explaining psychosocial interventions and I work in Community psychiatry, where many of those in this area of CAP complain that they only evaluate and then do medication management. I frequently set up a return visit for myself, the therapist, the child and parent to make sure that we are all on the same page. Additionally, I cast a skeptical eye on diagnoses du jour and treat as function is impaired. As children grow, I may retest my hypotheses and explain how development is the friend of CAP. Maybe some psychosocial interventions (including helping the family get off welfare, getting a child on an IEP, etc) may allow a careful reduction of medication. Amongst my CAP friends, they speak similarly about treatment. Although troubling symptoms are treated, the child, the family and the environment surrounding them are my "patient". This is my training. I didn't get a sense that this was strongly considered in the documentary. That troubled me. A colleague who saw it was troubled by the "this is 99% biological and maybe 1% social. Let's increase her medications" comment. Not something that I or my colleague would dream of saying. The end of the documentary seemed rather ominous, that the parents had decided to keep treating with medications...with the implication that it was at the child's peril and the parents were misinformed. I don't remember the exact wording but I felt that this sounded like a documentary/expose that was trying to sound balanced but was naiive and in the end anti-child and adolescent psychiatry.

John Rose
Tacoma, Washington

Dear FRONTLINE,

Thank you so much for producing this program. Now I have a place to send friends, relatives, and teachers who need some baseline information about bipolar children. At age 7, my hyperactive yet loving son became obsessed with dying and began hearing "the voice of the devil" constantly. He also began waking up in a violent and destructive rage each morning, often hurting his sister and family pets. Our wonderful family doctor who has known my son since age 2 was able to correctly identify bipolar disorder and get him stabilized on medication. Although we have had some medication changes over the past 18 months, our son has generally been his loving, intelligent self. He is also a public school student with no modifications and earns straight A's. There is NO question that for our family, medication has been a blessing.

April Collins
Vidalia, Georgia

Dear FRONTLINE,

just do a google search on:"attention deficit syndrome food additive children"could it be that the todays child behaviour problems are linked to a combination of highly artificial processed foods, non-stop TV watching, and very tired over worked parents?

jaan vandeven
Dublin, Ireland

Dear FRONTLINE,

I watched your program this evening. In it you mentioned a family history of the various mental disorders can be markers to consider.

I am a child of the fifties. I was an ADHD, depressed girl who dealt with feelings of exclusion and inferiority by fantasizing much like the little girl in your program and her Wal-Mart 'adventure.'

It wasn't until I was in my forties that I was properly diagnosed. I am now in my fifties and take Zoloft everyday. I cannot even begin to tell you how my life has changed for the better. I'll keep this short because I saw myself in both of my sons when they were young. Same sort of problems for my older son; definite ADD and depression in my younger son. Unfortunately I was married to a man who poo poo'd all mental problems... saying that they would 'grow out of it.' I knew, in my heart, they wouldn't but at the time I was in no shape to argue.

My older son is now in his thirties and his life is a direct and sad reflection of my own at his age. Because his intellect is not above average, he has real trouble coping with anything. A year after moving into a new apartment, he is still talking about what he planned to do a year ago and still hasn't done. Of course, also like me at that age, he believes that all he needs is to 'organize' and things will be markedly different. I have reached the point in my life where I sit and listen - which is much more than my own parents did for me.

My younger son is in his mid-twenties and after a sad romantic breakup with his girlfriend, he sought psychiatric help. His doctor has put him on Welbutrin and he sees a psychologist once a week. For the past five years he has just 'treaded water' in his life. Six months after starting the Welbutrin he has applied, all on his own, to college, writing essays that I once thought it would be impossible for him to do. He is following through on things in his life that he just procrastinated about because he was biologically depressed, as I was, and since he was ADD and not hyperactive, no one caught it before... except for myself.

People often comment that I seem to have a depth of empathy that they have not seen in others. I 'credit' that ability to a life of swirling sadness that I could not get a grip on. For both of my sons, looking like underachievers and slackers to the world, I have hung in there - giving both of them the support that they wished for. I have great hope for my younger son right now. And quite honestly, I don't believe that their father would have ever agreed to medication when they were younger. I, on the other hand, would have tried it. I would like to imagine - fantasize! - that my own life might have been very different had my parents had the medicinal resources that are available today.

not specified, PA

Dear FRONTLINE,

I found your program to be an informative overview of the controversy surrounding medical treatment for children with bi-polar. I am a single mother of two children, both with special needs: my daughter is 8; she is fantastic and has type 1 diabetic and bi-polar; my son is 6; he is amazing and has ADHD. Both are academically gifted. As both a parent and a Special Educator working toward my PhD, there are several outstanding issues of concern.

My daughter is a rapid cycler. That is she has very rapid transitions between mania and depressive/aggitated states. Being Type 1 diabetic, her medication options are very limited. We cannot risk a crisis from one illness or the other. It is astounding to me that there is a question in the increase in diagnosis. With Autism, the country is rallying to support the educational, social, and medical needs of this rapidly growing segment of the "disabled" population. This growth in ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) diagnosis is attributed widely to better diagnostic measures, finer criterion, etc. Yet with Bi-Polar, diagnosis is a fad, akin to that of ADHD about 15 years ago. When my daughter is having a meltdown at Target, attacking me or her brother, being combative, aggressive, and impulsive, most others look at me with disdain and repulsion; I'm either a bad parent or my child is a snot. I have said more than once, my child is Bi-Polar, so ... Typically the response is one of avoidance, confusion, or continued judgement. Were I to say, "my daughter is Autistic," the sympathy, pity, and concern would give way. How do I know this? I am a teacher of the Autistic. Each week we take our students into the community, shopping, lunch out, etc. It is with total confidence I make this "assumption" based on my personal and professional experience.

The services available to children and families with Autism are abundant: better educational programming, more social services (SSI, SSDI, etc.), support groups, research, familial and community supports, respite services, financial aide for children and familes, etc. However for Bi-Polar and highly involved ADHD (like both of my children), I have had to fight for an appropriate education (i.e. an IEP)for my children. I am forced to again and again apply, re-apply, and re-apply again to receive any government aide. Long-term care for my children, my daughter especially, is paramount. For some reason, Bi-Polar is the scourge of modern medicine and psychiatry while ASD is it's prodigal son. Somehow this may have to do with where the money comes from for research, marketing, etc. There are several celebrities whom have children with Autism... face time gets the money I suppose.

As far as treatment, I vehemently disagree with Dr. Bacon's statement to the effect of therapeutic interventions not being beneficial to the point of considering it negligent Behavioral therapies, social skills groups, parent and sibling support groups, exercise, meditation, etc. are most beneficial to the child and all involved in his/her care.

I travel each week an hour and a half to visit our psychologist and each month to our psychiatrist. I would make the journey daily if I need be. Quality mental health care is equally important as quality medical care. I make the trip for the endocrinologist. Both my daughter's diabetes and her BiPolar require the best of care. Of the two diseases she has, the BiPolar is most difficult to manage - OK the diabetes is a cake-walk in comparison really.

The Doctor at NYU has it right - we need to get together on this. Ask your Psychiatrists to contact NYU; ask them to get involved; hold a fundraiser in your community and sponsor his or her trip to New York to join the next brainstorm. We are individuals fighting this fight but we are not alone. No one else understands the struggle; the terror; the tears; the rage; the joys; the laughter; the silliness; the love; the life. My children are my heart and soul. My daughter has a heart full of love and giggles and a soul full of dreams. And somewhere within all of that is a cloudy pool of all that other stuff that makes her BiPolar. She wants to be a Rock Star when she grows up; she's got a voice that will melt you (which she didn't get from me). And maybe she will. She wants to be a vet too. And maybe she will. She wants to be a Mommy. And maybe she will. She wants to go to college. And maybe she will. But maybe she won't. And that is OK. No matter what, I will never quit. I will never give up. I will fight for her dreams even when she doesn't know how. I will fight this fight. Will you?

Christine D.
Milton, Delaware

Dear FRONTLINE,

I am a mother of a 13 year old with autism. My son Alan has known Jessica for a long time. For those of you who don't have a child with a disability you have no right to say anything about the way they parent. When your child has a meltdown and you don't know what to do then you can have a say in this matter. As for some of you doctors you need to be in the parents shoes before you can comment on THEIR children.

As for the way DJ's parents feed him. What a joke. We grew up on food like that and we're ok.

Jessica is a different child since the meds she has done a complete 360. I am so proud of her family they have had a lot to deal with. parent who were on this study. Way to go!!! I am sure it was hard for you to let people into your lives and then be judge by people who just don't understand. There will always be people who will have something to say about the way you parent just tell them to mind their own business. Good Luck

Teresa Ammon
Hammondsville, ohio

Dear FRONTLINE,

Thank you for your show. I believe this topic needs to be addressed and taken to the mainstream of our society. Mental illness needs to come out of the closet.

I was flooded with emotion watching your show, the pain the parents and children were going through trying to understand what was going on in their lives, sharing their stories, how brave they are. I must admit I wouldn't be so brave. I would like to say I have three children, all were diagnosed ADHD, none were medicated. My husband, a physician, and I agreed their brains were still growing and forming and that we didn't know the long term side effects of medication. They are all doing well.Again I would like to thank you for FRONTLINE

south nyack, new york

Dear FRONTLINE,

As I am about to start a residency in psychiatry with the intention of specializing in child psychiatry, I watched this segment with great interest.

I think Frontline's attempt at addressing the subject was much needed given the ever increasing use of neuro-pychotropic agents in such a vulnerable population.

I cannot help but wonder what role the modern chemical industry plays in the ever increasing numbers of children who are diagnosed with mental illness. Is it too difficult or farfetched to imagine that one or more of the thousands of chemicals used in modern manufacturing practices may play a role in this problem? Given the nature of our food supply where every chicken is injected with growth hormone, antibiotics, and countless other chemicals are utilized in insuring productive crop sizes, is it possible we as a society are responsible indirectly in the infusion of unknown chemicals into our children?

Furthermore, it would be interesting to see an additional segment on how other factors, such as physical activity levels, may play a role in the treatment of childhood mental illness. Interestingly one of the children in the segment started yoga as an adjunctive therapy.

I believe childhood mental illness is a reflection of where we stand as a society in which we are encouraged to believe there is always a pill which can fix any problem. Add this to an honest earnestness and concern all parents have for their children, and next thing you know we have eight year olds on some pretty heavy duty pharmaceutical compounds.

Sasi Doddapaneni MD
Washington, DC

Dear FRONTLINE,

This is a somewhat long letter, but I hope illustrates a typical pattern for entering the world of medications, the pressures that keep kids on increasing numbers of medications and most important, this long-term study shows that at least sometimes the drugs prescribed are the problem.

We have a son who through early childhood was doing fairly well, but was a bit high-strung, demanding and had the classical ADD symptoms. On the good side he was tremendously bright, curious, optimistic and outgoing. However in second grade, he was experiencing an increasing number of conflicts with other students,his work was getting sloppy and we were worried about the way he was interacting with his siblings. We saw a psychiatrist and she agreed it is ADD and we went to the standard first line of defense, a stimulant, Ritalin SR. Initial results were remarkably good, but he did experience rebounding and some trouble behaving in the afternoon. After a few months, another stimulant, Adderall, replaced Ritalin because it may be longer acting. Again for a time everything seemed great, but as time went on he became more withdrawn, sadder, more volatile and lost quite a bit of weight. After about 5 months after starting the stimulants we had a routine visit to our psychologist and she decided our son was in the midst of a `major depressive event' and the psychiatrist was consulted and he was immediately put on Zoloft (while maintaining the stimulant) and we were told how important it is to treat a first depressive event properly or it has a very high chance or recurrence. Again, the initial results on the Zoloft were good. Again after a couple months, things got much worse. He became decidedly anti-social, irritable and seemed to enjoy little of what he did several months ago. As third grade started we received our first phone call from a teacher about behavior problems. Things were not going well at all. So, after about 6 months on Zoloft we changed to the anit-depressant Paxil and used Concerta (a newly available stimulant). Third grade was a very rocky year: all sorts of interventions at school, family life was very difficult and he began to gain significant weight. Throughout all this, our son did not feel good about himself and shared many dark thoughts with us. Somehow, things seemed to stabilize in the early part of 4th grade. Reports from school were positive and he behaved well at home but was subdued and somber. Throughout this time we were also working hard on behavior modification, and we lived with the implicit assumption that the meds were helping, and things would be much worse without them, and these ideas were supported by the professionals who we spent many hours per month with.

Along the way we never felt like things were getting much better & we kept seeking advice from other places. Our pediatrician let us know that Adderall XR had just come out (we tried it and it was a disaster...). She also thought Buspar may alleviate some of his anxiety (another disaster) and pointed us towards Daniel Amen's book "Healing ADD". The book was quite interesting. The book describes 6 classes of ADD. Type 6 or "ring of fire" ADD (named for the pattern seen in brain scans) is characterized by being angry and aggressive, hypersensitive, rigid & inflexible, impulsivity, unpredictability, anxiety, etc. Our son, after 2 years of meds, fit the description of type 6 quite well. This is also the profile associated with early onset bipolar disorder. In Amen's book he suggests largely the same treatments suggested for stabilizing the moods of bipolar people to treat `ring of fire ADD', but he remarks that smaller doses of anti-seizure medications may be effective than required for bipolar. He also advocates stimulant use.

I was encouraged by Amen's approach and went to our psychiatrist asking for an anti-seizure medication to treat `type 6 ADD'. She convinced me this may indeed be early-onset bipolar. I left the office with a prescription for Depakote and the website address for the early onset bipolar organization, bpkids.org. Within a week I was convinced we had it all figured out. Our son fit the bipolar profile well and the Depakote was initially hugely effective. After the first few pills he was behaving well, seemed cheerful, interested in life and respectful of others. We thought the road ahead was clear, even if we didn't like the bipolar diagnosis.

Over the next few weeks the magic of the Depakote seemed to wear off. In class he became increasingly withdrawn - just sitting at his desk, really out of it. He was gaining a lot of weight, but didn't seem to care about that, or his appearance or much of anything else. We upped the Depakote dosage again and he became periodically very explosive and violent, different than his character ever before. School behavior went from bad to worse. The doctors believed both Depakote an Paxil may be problems (but they believed he still needed anti-depressants and stimulants). We were to follow standard advice and stabilize the mood first so taper down on Depakote and Paxil and to taper up on Tegretol. This all really, really scared us. The idea of having him with virtually no meds in his system, when his behavior was already quite bad while medicated, was almost unreal. Also, we went through the slow & painful re-assessment of our expectations for our son. We went from hoping for high achievement from an extremely bright and once outgoing and energetic child to simply hoping this now angry child can somehow fit into society. Talks with our therapist were now about this being a long term situation you have to learn to deal with and we were being told how to use emergency rooms and law enforcement when things really got bad (and we've almost used both).

Then a strange miracle happened. Just after tapering the Paxil down to zero, he got the "Mother of All Stomach Flus" (or maybe a detox reaction to the meds). He could hold NOTHING down for 5 days straight. This started March 12, 2002. Following professional advice, we wanted badly to get the Tegretol going, but couldn't. My wife always felt we were now doing worse than we did before starting the meds, and she always wanted to see what he was like without any of them. I was convinced his brain had been changing and things would be awful without meds, but we decided to give an unmedicated period a try. There was only one week left before spring break, so if worst comes to worst he's just miss a week of school.

10 days after stopping medication I wrote: It's been a positive shock. His attitude has been very positive (not manic). He's been seeking out and working well with friends. He's been smiling, laughing, telling jokes. Teachers are already remarking that this is the first they've seen him smile in weeks. His behavior is not perfect But his positive qualities are all shining out again, too. The good stuff from the old days are clear again - he wants to interact with people, he is very smart, very curious, his disposition is sunny. I'm again finally concerned with stimulating his intellect and teaching him to care for those around him rather than looking for suicidal signs or wondering what I'll do when he's arrested.

Maybe this last positive 10 days or so is another false hope? It might be, but I don't think so - I see the return of a kid I've known well and loved before. Writing today: Fast-forward from 4th grade to High School. We are thrilled to report that our son has remained unmedicated from that day forward and is doing great. He has the personality from before this wild ride and is doing very well in a college-prep curriculum, playing sports, doing well with friends and interested in life and his future. He's a great, normal, high school kid, and his parents are still even married! We can still at times see why we wanted to use the Ritalin, though the stimulants that were being prescribed from the start were very likely the root cause. One psychiatrist has told us that there are a number of kids who do not respond well to the stimulants and removing these should be a first line response, rather than adding a second med. Its clear to us that standard practice should be to err towards removing meds rather than adding one more. We know how scary it can be to try to get off these for both parents, kids and professionals. However, I cannot imagine how any child can maintain stability on three or more meds while their bodies are changing all the while.

If any professionals would like access to the details of our case to inform clinical practice, the Frontline folks know how to find us, and we would be happy to help, but very much want to maintain our privacy.

Columbus, Ohio

Dear FRONTLINE,

I am a combined internist and pediatrician by training. I would like to offer some constructive criticism to your program and to Marcela Gaviria, the producer who carried out the impressive task of covering this difficult and complex subject for public consumption.

I fully agree with the validity of the question, "is medicating children with untested drugs good medicine or is it an uncontrolled experiment." However, to do so, Ms. Gaviria rightly points out that one must also consider this in the context of the "dramatic increase in the number of children being diagnosed with serious psychiatric disorders." Unfortunately, these are two separate questions. The second question of diagnosis is especially confusing in psychiatry.

Not only is it difficult to define a "disease" like Bipolar disorder (versus other diseases like HIV or lupus), but it has always been controversial to define who is actually "ill." In medicine, "illness" is the patient's experience of being sick. Most people recognize fever, chills, rashes, nausea as being sick. However, the practice of psychiatry is plagued by the fact that psychiatric conditions often manifest as exaggerations of normal behavior. People are more skeptical that they or someone they know is, well, mentally "ill." The phrase "mental illness" itself is hopelessly lost in cultural stigma.

"The medicated child" did not sufficiently highlight and confront this important viewer bias. Furthermore, an hour is not enough time to cover both questions without creating more confusion and some unintended assumptions. The case of DJ well illustrates both these points.

I suspect that Ms. Gaviria tried hard to capture examples and descriptions of the behaviors that set his parents down the path of professional assistance. But, while watching the episode, I was not impressed. He yelled, he screamed, his mother seemed frustrated. But, if I was not familiar with other "DJs" through my professional experience, I would have been suspicious, especially when juxtaposed against otherwise innocent commentary questioning the validity of psychiatric diagnoses like bipolar disorder. So, I was especially impressed to discover Tracy Schmidt, DJ's grandmother, passionately defending DJ's parents' abilities to raise their children, writing on your Online Discussion.

I will tell you from professional experience that it takes longer than the length of few short clips to come to the conclusion that a child's behavior is seriously disturbed. Moreover it is especially useless to feature a child like DJ when he's being effectively managed. No one is afraid of a sleeping lion, especially if they've never seen one on the attack. Just as people with major depression become frustrated when they try to explain the difference between being simply "sad" and having "depression," relatives like Ms. Schmidt are rightly frustrated when trying to articulate the difference between a temper tantrum and "rages" that are truly unusual.

Having met DJ, Ms. Gaviria would know better than I if he clearly seemed abnormal, whatever the cause might be, and that parenting was not the explanation. Would this have been better illustrated by using more of the "countless hours of footage"? Knowing that "...in a one hour film, the details of each child's story were compressed," I think that it stands to reason that this may have been insufficient time to illustrate that each of the three featured children were, for lack of a better word, "ill."

This is the first Frontline episode I've seen that, to my mind, failed to "prove its thesis." From what I've written and from the number of editorial responses to letters, citing clarifications, references to "FAQ's" and "extended interviews," I think at least part of the answer is clear: 1 hour was not enough. I value Frontline and its mission. I hope the editors and Ms. Gaviria finds this helpful.

Patrick Burke, MD
Houston, TX

Dear FRONTLINE,

I am a child psychologist who worked for years in the office of three pediatricians, seeing mothers they referred, and then the whole family, in order to understand the child's behaviors. There would then be sessions of support. We doctors learned together how to bring out the relaxation response, support help from within the family, and often interest people in the school, as well. We found this model more useful than DSM labeling or, nearly always, heavy meds.

Psychosis exists among children, but it is truly rare, or was ten years ago. Medication damage is not rare, and I believe family distress is no excuse for pretending to knowledge we do not have, let alone expertise. We need to reject our natural quick response to "Doctor, do something!" hysteria, understandable though it be, and leave developing brains to change gradually as we adults also change some of our demanding behaviors. Doctors with therapists down the hall are smart.

Florence Davidson
Falmouth, MA

Dear FRONTLINE,

What saddens me, is that we are still asking whether or not to medicate. Is anyone asking: shoud we medicate the child with a kidney disorder? Should we really be medicating the child with a liver disorder? Should we really medicate a child with heart disease? Ahhhhh.....But the real question here is should we medicate the child with a brain disorder, because somehow, is this not as severe as say, the liver disorder?Yes, often times a bipolar child's symptoms do look like "bad behavior". But, unfortunately, trying to teach an UNMEDICATED/UNSTABLE child with bipolar to "behave" is akin to telling a child with one leg to walk ten feet towards you. The neuorons simply are not supporting their control of this. And to expect this from such a child is simply cruel if not abusive.Ladies, remember when we were told PMS was not real? Our son who is now 6, adopted at birth, has been battling this very early, since before 2. We REFUSED to medicate at first. I tried diet, vitamins, chiropractic, NAET, kineseolgy,play therapy, time outs, and even spankings. There were constant daily battles with him, just trying to get him to eat, or be quiet for 10 min. so I could even think, he would just scream sometimes for hours. While there are always people ready to jump at the chance of criticizing we parents of children with brain disorders, I had no one jumping at the chance to help me when I needed it most. Often times I would just break down with despair and sheer exhaustion. BEFORE I had this child I was one of those people who was quick to blame the parents too. After all, I was educated in Psychology and the mental health field. Some of you in this field are the WORST. At my witts end I would seek help, and even in THE FIELD I was looked down upon, like some incompetent parent. My husband and I are FAR FROM IT! This child has had nothing but love since we have had him. I quit my career as a Social Worker to be more available for him. We are now living each month in the red with mounds of credit card debt, to make ends meet. Our grocery bill is probably tripple what most people's would be, because I try to buy all natural foods for our son, organic produce, meats, and snacks. He has NEVER had a doughnut in his life! He comes home and cries to me, how the kids at school got to have cookies, but he could not have any. Most kids buy lunch at school, I pack his everyday, making sure he has a lunch without preservatives, artifical colors, etc...He is also off anything with soybeans, tomatoes, or dairy. Try this for a day, let alone a lifetime. We do all this along WITH his regime of medications.

The next time some of you skeptics out there don't think we are trying hard enough or that this is not a real dx, or just the flavor of the month, please do come over and lend a hand. I promise sooner or later you will leave a believer. I had a friend's husband who believed ADHD was not real, which my son also has. After seeing our son in his prime for awhile, he now has the utmost respect for us and our parenting skills, and the diagnosis.Next time you want to criticize, instead of offering your mouth, how about offering your hands? We are struggling to keep above water out here.

Mother of a bp child and Proud of my Parenting Skills

Janelle Baylor
marietta, PA

Dear FRONTLINE,

Thank you for "The Medicated Child'. The program reminded us of out our son's struggle with Tourette Syndrome. Our greatest regret is that we allowed him to be treated with risperidone for five years. Eventually we gave up on mainstream neurology, and found safer and more effective therapies.

I recommend that parents of children with ADD, ADHD, or Tourette Synsrome consider alternatives, especially EEG biofeedback. A visit to Pubmed will reveal an extensive peer-reviewed literature on the use of EEG biofeedback for ADHD and other related conditions, including a review of the current literature that I wrote.

Patrick Friel
Seattle, WA