{"id":422553,"date":"2026-02-12T23:03:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T23:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/422553\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T23:03:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T23:03:07","slug":"are-we-overmedicating-our-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/422553\/","title":{"rendered":"Are We Overmedicating Our Children?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Parents ask me this question almost daily\u2014sometimes with anger<\/a>, sometimes with fear<\/a>, often with quiet exhaustion:<\/p>\n

Are we overmedicating our children?<\/p>\n

My answer is yes.<\/p>\n

But not for the reason most people assume.<\/p>\n

The overmedication of children is not a story about reckless doctors or careless parents. It is not an argument against psychiatric<\/a> medication<\/a>. I prescribe medications to children and adolescents regularly, and I have seen them reduce suffering and save lives.<\/p>\n

The real problem lies elsewhere: in a mental-health model that relies too heavily on symptom suppression and not nearly enough on understanding why children are struggling in the first place.<\/p>\n

A generation under strain<\/p>\n

The mental health of children and adolescents has been worsening for more than a decade. According to the CDC\u2019s 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 42 percent of high school students reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, and 22 percent seriously considered suicide<\/a> in the previous year.\u00b9<\/p>\n

Emergency room visits for pediatric mental-health crises increased by more than 30 percent between 2019 and 2020, with particularly sharp rises among adolescent girls.\u00b2 More children are struggling earlier\u2014and remaining symptomatic longer.<\/p>\n

These trends reflect real suffering. They also help explain why psychiatric medications are being prescribed at historically high levels.<\/p>\n

The parallel rise in medication use<\/p>\n

Alongside worsening mental health, we\u2019ve seen a sustained increase in psychotropic prescribing among youth. According to the CDC, 8.2 percent of U.S. children aged 5\u201317 took prescription medication for their mental health in the previous 12 months\u2014representing millions of children nationwide.\u00b3<\/p>\n

Stimulant<\/a> use for ADHD<\/a> has increased substantially over the past two decades. National prescribing data show that stimulant treatment in youth rose from roughly 2.4 percent in the mid-1990s to over 5 percent by the early 2010s, effectively doubling in prevalence.\u2074<\/p>\n

Antidepressant<\/a> prescribing among children and adolescents has also risen sharply, particularly since 2012, with several studies documenting a doubling of SSRI use in youth since the early 2000s.\u2075<\/p>\n

Even more concerning is the rise in psychiatric polypharmacy. One large national study found that the proportion of children receiving two or more psychotropic medications increased from approximately 1.6 percent in 1996 to 2.6 percent by 2007, representing a significant relative increase.\u2076 Subsequent analyses have shown continued growth in multi-drug prescribing among youth.\u2077<\/p>\n

These trends are especially striking given the limited long-term safety data for many psychiatric drug combinations in developing brains.<\/p>\n

But again, this is not about blame.<\/p>\n

Why blaming doctors misses the point<\/p>\n

Most clinicians are doing exactly what they were trained to do\u2014under intense time pressure, with limited resources, and in a system that rewards efficiency over exploration.<\/p>\n

A child presents with inattention, impulsivity, mood swings, or anxiety<\/a>. A diagnosis is made. A medication is prescribed\u2014because it is the most accessible, evidence-supported intervention available in a brief office visit.<\/p>\n

When symptoms persist, the response is frequently another medication, a higher dose, or an added drug to counter side effects. Not because this is ideal, but because it\u2019s what the system makes easiest.<\/p>\n

When medication is the primary tool in the toolbox, medication gets used.<\/p>\n

The limits of symptom-based psychiatry<\/p>\n

Conventional psychiatry, like much of modern medicine, is largely symptom-based. We cluster behaviors into diagnoses, then match those diagnoses to medications shown to reduce those symptoms in population studies. This approach can be helpful. But it is also limited.<\/p>\n

Psychiatry Essential Reads<\/p>\n

If a child went to a pediatrician with chronic abdominal pain, no responsible clinician would prescribe painkillers indefinitely without investigating food sensitivities, infections, inflammation, or nutrient deficiencies. Yet in mental health, we often stop at symptom control.<\/p>\n

Children do not develop anxiety, depression<\/a>, or attention<\/a> problems in a biological vacuum. These conditions are influenced by\u2014and often driven by\u2014underlying factors that remain invisible in standard psychiatric care. Discovering and addressing these underlying factors is the credo of functional psychiatry.<\/p>\n

A brief refresher: What is functional psychiatry?<\/p>\n

In the process of treating mental disorders, functional psychiatry asks a different first question than conventional psychiatry.<\/p>\n

Instead of asking, \u201cWhat medication matches this diagnosis?\u201d we ask, \u201cWhat underlying factors\u2014biological, nutritional, metabolic, hormonal, inflammatory, lifestyle, and more\u2014may be contributing to this child\u2019s symptoms?\u201d<\/p>\n

This approach recognizes that the brain is an organ, dependent on adequate nutrients, stable blood sugar, healthy sleep, balanced hormones<\/a>, and a functioning gut-brain axis<\/a>. For example:<\/p>\n

Research has linked iron, zinc, magnesium, and omega-3<\/a> deficiencies to ADHD symptoms. Blood-sugar instability can mimic anxiety and irritability. Sleep deprivation can present as depression or inattention. And gut dysbiosis and inflammation can influence mood and cognition<\/a> through immune and neurotransmitter pathways.<\/p>\n

When these and other contributors go unrecognized, medications may blunt symptoms without resolving the underlying problem\u2014leading to long-term reliance on drugs that were never meant to do all the work alone.<\/p>\n

What happens when we look deeper<\/p>\n

In my clinical work, I use medications when necessary. But I also look beneath the surface. I ask questions like:<\/p>\n

Is this child deficient in nutrients essential for neurotransmitter production?
\nIs blood sugar fluctuating in ways that destabilize mood?
\nIs sleep disruption masquerading as psychiatric illness?
\nIs gut inflammation affecting brain signaling?
\nAre hormonal changes amplifying emotional vulnerability?<\/p>\n

When these imbalances are identified and corrected, something remarkable often happens: symptoms improve, and the need for medication decreases. Not because medication was \u201cbad,\u201d but because it was compensating for problems that were never addressed.<\/p>\n

This is not anti-medication<\/p>\n

Let me be very clear: Functional psychiatry is not anti-medication.<\/p>\n

Medication can be lifesaving. It can create stability, reduce risk, and make therapy<\/a> and learning possible. For many children, it plays an essential role.<\/p>\n

But medication works best not as the sole response to complex, biologically rooted problems, but as part of a broader, individualized plan.<\/p>\n

A better path forward<\/p>\n

Reducing overmedication does not mean withdrawing care. It means deepening it.<\/p>\n

It means moving beyond one-size-fits-all treatment. It means asking better questions. It means recognizing that children\u2019s emotional symptoms often have biological contributors that deserve attention.<\/p>\n

Most of all, it means shifting from a model that prioritizes symptom suppression to one that supports real healing.<\/p>\n

Yes, our children are overmedicated.<\/p>\n

Not because doctors are failing\u2014but because the model of care is incomplete. When we expand that model to include functional psychiatry, we improve outcomes, reduce reliance on medication, and offer children something far more powerful than symptom control.<\/p>\n

We offer them a chance to truly get better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Parents ask me this question almost daily\u2014sometimes with anger, sometimes with fear, often with quiet exhaustion: Are we…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422554,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-422553","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}