Over the last ten days, several studies have examined complex national trends in children's mental health. It seems that an eight percent spike in adolescent suicides has reinvigorated a debate about the safety of antidepressants within the mental health professionals community. The report in the September issue of the American Journal of Psychology suggested a correlation between increases in suicides and government warnings of the late 1990s that questioned the safety of prescribing antidepressants to America's youth. Since the release of the study, other mental health experts have questioned the study's validity, arguing that it oversimplifies a complex national trend. Regardless of the reason of the suicide hikes, the study does reveal a perplexing trend: a sharp increase in suicides in preteen girls by hanging.
In related news, another study revealed that the number of adolescents treated for bi-polar disorder (once known as manic depression) has nearly doubled in the last decade (click here to read a provocative series with about children with mental illness).
While both studies are somewhat troubling, as a journalist, it's interesting to examining how they were covered. Regarding the first case, the New York Times and many other national outlets reported that increases in suicide rates might be related to government warnings that began appearing on antidepressants to warn consumers that these drugs might actually increase rates of suicide in youth. This week, the New York Times responsibly reported concerns about the study's validity with in the mental health community. In the latter example, it's interesting to look at the New York Time's coverage compared to the LA Time's coverage. Both reports noted that the increase may be due to more diagnoses not cases; however, the LA Time's coverage seemed more quick to label it over-diagnosis of an illness (a la ADHD in the 1990s) that was once thought to occur primarily in a patient's early 20s (i.e. in the headline and nut graph). Also, interesting was the New York Time's note that the onslaught of bipolar diagnoses, which require expensive medication, was a boon to pharmaceutical companies. As I mentioned, it's important to critically examine this pieces. I think that journalists need to remember that mental health disorders, especially bi-polarism, are extremely difficult to diagnose. It's more subjective than diagnosing heart disease or cancer.
In any case, both studies are disturbing, especially the suicide spike in preteen girls. Are we putting too much pressure on young girls to be beautiful like movie stars while juggling insane schedules that include sports teams, music lessons and most importantly getting good grades? Do kids need to have more time to just be kids?
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You asked at the end of your post if kids need more time to just be kids. I think so. I feel like there are so many things to get involved in and they start at such a young age. Kids are forced into activities instead of being allowed to discover who they are and what they love. This pressuring could certainly take a toll on a child's mental health, and I think you're right about the media images. They don't seem to encourage individuality or uniqueness do they?
These antideppressants need to be examined very closely. When a child begins having suicidal thoughts, I don't care how rare these side effects may be, I think people need to be more cautious before taking these medications. Maybe doctors already do this, but if they don't, they certainly need to stress to children and teens especially that if they begin to experience certain side effects then they should tell an adult immediately.
While this year's budget appears to include significant enhancements to children's clinics, and last year's enhancements for both adult and children's clinics were helpful, little has been done to address the continuing need for additional intermediate and long-term state hospital beds for Dutchess County residents or the ongoing need for more community beds in our county for recovering persons.
During the past two years, DMH, HRPC and Saint Francis Hospital (SFH) have worked diligently to free up beds throughout our entire system of care. Weekly meetings have been held to review all difficult-to-place patients at SFH and to facilitate residential movement to allow for expedited discharge out of HRPC. OMH has also played a significant role in transferring nine long-term patients, originating from Brooklyn, from HRPC to the Kingsboro Psychiatric Center, freeing up nine beds. HRPC has modified its admission policy at the Crisis Residence, allowing undomiciled patients to be placed there from SFH, with the understanding that the Dutchess County system of care would work to move the patients into some form of community housing as soon as possible. For 2004, SFH had the largest number of admissions ever, and HRPC had the largest number of admissions since 1993. It is our expectation that 2005 figures will continue to show increases in admissions for both HRPC and SFH.
Despite the above, and our relentless tracking of every admission, in 2004, 232 patients needed to be hospitalized at a 9.39 hospital outside of Dutchess County and in 2005, 262 patients had to be hospitalized outside of Dutchess County, sometimes well over a 90-minute drive from their homes.
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Ricky
New York Drug Treatment
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