Military families with kids are subjecting their kids to a large deal of anxiety when deployment time arrives. Because of these difficult circumstances, the number of psychiatric drug prescriptions for children is way up, reports Army Times. This tends to mirror the number of active-duty servicemen and women who are on psychiatric meds. With so many people using psychiatric the expenses of the prescription are sure to rise leaving numerous to seek out pay day loan to obtain them.
Johnny will feel better with Clonidine
Clonidine is an agent that will decrease the heart rate and relax the blood vessels, the National Center for Biotechnology Information. Some psychiatrists prescribe Clonidine to treat such conditions as ADHD, anxiety and autism, although many others oppose the drug because of potential side effects like excess sedation and irritability.
It is true though that the drug has been prescribed to military children way more recently no matter what your opinion is on the debate. Army Times indicates that in 2009, more than 300,000 prescriptions for psychiatric drugs were provided to military children. In 2005, there was a figure 18 percent less than that. Since then though, there has only been a 1 percent increase in the under-18 military family population. With antipsychotics, there has been a 50 percent increase in the number prescribed. A 40 percent increase has been shown in anti-anxiety drugs like Clonidine though.
Overall, active-duty forces have seen a 76 percent increase an psychiatric medications since the Afghanistan war began.
Employment and re-integration being shown here
Structure is something children need according to most psychologists. Yet when mom or dad is away on deployment, then suddenly thrust back into the family during re-integration periods, the result is stress for military children, says Dr. Patricia Lester, a University of California, Los Angeles psychiatrist.
These cycles repeat over the course of a parent’s military career, an assertion that is borne out in mental health studies conducted such as the one conducted by the Rand Corp. There were 20 percent more pediatric outpatient visits needed by children who also performed worse in school when their parents would go on longer, more frequent deployments. Then there would be more drugs prescribed. Clonidine and anti-psychotics would be prescribed more often.
The Army Times spoke with many psychiatrists who said it was bad that there are more and more psychiatric prescriptions being made for children. It seems that military families aren't managing very well.
Citations
armytimes.com/news/2011/01/military-children-taking-more-psychiatric-drugs-010211w/
National Center for Biotechnology Information
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0000623
The Clonidine (and other meds) Song
youtube.com/watch?v=U6aI05-E9uI
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