A good number of readers want to know if I ever advocate the use of psychiatric drugs. The answer requires two parts, first, the use of these drugs for adults, and second, the use of these drugs for children. I wish to make clear that I have been teaching psychopharmacology for over twenty five years, and in addition to teaching it at Longwood University, my former home school, I teach it to police and police trainees (I now teach at Virginia Stae University, in Virginia).

 

Adults: There are five categories of psychiatric drugs: the stimulants, most of which are amphetamines, the antidepressants, the anti-anxiety drugs or minor tranquilizers, the antipsychotic drugs or major tranquilizers, and the mood stabilizers, used for bipolar disorder. All of these drugs have one common property; they allay anxiety, which means that they have a calming effect. The stimulants and the antidepressants also increase a feeling of energy, while the other drugs are sedating, they make you drowsy. Let me dispel a couple of myths. First, they do not correct chemical imbalances. Second, they do not solve the life problems that underlie either emotional pain or the causes for inappropriate behaviors.

 

Third, they are all toxic, which means they are poisonous to the body, and in the long run they are very unhealthy. Just think about the ramifications if you drank whiskey every day, because alcohol is a tranquilizer drug, and no different than any of the other drugs I just mentioned. However, are there times when life can be too painful and unbearable? Yes. I am therefore OK with an adult taking a drug to help with intolerable pain, but with four stipulations: 1. The consumer be given all the facts about the dangers of the drug in plain language; 2. They take the drug for the shortest time possible, such as a year; 3. The physician monitor the liver, blood pressure, and so forth closely when you take one of these drugs; and 4. You work on the problems that are the real causes of the pain or inappropriate behaviors. 

 

Drugs used to treat schizophrenia are extremely dangerous, and a discussion about them is far too complex for this brief statement. I therefore ask that you read my latest book, Stop Medicating, Start Parenting: The Real Solution for Your ‘Problem’ Teenager.

 

Children:  Rather than a lengthy discourse, I’ll make my position plain and simple. My success rate in working with children and teenagers is enormously high, and my work has won national and international awards. My motto is, “Give me two normal and caring parents who can be consistent, and I’ll be doggone if there isn’t a child I can’t fix without drugs.” Drugs in the bodies of children are far more risky than in the bodies of adults, and by risky I mean that some children actually die from these drugs. This was admitted at this year’s FDA hearings. Thus, I hardly ever have a case where drugs are in any way needed. Only when the parents refuse to work with their child or when they cannot be consistent, may it be necessary to subdue a child who is disrupting the classroom and preventing other children from learning, and it makes me sad to see a child be the victim of the parent’s shortcomings.

 

The issue of diagnosis is covered in a separate statement, and you are welcome to read any of my books for more in depth coverage. 

Dr. Dave