Child psychiatric diagnosis on trial

R

runawaybunny

Guest
Child psychiatric diagnosis on trial - New Scientist

When Carolyn Riley was convicted of killing her 4-year-old daughter Rebecca by overdosing her with psychotropic drugs prescribed for the child, some jurors reportedly felt that the psychiatrist who wrote the prescriptions should also have been on trial.

That will not happen: the doctor was granted immunity when agreeing to testify in the case. But the validity of the condition for which Rebecca was being treated is being questioned by psychiatrists. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) says it needs to be replaced by an entirely new diagnosis, while others argue that this move could create fresh problems.
 

DaisyFace

Love me...Love me not
That was my feeling, too...

After all, the mother could not have overdosed the child with psychiatric drugs if the child had not been prescribed them in the first place.

The child was taking an antipsychotic called quetiapine, the anticonvulsant valproate, and clonidine. What the heck kind of doctor gives those kinds of drugs to a four year old????
 

CrazyinVA

Well-Known Member
Staff member
I have to say, more disturbing to me are the comments posted below the article... so many people bashing parents for medicating their children, or blaming bad parenting for children's behavior problems. It just makes me really sad to think there are still people out there like that. But, I know they'll never really go away.

A 4 year old on that many medications is indeed troubling. If the mother was actually convicted of 2nd degree murder, though, vs. manslaughter, something was not right. I wonder if she increased the doses that the dr. prescribed, out of desparation? Sad on every level.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Well...ok...lets be real here. We have tons of kids here on seroquel, depakote and clonidine.

I have been told by reliable sources that it is pretty much not able to od on seroquel. You will just sleep for a very long time. They have built that particular effect into seroquel because of the patients taking it. I know someone who took an entire months bottle of it and just slept. Of course they were in the ER. Now depakote can be lethal, as can clonidine because it is a blood pressure medication.


4 is early but we have seen some very tough kids on this board that young.
 

DaisyFace

Love me...Love me not
Janet--

That is probably exactly why folks wanted to put the doctor on trial. To determine whether the child should have been on those kinds of medications at that age...

Was the child seriously out of control? What other medications and/or methods had been tried to help the child? How did the doctor arrive at that diagnosis? How much time did the prescribing doctor actually spend with this child?

But since the psychiatrist is "immune" there are a lot of tough questions that he will never have to answer.
 
Top