Young, Poor, and Drugged: How Antipsychotics Are Hurting America’s Disadvantaged Youth

The Rx Generation: Alternatives to the Use of Psychiatric Medications with Children

Conference: Young, Poor, and Drugged: How Antipsychotics Are Hurting America’s Disadvantaged Youth

Jacqueline Sparks, PhD

New research shows that antipsychotic use by low-income and very low-income children in the United States skyrocketed in just under a decade. This has occurred despite the failure of science to provide an empirically valid or ethical case for placing so many youth on these toxic drugs. This address looked at the numbers and the picture behind the numbers – who is prescribing, for what reasons, and in what settings. Further, the talk explored how pediatric antipsychotic prescription adds to the burden of children already struggling with marginal economic and social conditions. Antipsychotics as a tool of oppression were considered and a call for corrective and socially just action issued.