Children and Parents in the Age of Medication
January 18, 2010
Author (Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety
) and New York Times
columnist Warner turns an investigative eye to the “epidemic” of diagnosed childhood psychiatric disorders and widespread use of prescription psychotropic drugs to modify children's behavior. Major questions are raised: are drugs a substitute for proper parenting? Is there something more socially significant underlying the labeling and drugging of kids? Following an awkward introductory chapter about why the subject confounded and eluded her, Warner serves up more bad news than good. The book is hampered by a great deal of diverse and conflicting professional opinion and research, with references to just about every prominent expert on child psychology, from mainstream to fringe. Although readers may end up more confused than hopeful about the status of children's mental health in America, they will discover that 5% of all American kids do have psychological issues for which they receive proper medication and counseling. Not as heartfelt as The Elephant in the Playroom
nor as helpful as books on individual disorders, this examination will still function as a wakeup call for lots of parents.
August 1, 2010
The very passion driving Warner's (www.judithwarneronline.com) examination of mental health issues among children mars her contribution to the national dialog. Alternately eloquent and overwrought, her fourth nonfiction book--following the New York Times best seller Perfect Madness (2005)--combines multiple objectives that would have been better tackled individually: it is at once a survey of the contemporary U.S. child psychology environment, a child psychology primer, and apologia for Perfect Madness. Warner rails against the societal prejudices against kids stigmatized by mental illness and includes dramatic anecdotes from parents. Yet this is less a practical parenting manual than an overlong, subjective think piece on the relative merits and effectiveness of prescribing medicine for mental illness. Actress/narrator Kirsten Potter's (www.kirstenpotter.com) cool gravity cannot overcome the overexcited writing. Appropriate only where audio serves as a needed alternative to print. [See Prepub Exploded, BookSmack!, 9/1/09.--Ed.]--Douglas C. Lord, Connecticut State Lib., Middletown
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