There has been an increase in the psychiatric medication use among children, which is not understood clearly by the common public. The media attention has led to development of theories that describe the attitudes of the public regarding the psychiatric medications specifically on children in relation to behavioral problems. The medication has been used mostly to children who have expressed suicidal threats, as the study showed 57% prevalence than 32% of oppositional behavior, and 29% for hyperactivity. There is a differing willingness for the public to administer these medications, as for those with strong will are due to trust of the physician and their attitudes towards the medication.
The use of these drugs differs to ages and the treatment the children get (McLeod, Pescosolido & Takeuch, 2004). This trend has seen medicalization of the children’s behaviors and emotions as medical problems by which the long-term effects of the medication has not been established. The study focused on the children’s behavior because of the interest of their emotion’s and behavior’s problems coupled with medication, and the contemporary phase in which the media and scholars’ attentions question the circumstances under which the medication is appropriate for children. There are many reasons by which specific medications are administered. The process of administering medications depends on the problem as diagnosed by a physician, the adopted mode of understanding the problem and the treatment requirement for the problem. This is due to the fact that some problems are outside the circle of medical treatment while other problems require medical treatment (McLeod, Pescosolido & Takeuch, 2004).
The implication of medical treatment for such problems is after the birth as they prove ineffective with age advance. It is therefore important for the adaption of cognitive therapy as this has to some instance proved to be effective. The negative way of thinking is discouraged by reinforcig the belief of positive thinking. It is the public that constraints or enhance intervention of physicians in trying to shift medical problems and their understanding in social context (McLeod, Pescosolido & Takeuch, 2004). The research relied on qualitative analysis to specific condition in trying to define the possible treatment of the problem and the subsequent treatment of the perceived condition (TheAssociatedPress, 2011). The researches are based on the target groups and the activities they are involved in, coupled with the writing of professionals and the manufacturers of the medications in an effort to bring forth the circumstances by which such medications are administered to specific conditions in an individual and eventual treatment of the condition.
The degrees to which the common public attitudes confer to these medications refer to the health related behaviors which are not measured to identify the source of such behaviors and their appropriate treatment (Bainerman). There are behaviors of children that are evidently off lay the support of medicalization as there are other alternatives that are constrained by the medical structure that finances the care. The definitions of medicalization have infiltrated the consciousness of the public to a degree of perceiving medicalization as the only option for some conditions even in doubt. This is due to some cases where the administering of certain drugs affects the frontal cortex of the brain (Bainerman). The research is based on the public willingness to admit administering psychiatric medication to children which is the component resource to or not to promote medications to children (McLeod, Pescosolido & Takeuch, 2004).
The article use the data which distinguished between the use of psychiatric treatment on children and adults and the general use of Prozac, an inhibitor in the centre of controversy. The data was also used to distinguish the different children behaviors and the proposed medication for such behaviors. The study focused on the social demographic, knowledge and expeerience with the medication by psychiatric and general attitudes. The methodology of this study is collecting data from previous studies and analyzing it to gather a clear analysis in relation to psychiatric medication to children. The information gathered helped to analyze the different conditions and behavioral problems displayed by children in relation to medication.
The article relied on previous data of general social survey that was collected by the national opinion research centre, as the survey had been conducted biennially comprising of nationalized samples of adults in non-institutionalized housing. The survey was aimed to monitor the attitudes and beliefs of public in regard to social issues, as in incorporated medical care, physicians and the medication, with a most relevant analysis of willingness to respond to psychiatric medication of children (McLeod, Pescosolido & Takeuch, 2004). The respondents were asked six questions regarding their willingness to provide information on psychiatric medication to children, where half of questions was in relation to psychiatric general medication and the other halt was specific on Prozac (McLeod, Pescosolido, & Takeuch, 2004).These questions regarded the likelihood of the respondent to administer recommended medication by a psychiatric to children and to strictly follow the prescriptions, while the Prozac question was directed to those who had heard about the drug of which 88% were aware of Prozac. These questions represented the three categories of behaviors in children in regard to hostility and temper loss. The other category was concerned with children attentiveness in school in organizing activities and the final category was in reference to children with threats of suicide.
Analysis of these data was based on the social demographic characteristics, attitude toward psychiatric medication to children and the knowledge of psychiatric medication to give the results in relation to the study (McLeod, Pescosolido & Takeuch, 2004).
