Troubled Teens Resources

Teen age drug abuse can ravage a teenager’s life well into adulthood. Though many teens are able to skate through light drug use with few ramifications, the use of drugs by teens at all often indicate an underlying emotional problem. The same old question arises when mental health professionals and parents review the poor behavior of their teens at risk; is it normal teen angst or are there psychological issues that demand a more in-depth approach?

Oppositional Defiant Disorder, ADD and teen depression will likely be with us for as long as there are teenagers. How to treat these issues is a dilemma for both parents and for the mental health profession .Many of those health professionals are concerned with the over zealous use of psychotropic drugs in handling out-of-control teens.

“Recent studies have documented a dramatic increase in prescribing rates for all of these medications to children and adolescents. The increases range from 200 percent to over 500 percent and the most common diagnoses for which atypical anti-psychotics are prescribed in the pediatric population include oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, mood disorders and attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder. Boys are more likely to be prescribed atypical anti-psychotics than girls and white, non-Hispanic youth more likely than minorities.

There are two problems associated with these changes. First, clinical enthusiasm for prescribing the medications clearly exceeds the evidence of their effectiveness; and second, there are serious metabolic side effects of atypical anti-psychotics that may be especially serious in children. Both are cause for concern.

While there is beginning evidence that certain atypical anti-psychotics are useful in treating aggression, irritability and behavior problems associated with pediatric bipolar disorder and other disorders of childhood, the evidence is not sufficient for any of the medications to have Food and Drug Administration approval for use in children and adolescents. Thus all prescriptions are “off label” and evaluation of their efficacy is uneven.”

(Source)