The pediatric bipolar horror show goes on with the appearance yesterday in the NY TImes of a long article in the magazine by Jennifer Egan. It becomes clearer and clearer to me that the dominant paradigm is that medication is the first line treatment for anything psychiatric, regardless of conflicting data about diagnosis or effectiveness. And I hope someone is looking at how and why this is. I have speculated here about the confluence of turf issues, income, increasing power of insurers, and direct advertising to consumers, but that doesn't tell me why the buy-in on this paradigm is so thorough and deep.
I can't critique this long article any better than Furious Seasons, with his "12 Problems With The Sunday Times Magazine Piece On Child Bipolar Disorder" and also CP&P's "A Closer Look: Bipolar Overawareness Week". Do read them.