Psychotropic Medication

Psychotropic medication for mental illnesses can be very controversial topic, especially medication for mental illness that could be treated non-medically, such as depression, anger, and anxiety. This topic is even more controversial for children and teenagers who suffer from these mental illnesses. Between the years 1985 to 1994, the number of children and teenagers on psychotropic medications grew from 5.1 percent to 6.5 percent. In 2003, over 11 percent of American children and teenagers. In Florida, 1 in every 10 minors who are in State’s custody is on a psychotropic medication in 2005 (Talmadge, 2006). With the increasing amount of children in State’s custody, there are organizations who disagree with this practice.
Many of these organizations

The Child Behavioral Checklist is used to describe the clinical status of children in foster care. The assessment is 112 problem behaviors items. While 2-3 year old children only have behavioral items, all children between the ages of 4 to 18 years have problem behavioral items and “narrow-band syndromes,” which include withdrawn behaviors, internalizing behaviors, such as depression and anxiety, and externalizing behaviors, such as violence and aggression/anger (Heflinger, Simpkins, & Combs-Orme,

The cognitive and behavioral techniques that are taught in anger management for teenagers are problem solving, self-evaluation, self-instruction, such as counting to ten when anger, relaxation techniques, different kinds of role playing and/or rehearsal, learning how to be assertive are some new skills teenagers with anger problems will learn (Kellner & Bry, 1999). In addition to those three elements used in anger management, adolescents are encouraged to create a log and record when anger-provoking situations then rate themselves on how well they dealt with that situation and what, if any, skills were being utilized at the time of the situation (Kellner & Bry, 1999). This allows adolescents to self-assess their anger problems, look at their triggers that may cause their anger issues to be provoked, and see if any newly acquired skills were being used at the