Should You Medicate Your Child's Mind? :A Child Psychiatrist Makes Sense of Whether or Not to Give Kids Meds [Paperback]

M.D. Elizabeth Roberts M.D. (Author), Drew Ross M.D. M.D. (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2006

Millions of parents are facing whether to medicate their children for psychiatric disorders—from depression to ADHD to bipolar disorder. Now physician and psychiatrist Dr. Elizabeth Roberts explains the risks and benefits of medicating and not medicating children and demystifies and simplifies the process of separating psychiatric illness from the other more common behavioral patterns in children, particularly defiance, or willfulness. Dr. Roberts clearly explains what she discusses every day with the parents of the hundreds of children she treats. How is a parent to know which behaviors are bio-chemical and which are simply the result of willfulness? When should a parent seek a child psychiatrist's help in medicating their child? How can you find a doctor you can trust? When is it more appropriate to use behavioral techniques? Roberts' insight will be invaluable in helping families wade through all the contradictory recommendations that the media, the Internet, teachers, relatives, friends and neighbors, and nonspecialist doctors provide.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Praise for Should You Medicate Your Child’s Mind?

"This is an outstanding resource for parents from one of America’s most important child psychiatrists. If you are a parent with a child who is taking psychiatric medications, or you are thinking about starting your child on these medications, this is a must read." —Tobias Desjardins, LCSW, family mediator, creator of the Divorce Survivor workshop series

"A carefully thought out, down-to-earth analysis of a sensitive problem many parents face. It should be reassuring to lots of moms and dads." —Thomas W. Phelan, PhD, author of 1-2-3 Magic: Effective Discipline for Children 2–12

"Any parent who is considering placing their child on psychiatric medications should first read this book. Dr. Roberts takes an extremely complicated issue and, using common sense and solid medical knowledge, distills it down to no-nonsense advice that is enjoyable and informative to read." —Bryan D. Yates, MD, psychiatrist

About the Author

Elizabeth Roberts, MD, is a board-certified medical doctor specializing in child and adolescent psychiatry. Roberts attended medical school as a single mother, raising three daughters, aged 8, 7 and 4, when she entered Rush Medical College. Today, Dr. Roberts is in both private practice and also medical director of a children's psychiatric emergency room in Southern California, and she has also conducted parenting seminars for the public through hospitals, high schools, and other organizations. Roberts has appeared on Oprah, ABC News and been featured in numerous publications, including the Chicago Tribune. She lives in Canyon Lake, Calif.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press; 1 edition (May 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569243336
• ISBN-13: 978-1569243336
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #997,095 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Elizabeth J Roberts, MD has a private practice in Murrieta, California and also cares for abused and neglected children at Olive Crest in Los Angeles and Riverside. Dr. Roberts has appeared on CNN, The Oprah Show, The Today Show, ABC News and lectured at Berkeley University on the use of psychiatric medications in children. Her Op-Ed work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal and The Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Dr. Roberts also contributed a chapter to the book, Bipolar Children. These publications and appearances along with her other TV appearances can be viewed on her Web site www.DrElizabethRoberts.com. Dr. Roberts started her professional life as a school teacher, before going to medical school as a single mother of three small children. You can read more of her biography on her Web site.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Phenomenal resource for parents coping with their children's behavioral problems, March 22, 2006

By 

Jeremy Schneider - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Should You Medicate Your Child's Mind? :A Child Psychiatrist Makes Sense of Whether or Not to Give Kids Meds (Paperback)

Before you get caught up in the wild success stories of the next miracle drug, or start diagnosing your child based on posts you have read on the Internet, please read this book!

Dr. Roberts does an excellent job of cutting through all the hype surrounding children's psychiatric medications and popular diagnosis' and really educates the reader on a broad range of issues that may be affecting your child. She does a great job explaining how many different factors may have an effect on your child's behavior and one drug that treats one symptom is rarely the answer to a long term solution to dealing with your child's diagnosis.

Dr. Roberts educates the reader on everything from choosing a doctor (and the right type of doctor) for your child, to properly communicating with the doctor, to the many diagnoses your child may receive, to the types of drugs and their side effects that may be prescribed and the many other actions you as a parent can take to improve your child's chance of success.

The book does a great job of instilling the idea that you, as the parent, are your child's number one advocate and are solely responsible for making the final decisions regarding your child's health. This is not a responsibility to be taken lightly and without educating yourself properly with the help of books like this!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thorough Information on meds, August 2, 2006

By 

Julie A. Sawitzke - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Should You Medicate Your Child's Mind? :A Child Psychiatrist Makes Sense of Whether or Not to Give Kids Meds (Paperback)

This book is a no-nonsense, direct, and realistic summary of the myriad of childhood psychological disorders and the medication used to treat them. It is relatively short and gets right to the point (thank you). She is rightfully critical of the tendency for hasty diagnoses, and medicating children without exploring all aspects of the problem. She uses examples from her practice, lists typical symptoms for each disorder, available medication, and also details other possibilities to consider. She stresses that medications treat symptoms and not the particular diagnosed disorder; the reason being that most psychological disorders have overlapping symptoms, and so a label of Bipolar, for example, may require medications typically prescribed for ADD or depression in addition to a mood stabilizer. At the end of the book she addresses parenting styles and how they can affect a child's behavior. She comes down hard of permissive parenting styles, and I agree that it can lead to out-of-control behavior; however, she leans heavily toward authoritarian approaches, which in my opinion can lead to other, different problems that are no less challenging. Aside from the parenting advice, I highly recommend this book to anyone considering medicating their child.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A TOOL FOR PARENTS, October 4, 2006

By 

Putrdude "putrdude" (CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Should You Medicate Your Child's Mind? :A Child Psychiatrist Makes Sense of Whether or Not to Give Kids Meds (Paperback)

Easy to use and gave me all the information I needed in a format that was practical. In a letter to my child's pediatrician, I was objecting to my child's medications and the book gave me the facts I needed to clearly make my points with the doctor. My child was being administered amphetamine-class drugs for what was considered ADHD-type behavior at school. These drugs were given on a "diagnostic" basis but there seemed to be no agreement as to whether the amphetamines were successful with my son or not and the doctor's idea was to just increase the amphetamines or change the times of day the drug was administered. However, with the help of Dr. Roberts' book, I was able to clearly express to the doctor and my child's school the fact that my son's objectionable behaviors in school are all listed as side effects of the amphetamines and my child's inability to focus on his studies has long been surpassed by these more troubling behaviors such as irritation, violent outbursts, and depression. Furthermore, the book gave me information about markers for ADHD and I was able to challenge our doctor's assumption that my child has ADHD at all. - Posted for CSC, New York City