{"id":364,"date":"2010-11-21T10:03:29","date_gmt":"2010-11-21T16:03:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/?p=364"},"modified":"2024-07-14T05:43:07","modified_gmt":"2024-07-14T10:43:07","slug":"children-are-being-given-psychiatric-drugs-to-help-them-sleep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/2010\/11\/21\/children-are-being-given-psychiatric-drugs-to-help-them-sleep\/","title":{"rendered":"Children are being given psychiatric drugs to help them sleep"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A survey of nearly 1300 child psychiatrists indicates that insomnia is a  major problem among children in mental health treatment and at least a quarter  of these patients are given drugs to &#8220;help&#8221; them sleep. [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.eurekalert.org\/pub_releases\/2010-07\/l-oca072610.php\">Read the  full article here<\/a>.]<\/p>\n<p>The sleep medications prescribed ranged all over the drug spectrum,  including\u00c2\u00a0sedating medications for Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder  (ADHD),\u00c2\u00a0antidepressants like trazodone,\u00c2\u00a0and\u00c2\u00a0antipsychotics. Apparently,\u00c2\u00a0use of  psychiatric\u00c2\u00a0drugs\u00c2\u00a0for insomnia symptoms in children is a common clinical  practice.<\/p>\n<p>Why is this bad? Take, for example, trazodone (brand name Desyrel), an  antidepressant. In 2004 the FDA ordered pharmaceutical companies to add a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153black  box\u00e2\u20ac\u009d warning to all antidepressants because the drugs could cause suicidal  thoughts and actions in children and teenagers. Guess what\u00c2\u00a0some of the  other\u00c2\u00a0potential side effects of trazodone are? That&#8217;s right, insomnia and  nightmares.<\/p>\n<p>[Editorial Comment] When I couldn&#8217;t sleep as a child, I recall being read a  bedtime story. Guess what I do now? I get up and read for a while.<\/p>\n<p>There are no less than 13 sleep related disorders in the Diagnostic and  Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV):<\/p>\n<div>291.8\u00c2\u00a0 Alcohol-Induced Sleep Disorder<br \/>\n292.89\u00c2\u00a0 Substance-Induced Sleep  Disorder (Amphetamine, Caffeine, etc.)<br \/>\n307.45\u00c2\u00a0 Circadian Rhythm Sleep  Disorder<\/div>\n<div>307.46\u00c2\u00a0 Sleep Terror Disorder<\/div>\n<div>307.46\u00c2\u00a0 Sleepwalking Disorder<\/div>\n<div>307.47\u00c2\u00a0 Dyssomnia (sleep disturbance)<\/div>\n<div>307.47\u00c2\u00a0 Nightmare Disorder<\/div>\n<div>307.47\u00c2\u00a0 Parasomnia (sleep disturbance)<br \/>\n780.52\u00c2\u00a0 Sleep Disorder Due to  [General Medical Condition], Insomnia Type<\/div>\n<div>780.54\u00c2\u00a0 Sleep Disorder Due to [General Medical Condition], Hypersomnia  Type<\/div>\n<div>780.59\u00c2\u00a0 Sleep Disorder Due to [General Medical Condition], Parasomnia<\/div>\n<div>780.59\u00c2\u00a0 Sleep Disorder Due to [General Medical Condition], Mixed Type<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>780.59\u00c2\u00a0 Breathing-Related Sleep Disorder<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Psychiatrists fraudulently diagnose\u00c2\u00a0insomnia as a &#8220;mental illness&#8221;\u00c2\u00a0for which  they can prescribe harmful and addictive drugs to children.\u00c2\u00a0Let others know how  bad this is. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cchr.org\/videos\/cchr-ads.html\">Get the Facts.  Fight Back.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Psychiatrists fraudulently diagnose insomnia as a &#8220;mental illness&#8221; for which they can prescribe harmful and addictive drugs to children. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/2010\/11\/21\/children-are-being-given-psychiatric-drugs-to-help-them-sleep\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-muddy-river-newsletter","category-press-releases"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6NMpC-5S","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}