Generation Rx is a documentary film directed by Kevin Miller chronicling the adverse effects associated with the increase in psychoactive drug prescriptions for children and young adults (www.imbd.com). The film uses expert commentary, as well as anecdotal evidence to support its main argument that the psychology of these young people (Generation Rx) has been warped by the over-prescription for loosely defined mental disorders all done in the name of profit. Overreliance on medication serves to insulate children from dealing with life problems in a natural way, when combined with documented suicidal and homicidal side effects in popular children’s medications; the situation can breed violence among children, teens, and young adults furthering their label as “deviant”.
Generation Rx proposes that by diagnosing children and young adults as chemically imbalanced and thus prescribing medication, parents and physicians are unknowingly (or knowingly) causing chemical imbalances as the drugs affect children’s brains (Generation Rx). The film argues the reason this goes relatively unnoticed or unaddressed is because of the massive profits these false diagnoses create. According to the film, the pharmaceutical industry operates just like any other capitalist enterprise, with a few exceptions:
A. the profits from drugs incentivize doctors to label children mentally ill
B. advertising and marketing techniques prey on children and parents, and
C. more diagnoses (and mainstream medical acceptance) equals greater profits and more powerful lobbies arguing for the inclusion of illnesses such as ADHD in the DSM, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Generation Rx).
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This film relates to our course in a number of ways, chiefly how the label of being mentally ill is exploding among children at the hands of parents and physicians, and also because the perverse capitalism practices perpetrated by pharmaceutical giants is leading to increased suicidal and homicidal behavior among recipients of the drugs. The expansion of diagnoses is not uncommon, and according to Conrad and Potter in “The Emergence of Hyperactive Adults as Abnormal”, “…in terms of diagnostic expansion, the ADHD case is not unique. We can point to other cases where medicalized categories, which were originally developed and legitimated for one set of problems, were extended or refrained to include a broader range of problems” (Conrad and Potter, 143). This article relates particularly to adults, but children too have seen the range of diagnoses increase in recent years, a child considered a disruptive but otherwise normal student 50 years ago, may very well be deemed mentally ill and therefore deviant today. Harmon states in her article “Are someADHD-labeled kids just young for their grade?” that “two separate studies, both set to publish in a future issue of the Journal of Health Economics, found that students whose birthdays fell just before their school’s age enrollment cutoff date – and thus were amongst the youngest in their class – had a substantially higher rate of ADHD diagnoses than students who were born just a day or two later and were the oldest in the grade below” (Harmon, 1). Harmon also states that these children in particular are commonly seen as “easily distracted, fidgety, and interruptive” (Harmon, 1).
Most of the arguments in the film are convincing because expert analysis from across the field is presented to show the illegitimacy of many of the milestone studies use to justify the prescription of ADHD medication in children. One commentator states in regards to a critical analysis of over 2000 studies regarding benefits in academic performance to children following ADHD medication treatment that “not one study indicated a positive academic affect” (Generation Rx). The film is littered with anecdotal examples of personal harm done seemingly because of prescription psycho pharmaceutical medications. Generation Rx also presents damning information indicating financial interests in pharmaceutical companies held by high ranking physicians in the FDA and on the governing board for the DSM.
Suicide Attempts by Substance: According to Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Adminstration (URL linked).
Generation Rx illustrates perfectly how our perception of what is medically infallible, or scientifically valid is shaped by our society; and in U.S. society dollars are more powerful than science. This is the true tragedy by the ADHD diagnoses binge, the human cost to families and individuals being systematically ignored in favor of increased financial benefit. As one commentator states, the ADHD diagnoses binge has been “a great fraud” (Generation Rx). Certainly some children are hyperactive and may benefit from treatment of some kind, not necessarily from prescription anti-psychotics. However, the film argues convincingly that even in the medical community, where the Hippocratic Oath states “first do no harm”, there are treasures greater than human life.
- Steve
Works Cited
Conrad, Peter and Potter, Deborah. Readings in Deviant Behavior. “The Emergence of Hyperactive Adults As Abnormal” (p. 138-144). Pearson Education Inc. 2010.
Generation Rx. Documentary Film. Kevin Miller, 2008.
Harmon, Katherine. “Are some ADHD-labeled kids just young for their grade?”. Scientific
American Blogs. 2010.
are some adhd-labeled kids-just-young-for-their-grade/
Images:
Kevinpmiller.blogspot.com
vanderbilt.edu
samhsa.gov
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