Okay, let’s see now … a little pill or hard-won insight. Which shall it be?
Posted by Deborah Clark Ebel on August 8, 2008
I came across an interesting article in Tuesday’s Los Angeles Times about a study that reports how medication is increasingly replacing psychotherapy. The report that appeared in the Archives of General Psychiatry said that the percentage of patients who received psychotherapy fell to 28.9 percent in 2004-2005 from 44.4 percent in 1996-1997.
Researchers attribute this shift to insurance reimbursement policies that favor short visits for medication management over longer and more-costly psychotherapy visits, as well as to the introduction of a new generation of psychotropic medications with fewer side effects.
Even as long ago as the early 1990s when I was working on an inpatient children’s psychiatric unit in Connecticut, even the very youngest children were very quickly after admission placed on psychotropic meds, meds which often yielded unpleasant and unwanted side effects.
On the other hand, I have seen incredible, almost-immediate, positive changes in patient symptoms with some of the psychotropic medications now available.
Parents should be aware that not all medications prescribed for children are approved for the use in people under the age of 18. They can be used with children, but must be used cautiously. Parents must ask questions–and should expect to get answers to their questions–about medications. There is a list of suggested questions in The Forgotten Future: Adolescents in Crisis to get a discussion started.
Medication or psychotherapy? It doesn’t have to be either-or. You can do both. You can have a psychiatrist prescribe and monitor your meds and see a psychologist, social worker, or licensed professional for psychotherapy. Logistically, that requires more time and more planning, but aren’t you worth the best?
