The trouble with military kids and Clonidine

When military families split due to deployment, young kids are regularly left holding the emotional bag. To fill the mom- or dad-shaped hole, Army Times reports that more military families than ever are resorting to psychiatric drugs like Clonidine for their children – because for some reason, big feelings need to be feared. This tends to mirror the number of active-duty servicemen and women who are on psychiatric meds. With so lots of people using psychiatric the costs of the prescription are sure to rise leaving many to seek out personal loans to get them.

Clonidine means Johnny doesn’t cry when daddy is gone

Clonidine is explained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information. Supposedly the heart rate is decreased while the blood vessels relax with the agent. Some psychiatrists prescribe Clonidine to treat such conditions as ADHD, anxiety and autism, although many others oppose the drug because of potential side effects like excess sedation and irritability.

It is true though that the drug has been prescribed to military children way more recently no matter what your opinion is on the debate. According to the Army Times, there have been a ton of psychiatric drugs given to military children. In fact, in 2009, there were 300,000 given alone. Since 2005, the under 18 military family population only went up by 1 percent while in 2005, the figure was 18 percent less. There has been a 40 percent increase in anti-anxiety drugs like Clonidine while there has been a 50 percent increase in antipsychotics.

Overall, active-duty forces have seen a 76 percent increase an psychiatric medications since the Afghanistan war began.

All about the deployment and re-integration soldiers go through

Structure is something children need according to most psychologists. Often, these military children have to deal with mom or dad being deployed and then trying to re-integrate causing a lot of stress for the children. A University of California, Los Angeles psychiatrist, Patricia Lester, explained this.

The Rand Corp has done many mental health studies showing that the cycles repeat with a parent's military career. There were 20 percent more pediatric outpatient visits needed by children who also performed worse in school when their parents would go on longer, more frequent deployments. Drugs like Clonidine and anti-psychotics ended up being prescribed more because of this.

Psychiatrists who spoke with Army Times expressed concern over the growing trend of psychiatric prescriptions for children, and the increase among military children suggests that perhaps military families are having a difficult time managing.

Citations

armytimes.com/news/2011/01/military-children-taking-more-psychiatric-drugs-010211w/

National Center for Biotechnology Information

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0000623

The Clonidine (and other meds) Song

youtube.com/watch?v=U6aI05-E9uI