Some parents use pharmaceuticals to abuse their children

Friday, November 05, 2010 by: David Gutierrez, staff writer
Tags: pharmaceuticals, child abuse, health news

(NaturalNews) At least 160 children are hurt every year because an adult deliberately doses them with a pharmaceutical or illicit drug, including alcohol, according to a study conducted by researchers from the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center and published in the Journal of Pediatrics.

"We believe that the malicious use of pharmaceuticals may be an under-recognized form or component of child maltreatment," lead researcher Shan Yin said.

Researchers analyzed more than 21.4 million calls made to the National Poison Data System between 2000 and 2008, finding 1,439 cases of children who had been "maliciously" exposed to drugs including antidepressants, sedatives, blood pressure drugs and over-the-counter cold and cough medicine. Among the fatalities were a four-year-old girl given a full bottle of decongestants by a baby sitter, and a five-year-old girl given antidepressants and muscle relaxants by her mother.

Not all the poisonings reported were malicious, and not all malicious poisonings were reported, Yin noted.

"There's a very wide spectrum, from frank homicides to people who are not trying to hurt their children," he said. "Maybe they want them to go to sleep for an hour so they can go to sleep or go shopping."

He cautioned against ever giving children drugs for non-medical purposes.

"I personally know friends who have given children Benadryl on a plane," he said. "But any time you give a child a non-prescribed medication, you run the risk of harming the child."

Drugs' absence of external effects may make them appealing to abusers. For this reason, Yin is calling for comprehensive drug screening for all children in emergency rooms with suspicious injuries.

Child abuse is only one facet of the United States' wider problem with prescription drugs.

"There is currently a nationwide epidemic of prescription drug abuse in this country," says Julian Whitaker of the Whitaker Wellness Institute, quoted in the book Side Effects.

"In a report by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, it was revealed that this type of drug abuse had nearly doubled from 7.8 million to 15.1 million from the years 1992 to 2003."

Sources for this story include: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38347257/ns/heal....