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American Morning
Paging Dr. Gupta: Medicating Kids
Aired October 27, 2003 - 08:44 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Have drugs become the treatment of choice for emotionally troubled children? Forty-seven different medications are now available to treat mood and behavior problems for children. "Time" magazine this week takes a closer look at the issue of medicating young minds.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta joining us from CNN center with more.
Forty-seven medications? That is a straggling figure right there. Is this stuff doing any good, Sanjay?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, these are all interesting questions. You know, for a long time, it was only thought that mental disorders only affected adults. That was the -- just a few years ago even, but those numbers have started to change now. The thinking starting to change, 47 medications. A lot of those medications actually are adult medications that are actually used off- label for kids, which raises a whole other variety of issues.
But there are a whole line of medications coming out specifically for kids to treat mood disorders. And It's interesting the reasons why.
Let's take a look at some of the numbers here now why this is important. More than 10 percent -- this is according to Pharma -- more than 10 percent of kids suffer from some form of mental illness, and even more than that, about 20 percent, exhibit some form of depression. About a million kids suffer from bipolar disorder. They also say that ADHD is on the rise, 7.5 percent of the kids. That's about 5 million kids in case you're doing the math there as well.
What's going on here? Lots of different theories on this. Are we living in a more destabilizing society? are there more sharp-eyed doctors and parents who are taking their kids to the doctors for these sorts of things? Or are doctors becoming less reluctant to actually take out the prescription pad and write a prescription for what may be a social problem? It's probably a combination of all three. But the numbers are pretty surprising there, Miles.
O'BRIEN: It seems as if Americans are always looking for that silver bullet solution, you know, little Johnny seems depressed, let's give him a pill.
GUPTA: That's right. It becomes a problem of, how do you define success, and how did you define the problem? I'll give you an example. If you have a lifetime untreated depression, your lifetime risk of suicide is about 15 percent.
Now, in the treated population, the people who take antidepressants for depression, that number does go down, but it's slight. Now other people argue that if you take antidepressants, you antianxiety medications, even in kids, it improves your function, it improves your ability to get through school or do your activities, but there are some consequences with these things as well -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Let's talk about that for just a moment. What we're talking about is literally developing minds. I've seen some stuff that it takes the human mind quite a long time to fully develop, and if you start injecting chemicals into the middle of that process, that can't be good.
O'BRIEN: You're absolutely right. The one thing that's important to remember kids are not little adults. They are different, entirely really, from a physiological standpoint, a metabolic standpoint. You're going to get some of the same side effects that people associate with these drugs in adults -- weight loss, sleeplessness, things like that.
But the development of the brain becomes a more interesting issue, Because there are studies that suggest that the brain does not fully develop in certain areas until about age 30 or so. So now you're going to have some problems sort of mixing up the chemicals in young developing brains still.
Medication examples here, just take a look at the list there. You said 47. Most people are surprised by that number. Here's just some that are out there, again, both for adults and kids -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you very much. Obviously people need to be very careful before they make that big decision. Thanks for dropping by.
GUPTA: Very interesting. Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 27, 2003 - 08:44 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Have drugs become the treatment of choice for emotionally troubled children? Forty-seven different medications are now available to treat mood and behavior problems for children. "Time" magazine this week takes a closer look at the issue of medicating young minds.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta joining us from CNN center with more.
Forty-seven medications? That is a straggling figure right there. Is this stuff doing any good, Sanjay?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, these are all interesting questions. You know, for a long time, it was only thought that mental disorders only affected adults. That was the -- just a few years ago even, but those numbers have started to change now. The thinking starting to change, 47 medications. A lot of those medications actually are adult medications that are actually used off- label for kids, which raises a whole other variety of issues.
But there are a whole line of medications coming out specifically for kids to treat mood disorders. And It's interesting the reasons why.
Let's take a look at some of the numbers here now why this is important. More than 10 percent -- this is according to Pharma -- more than 10 percent of kids suffer from some form of mental illness, and even more than that, about 20 percent, exhibit some form of depression. About a million kids suffer from bipolar disorder. They also say that ADHD is on the rise, 7.5 percent of the kids. That's about 5 million kids in case you're doing the math there as well.
What's going on here? Lots of different theories on this. Are we living in a more destabilizing society? are there more sharp-eyed doctors and parents who are taking their kids to the doctors for these sorts of things? Or are doctors becoming less reluctant to actually take out the prescription pad and write a prescription for what may be a social problem? It's probably a combination of all three. But the numbers are pretty surprising there, Miles.
O'BRIEN: It seems as if Americans are always looking for that silver bullet solution, you know, little Johnny seems depressed, let's give him a pill.
GUPTA: That's right. It becomes a problem of, how do you define success, and how did you define the problem? I'll give you an example. If you have a lifetime untreated depression, your lifetime risk of suicide is about 15 percent.
Now, in the treated population, the people who take antidepressants for depression, that number does go down, but it's slight. Now other people argue that if you take antidepressants, you antianxiety medications, even in kids, it improves your function, it improves your ability to get through school or do your activities, but there are some consequences with these things as well -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Let's talk about that for just a moment. What we're talking about is literally developing minds. I've seen some stuff that it takes the human mind quite a long time to fully develop, and if you start injecting chemicals into the middle of that process, that can't be good.
O'BRIEN: You're absolutely right. The one thing that's important to remember kids are not little adults. They are different, entirely really, from a physiological standpoint, a metabolic standpoint. You're going to get some of the same side effects that people associate with these drugs in adults -- weight loss, sleeplessness, things like that.
But the development of the brain becomes a more interesting issue, Because there are studies that suggest that the brain does not fully develop in certain areas until about age 30 or so. So now you're going to have some problems sort of mixing up the chemicals in young developing brains still.
Medication examples here, just take a look at the list there. You said 47. Most people are surprised by that number. Here's just some that are out there, again, both for adults and kids -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you very much. Obviously people need to be very careful before they make that big decision. Thanks for dropping by.
GUPTA: Very interesting. Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
