This is somewhat off topic...it relates only to the last sentence of you post.

Have you read The Last Psychiatrist and his take on the implications of the study and article on antidepressants not working in addition to a mood stabilizer in bipolar disorder?

He speculates that this will usher in the age of antipsychotics for everything. See what you think.

http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2007/04/farewell_depression.html#comments

Does anyone remember the Rosenhan experiment, that proved the sane are indistinguishable from the insane. The second part of Rosenhan(when psychiatrist believed they were getting fake patients)thought the insane were sane.
This is in adults we assume to have full language skills and cognition.

I believe drugging children is a criminal act, as the child has no power to resist his accuser.He/she has nowhere to flee, and has no advocate.

http://www.szasz.com/cchr.html
"Adults have physical and political power over children. This is why sexual relations between adults and children are outlawed and the act is called "statutory rape." For the same reason, we ought to outlaw psychiatric relations between adults children and call child psychiatry by its correct name, "psychiatric rape."

Child psychiatry -- like all of psychiatric slavery -- cannot be reformed. It must be abolished. "

Gosh, what I really wish is that both you and Groopman would extend your deep scepticism about the diagnosis of childhood bipolar disorder and its treatment to adults. I really cannot understand why anyone would think it's dramatically different. Couldn't just about everything you say in your next to last paragraph be applicable to adults too? This reminds me of the bizarre way in which the FDA applies a warning about suicidality in antidepressants to 18 and under (now recently extended to 25 and under). Are you trying to say that suddenly when one hits one's 18th birthday one can "have bipolar disorder" but before that it's symptoms of life induced stress? Who are we kidding here? There is no magic moment when suddenly mania and psychosis are a "brain disease" and before that they aren't. And the treatments that are so harmful in kids frankly have just as devastating effects on adults. I guess adults have more "free will" about choosing treatment but I don't think frankly they have any more informed consent than the kids because all the devastating evidence about what these drugs can do is kept firmly under wraps or not investigated at all.

oh i have been almost as skeptical on that front, sara. banging on zyprexa and the long-term use of atypicals for all bipolars, declaring anti-depressant use for bp dead, banging on the entire psychopharmacological paradigm (as I have been for 19 months), questioning the dsm, and tossing cold water on the everyone is bp whoopla...yep, i'm plenty skeptical. it just hits new level for me with the bp kids stuff.

BRA - VO. I couldn't agree more, and you've raised some excellent points. You've obviously given this a considerable amount of thought, and gave me reasons to ponder.

"And Groopman also touches upon how vastly influential the old BBSes and list-servs that eventually grew into CABF have been on driving the issue into the mainstream world. I think that some of these internet sites have, along with the book, led to the over-diagnosing of kids, creating a kind of hysteria around the behaviors of children that have been around for centuries"

Carl Elliot has a great piece, "A New Way to Be Mad" that touches on this looping effect: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/prem/200012/madness

But I would add that mailing lists and forums are also the place where there are TONS of parents with kids (officially diagnosed with ADHD, Bipolar Disorder, Depression and even Autism) who are throwing the medical paradigm and diagnosis' (especially psychiatric one) in the waste paper basket and treating their kids who do have problem with a whole range of holistic routes and often getting their kids or themselves to a much better place (at least that is what they report) and moving on in life.

For some the trick was finding out that autism was actually lyme disease (a cousin of good old syphilis so it is not surprising it can cause so many "psychiatric problems",) and for others it is a matter of avoiding highly allergnic foods and for others it is a more complex regimen.

So it seems like the Internet is a double edge sword in that regard. It may be a route for hyperactive medicalization but it just as often a path toward another place that does not trust doctors, drugs, and the diagnoses.

Speaking of forums for parents, here's one that has lots of parents talking Early Onset Childhood Bipolar, O.D.D., ADHD, and from reading the forums the general way to treat these "difficult children" is via psychiatric medications.
Read it for yourself, it's free and open to public viewing.

Hi Stephany - help me with forum of yours. It looks like it was put together by a bunch of phamacopoetical acronymphomaniacs. What a GFG? It looks just like the notation for a composite mathematical function, which I guess is throwing my imagination a bit. And I can only assume that DH refers to the man of the house (Deadbeat Husband?)

Sample post:

"Sadly to say my gfg (before being a day student) pooped on the floor in his dorm room, we've found poop under his bed at home and I've caught him smearing his feces in the shower, when I asked him why, he told me he didn't know and then asked if I was mad. And honestly, I don't think he did know why. Thankfully the last episode was over a month ago, I hope it lasts. He also cleaned the shower without me telling him to do so.
I, too, think they just don't think.
_________________________
Joanne anxiety/depression, panic disorder, burner, NVLD, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, arthritis. Geodon 60mg BID, Ativan .5mg BID, Avandia 8mg, Benicar HCT 40/25mg, Lantus Insulin, Zocor 40mg, Norvasc 5mg, Prandin 2mg, Prilosec 20mg, WelbutrinXL 300mg, Buspar 5mg TID, Ambien 10mg at bedtime.
DH 22 years and still strong, believed to have ADHD as a child, but undxd.
gfg: 14/m 98% bilateral hearing loss(he's deaf), mild cerebal palsy, insulin dependent diabetes, mild MR, PDD, as of 3-16-07 mood d/o NOS, anxiety NOS
meds: NPH & Humalog Insulin, Geodon 80mg BID, Lithium 300mg AM, 600mg PM, Remeron 30mg nightly, Ativan .5mg 3 daily if needed, Zyprexa 5mg nightly."

The habit of following each post with a 'context' - that lists the diagnoses and medications for each family member (even the pets occasionally get a look-in) - is highly enlightening and, ultimately, disturbing. There are some serious identity politics at play here, borne of the apparent insistence of the writers on constructing their conceptions of both themselves and their offspring purely around the limited (and limiting) notions of saint, martyr, patient, manipulator or victim.

Ruth,
I discovered that site, and I'm not part of it at all,but saw what you speak about--the entire house appears to receive a dx and meds for something. From reading, I've figure out that GFG is "gift from god"[as in special ]and DH is dear husband. Also to add interest when reading there..PC is "perfect child". I also find it staggering that the regulars there appear to be diagnosing other people's kids based on behavior. I looked at a thread "Boys will be Boys" or something like that, and several posters told newbies that the little boys behaviors were a "sign of something" and looking at the posters kids' profiles, very small kids are quite medicated. What I find interesting to say the least, is the name of the site itself. "Conduct Disorders".

Thanks Stephany. I didn't imagine you were part of it for a minute. I can probably spin a post for my own blog out of this tragi-comedy gold.