Haywire Children Research Paper

Help! The emergency 911 call goes “My child is having one of his psychotic episodes and I don’t know what to do!” A mother’s plea for help as she watches her teenage son’s manic episodes unfold; what is a mother to do? Since then, the teenager has been prescribed several antipsychotic drugs such as Aripiprazole (Abilify), thereafter, Risperidone (Risperdal) and a sleuth of others, but none curtails or controls his mood disorder until he is prescribed Depakote. Confused and perplexed, Depakote is an anti-seizure and an anti-psychotic drug that works by increasing the amount of a special neurotransmitter in the brain (drugwatch.com, nd).

“Hallucinations and voices that caused schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders have been stopped with the use of new medications”. (MHT, 2) “Just as aspirin can reduce a fever without curing the infection that causes it, psychotherapeutic medications act by controlling symptoms,” (MFMI, 4). “Another advantage of these medications is an increased understanding of the causes of mental illness. Scientists investigate the results of the medications, and through these results, they have learned a great deal about the working of the brain system.” (MFMI, 4) The use of new drugs has made it possible for mentally ill persons to live a normal life.

One of the greatest concerns of psychotropic drug use in children and adolescents is that this type of medication is overprescribed. According to a report by the Food and Drug Administration, as of September 2009, “more than 500,000 children and adolescents in America are now taking antipsychotic drugs.” (Wilson, 2010) 500,000 is definitely a large number, but considering the fact that approximately one in ten children in the United States suffer from various mental illnesses, this number is actually quite low. The main reason people believe this medication is overprescribed is because many parents are simply looking for an easy way to quell their child’s hyperactivity. “’Families sometimes feel the need for a quick fix,’ Dr. Gleason said. ‘That’s often the prescription pad. But I’m concerned that when a child sees someone who prescribes but doesn’t do therapy, they’re closing the door that can make longer-lasting change.’” (Wilson, 2010)

Rather than seeing a rise in aggressive behavior, a substantial decrease in such behaviors was noted:

For most individuals with schizophrenia, a thorough treatment plan is vital to assist with medication adherence, reduce hospitalization and to provide improvement in quality of life. Typically a prescription for antipsychotics is necessary not only to reduce positive

The Logan children are walking to school and the white school bus driver purposely tries to splash them . Little man is especially upset because he likes to be clean . One rainy day the children are walking to school and they think they hear the bus behind them so they climb onto the bank but it turns out it was just Harlan Granger driving his car . Stacey suggests that they should just stay there until the bus passes them so they wont get splashed , but TJ convinces them to keep walking. Once they start walking the bus comes barely hitting the Logan children and TJ who try to jump in the bank . But they all miss and end up in the muddy gully . At lunch the logan children make a huge ditch in the road to get the bus back for getting there

Two of the ten studies investigate medications and the effectiveness on the outcome of the individuals studied. Green, Noordsy, Brunette, and O'Keefe (2008) studied theories related to schizophrenia and substance abuse. The authors discuss a number of theories that attempt to explain how the two are related. Although their study was not clear, the authors continue to recommend comprehensive treatment that includes psychosocial and medication treatment in an integrated fashion (Green et al.,

The patient is a 28-year-old female referred to Winnebago Mental Health Institute Out-Patient Resource Center from a Psychiatric Hospital after 2 months in-patient treatment. She has a 10-year history of mental health problems and received a diagnosis of schizophrenia in 2015. At the time of the referral Susan was single with no children. During her in-patient treatment, she had been prescribed an antipsychotic medication (thorazine) to assist in reduction of her perceived anxiety, potential aggressive behaviors, and to assist in decreasing hallucinations that she is currently experiencing ( Drugs.com, 2015). There had been no noted presenting problems regarding her physical health during this process and is observed to be in good

As we have seen, treatment of schizophrenia with antipsychotic drugs can have impressive results in terms of decreasing active symptoms, although it does nothing to alleviate negative symptoms or to improve cognitive functioning. Unfortunately, this kind of treatment has the drawback of extremely serious and even fatal side-effects. Newer generation atypical antipsychotics offer more hope, as they can treat both active and negative symptoms, and also improve cognitive functioning. Moreover, they have fewer side-effects. However, treatment is complicated by the fact that results are unpredictable; and in addition the side-effects that they do have can be very serious, such as diabetes, which in itself is life-threatening. However, as the potential side-effects are known, the physician has leeway to choose a drug which is a good match for the patient’s clinical profile. Then, once the patient’s symptoms have been much alleviated with an appropriate newer generation atypical antipsychotic, the patient should be able to also benefit from a range of psychotherapeutic interventions. It is argued that this is the best treatment regime to choose, as it is likely to result in the greatest improvement in quality of life, coupled with the lowest risk of potentially devastating side-effects, or of death. This is likely to be better than utilizing cognitive behavioral therapy, the results of which are not reliably known – although research has certainly shown that it is less efficacious

Although there are many ways that schools can assist students with mental illnesses, their hands are also tied. For the amount of concern many Americans and politicians show for the failing healthcare system, there is a lack of funding and a shortage of school counselors, allowing for school violence to continue. Schools are educational settings, not clinical settings, and so they do not have the authority to provide treatment services to students, as they are unable to obtain malpractice coverage, making them liable for any incidents that would occur. There is only so much a school can do for a student who has a serious mental illness such as:

Therapy for psychosis often works best when combined with medication, although this is not always

I learnt that using anti-psychotics is just a component of a holistic approach to a patient with psychotic illness and that care should also include psychological treatments

Schizophrenia is a life-long disorder that affects about one percent of the population (Mueser & McGurk, 2004). The cause of this mental illness is still unclear. Studies have suggested that Schizophrenia does not arise from one factor but from a combination of genetic, environmental, and social factors (Liddle, 1987). People diagnosed with Schizophrenia struggle to deal with a multitude of symptoms that make it difficult to function (Mueser & McGurk, 2004). Antipsychotic medications are a popular treatment of the symptoms of Schizophrenia (Mueser & McGurk, 2004). Research is constantly being done to develop these medications to enhance the quality of life of those diagnosed with Schizophrenia.

Clearly, this is a very serious disorder, which is often utterly incapacitating. Therefore, individuals urgently require efficacious treatment, both for survival and for quality of life, and many different kinds of treatment and therapy are used. This paper will examine the use of two of these, cognitive behavioral therapy and drug therapy, and evaluate which one is better. It will take the position that drug therapy is a more effective therapy for treating schizophrenia than is cognitive behavioral therapy.

Having halcyon childhood is a sure blessing, but my early life was not filled with many pleasant memories instead of challenges. My hometown, Kocham in South Korea, was a medically deserted community as it had only one part-time physician. Even today, the residents face difficulty in search of quality medical treatment. In addition to the scant amount of medical attention given, this place also faced with educational difficulty. With no memory of my father succumbed to liver cancer when I was only two, my mother, regardless of her educational background, considered education to be a priority in life and she did the best she could to ensure that I got a quality education. However, as walking 10 miles to a school as sharing few antiquated school