Dosed: The Medication Generation Grows Up

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Synopsis
Over the last two decades, we have seen a dramatic spike in the number of young people taking psychiatric medication--but, despite a heated debate on the issue, we haven't heard directly from the "medicated kids" themselves. In Dosed, Kaitlin Bell Barnett, who was diagnosed with depression as a teenager, weaves together stories from members of this medication generation, exploring their experiences at home, in school, and with the psychiatric profession. For many, taking meds has proved more complicated than merely popping a pill, as they try to parse their changing emotions, symptoms, side effects, and diagnoses without conclusive scientific research on how the drugs affect developing brains and bodies. While negotiating schoolwork, relationships, and the workplace, they also struggle to find the right drug, deal with breakdowns, decide whether they still need treatment at all--and, ultimately, make sense of their long-term relationship to psychotropic drugs. The results of what one psychopharmacologist describes as a "giant, uncontrolled experiment" are just starting to trickle in. Barnett shows that a lack of ready answers and guidance has often proven extremely difficult for these young people as they transition from childhood to adolescence and now to adulthood. With its in-depth accounts of individual experiences combined with sociological and scientific context, Dosed provides a much-needed road map for patients, friends, parents, and those in the helping professions trying to navigate the complicated terrain of growing up on meds.
Copyright:
2012

Book Details

Book Quality:
Publisher Quality
ISBN-13:
9780807001356
Related ISBNs:
9780807001349
Publisher:
Beacon Press
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
Kaitlin Bell Barnett
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Categories:
Nonfiction, Health, Mind and Body, Psychology, Medicine
Submitted By:
Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.

Reviews

4 out of 5

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I learned that: being a kid with a mental illness is tough, the long term effects of psychotropic meds on developing brains is still unknown, kids with parents who were upfront regarding their diagnosis and treatment fared better and that over time it is common for kids to progress through diagnoses ie, ADHD to depression to bipolar disorder. The book could have been more informative but it wasn't bad. I wish she did more than five interviews and talked less about herself. But any media to reduce the stigma of mental illness is good.