We've Got Issues: Children and Parents in the Age of Medication by Judith Warner

May 29, 2010 Alex Templeton rated it 3 of 5 stars

As someone who took a trip with about 30 juniors and seniors two years ago and was in charge of dispensing medication, I am glad I read this book. See, about a third of those 30 were on meds, and it lent credence to my general opinion of "Man, ALL of them are on meds these days! Do SO MANY kids need them?. Warner, too, had the idea that children were carelessly overmedicated, until she began looking more closely into the issue and finding out that few parents and doctors medicate a children ligh...more

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Mar 26, 2010 Catherine rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, mainstream-us, medicine, mental-illness

When Warner set out to write a book about childhood mental illness and pharmacology, she expected to write about the drugging and over-pathologizing of children, and the grasping parents who would do anything to give themselves breathing room and their children a competitive edge.

And yet - when she began to talk to families of children with mental illnesses, to psychiatrists, psychologists, and even critics of Big Pharmacology, she didn't find evidence of the hyper-driven parents and over-diagno...more

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Nov 25, 2012 Sylvie Fox rated it 3 of 5 stars

Do you remember pulling an all-nighter to write a term paper. Ever read that term paper in the light of day and found it full of specious, circular argument, weak support, and repetitive statements? Then you've got Judith Warner's new book - We've Got Issues - in a nutshell. As she mentions in the book time and again, it came in WAY over her publisher's deadline - and it reads like she needed the rest of her advance and fast.

I generally believe that American children are over-diagnosed and over-...more

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May 16, 2010 Meg rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: counseling-therapy, parenting

I really disliked this book. The primary thing that irked me was Judith Warner's self-righteous tone throughout the book. Basically, she started out writing a book about parents over-medicating their children, but did some research and completely changed her mind, coming to the conclusion that parents are not over-medicating their children and that psychotropic drugs are a good thing which help kids with mental health problems. Like any convert, she is full of zeal to bring you around too (inclu...more I really disliked this book. The primary thing that irked me was Judith Warner's self-righteous tone throughout the book. Basically, she started out writing a book about parents over-medicating their children, but did some research and completely changed her mind, coming to the conclusion that parents are not over-medicating their children and that psychotropic drugs are a good thing which help kids with mental health problems. Like any convert, she is full of zeal to bring you around too (including a lot of confessional sharing about her own process in coming to this conclusion). This zealous attitude really got on my nerves even in the parts where I agreed with her.

I am a therapist working with children, so I have a lot of opinions about her claims. There are several components to her argument:

(1) (In response to the folks who say "ADHD is just a response to our short-attention-span culture," and that sort of argument...) Culture affects all of us but it does not cause mental illness.
- Okay, I generally agree with this. Although there are some gray areas, which she shrugs off. For example, she comments in an aside at one point that school expectations of kids can cause symptoms of frustration and restlessness that look like ADHD, but she doesn't take apart the question of how you decide whether it actually *is* ADHD or not. This is not a small point when you are the person trying to decide whether/how to diagnose someone and what to do to help them.

Also, at one point she uses the phrase "the deprivations of poverty" to provide an extreme example of how the environment can affect the brain in a few situations. Maybe it seems like an extreme/unusual situation to her because of the families she writes about, but the "deprivations of poverty" actually affect a LOT of kids. So this is a big gray area, not just a little blip on the screen.

(2) Medication is not over-prescribed; it is prescribed for children who have real problems, and it solves their problems.
- Yes, medication is prescribed for children who have real problems (not just to help kids perform better in school or something). I thoroughly agree with this. However, it does not always solve their problems. She paints a rosy picture of how medication helps children, with anecdotes from grateful/ relieved parents. For many children I've worked with, it's just not that straightforward - e.g. medication helped somewhat but not enough; or medication solved behavior problems but made the child sleepy and spacey; etc.

Also, and this is a big one, even when medication helps, often we don't know why. There is so much we don't understand about what psychotropic medication does. Warner really glosses over this, making it sound like biomedical theories of mental health must be true because they're scientific. OK, sure, they are better than "your mama made you schizophrenic" style parent-blaming, but we don't actually know if most biomedical theories have any basis in fact. Research into these areas is complex (needing to take lots of factors into account) and often inconclusive. Warner completely glosses over studies indicating that antidepressants are not that much better than placebo, dismissing them glibly in a parenthetical aside based on drug industry claims about poorly designed studies.

(3) What we need is Real Mental Health Treatment: medication plus "evidence-based therapy." That will make things better.
- Sigh. Evidence-based therapy. I don't even know where to start. Dear Judith, it's just not that simple. First of all, therapy is not like medication. Second of all, therapy is not like medication. Third of all, therapy is not like medication. Did I mention therapy is not a standardized intervention? Don't get me wrong, we should study what works, but studies have repeatedly shown that how clients feel about the relationship with their therapist is WAY more important to the outcome than what techniques they use. (And don't even get me started on DSM diagnosis and its lack of reliability and validity.)

In summary: Judith Warner, you've become as self-righteous as the people you're criticizing. Plus you're wrong about some stuff. P.S. Your title fits the book you were originally planning to write, but not this one.(less)

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Jun 09, 2010 Emily rated it 5 of 5 stars

While I am not a parent, nor do I work with children, I found We've Got Issues to be a fascinating analysis of how our society views children with mental health issues, the decisions their parents make, and how this stigma is driving a lot of bad choices that don't allow suffering kids to receive the help they need.

Warner believed, at the start of her writing process, the conventional wisdom that "most kids" these days seem to be medicated for something--whether it be ADHD, autism, or bipolar d...more

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Mar 12, 2010 Amy L. Campbell rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Parents of children who need(ed) medication

Shelves: 2010, advanced-copy, first-reads, reviewed, non-fiction

As a child who was prescribed medication after one meeting with a psychiatrist, I wasn't expecting to appreciate this book as much as I did. On the other hand in college I had a room mate who literally could not live without a cocktail of antidepressants, and sadly took his life when his current mix stopped being effective. Yet he would not have been with us as long as he was if not for that medication.

The book discusses the authors change in opinion from the over-medication and over-drugging of...more As a child who was prescribed medication after one meeting with a psychiatrist, I wasn't expecting to appreciate this book as much as I did. On the other hand in college I had a room mate who literally could not live without a cocktail of antidepressants, and sadly took his life when his current mix stopped being effective. Yet he would not have been with us as long as he was if not for that medication.

The book discusses the authors change in opinion from the over-medication and over-drugging of today's children to a realization that many of our children desperately need these drugs to give their lives some semblance of normalcy. Other chapters discuss why there is a perception that children are being over-medicated; the media's role in that perception and what the statistics mean; the roles doctors play in promoting the necessity of medication and how they damage parents'/consumers' trust by associating with pharmaceutical companies and lack of time spent with patients.

While there is a good body of research in this book, Warner relies mostly on anecdotes about friends or acquaintances, interviews she has conducted herself, or interviews from previous news articles. Most parents who have had to medicate their children will find comfort in these stories about children with ADHD, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Bi-polar Disorder, Depression, and many more. People who read this and are against medicating children for mental or emotional disorders will hopefully rethink their assumptions.

I would still caution parents to use medication as a first option, but by all means if your child needs medication, please give them the help they need.

A note on the reviewer: I am 2009 graduate of Kent State University's Master program for Library and Information Science and a 2006 graduate of Antioch College (B.A. in History).

This book was obtained through the First Reads Giveaway, I attempted to be fair in my review of this work. However readers should keep in mind that by the very nature of the giveaway the review may not be totally impartial.(less)

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Mar 15, 2010 Alicia rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads, in-my-boxes, advanced-copies

Won from first reads!

I was rather disappointed when I first started this book. Maybe I misinterpreted the summary but I expected a book about the misuse of medication today. In the first couple chapters the author talks about having that same view of mental illness and starting out to write a book exposing this misuse but then changes her mind and begins work on the book as it is today. The book goes back and forth with information to back up both sides of the argument. Several times she states...more

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Jul 25, 2011 Jessica Gadsden rated it 3 of 5 stars

Do you remember pulling an all-nighter to write a term paper. Ever read that term paper in the light of day and found it full of specious, circular argument, weak support, and repetitive statements? Then you've got Judith Warner's new book - We've Got Issues - in a nutshell. As she mentions in the book time and again, it came in WAY over her publisher's deadline - and it reads like she needed the rest of her advance and fast.

I generally believe that American children are over-diagnosed and over-...more

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Apr 18, 2010 shannon rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: profeshnul, 2010

there is a good basic premise in here. sadly it happens to be buried under the author's tedious need to justify her previous bullshit assumptions of people medicating their children out of laziness [why would anyone care how deeply affected the author is by the struggles of other parents?:], her poor writing and her continuing elitism [her conclusion is that there needs to be more child psychiatrists, after she rather obnoxiously dismisses all other mental health practitioners:]. she also attemp...more

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Dec 26, 2011 Victoria Costello rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Victoria by: all parents, doctors, therapists

Shelves: nonfiction

This is a terrific analysis of the issue and controversies surrounding psychiatric medications for children. Warner admits she started researching the book firm in her belief in the conventional stance: that too much medicating of children goes on. She then discovers that the opposite is the case...most children who need mental health treatment (including but not only medication) are not getting it. Parents who choose the psych med option are branded as lazy, and dangerous. Warner goes into the...more

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Mar 06, 2012 Amanda rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: parenting, social-commentary

The overall premise of Warner's book is simple: Despite popular belief parents do not lightly medicate their children in order to have perfect children and, in fact, our society often fails those children who need our compassion and help the most.

This book would have made a fantastic essay. However, the extra 240 pages or so weren't really necessary. Warner has clearly done her research but the chapters blended together, the shifts in topic so subtle as to be almost indistinct (with the exceptio...more

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Sep 11, 2010 Lori Gertz rated it 5 of 5 stars

Open, curious and honest. Warner started this book on the premise that parents were overmedicating to achieve the "perfect" child, but realized early on that for many, meds are the last ditch effort to save their child and family. Being one of those parents I was happily taken by surprise as she jumped across the chasm of her original premise to get to the truth, how broken the system in the US is as it relates to the care of our mentally ill children. I loved this book so much I wrote her perso...more

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Aug 18, 2012 Laura rated it 2 of 5 stars

I had to give this book 2 stars because it was so repetitive. It was written with the intention to have a skeptical perspective of the overuse of medication in children, and during research the author found that SURPRISE! some children really do need medication.

This book would have been so much better as a long article. It was a huge stretch to turn this into a book. I mean, I'm glad this type of book exists but I imagine only parents of children with mental health issues are going to read this...more

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Apr 20, 2010 Hilary Roberts rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: parenting

I LOVED this book! As a mother of a child with ADHD, this book was just what I needed. I learned that kids with ADHD have social skills that are three to five years behind their age (which explains A LOT!!!!). I also read about a study that followed ADHD kids treated different ways and learned what treatment is the most affective. I just feel a little more in control of life now. This book is also validating in that it confirms that mental health issues in children are real and that they really...more

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Jul 13, 2010 Joanna rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, psych-book-club

It's a good book, but makes me anxious:)) I guess it will take time for me to finish it....

Judith Warner was supposed to write a book about lazy parents and evil psychiatrist conspiring together to drug our kids. Isn't this what "everybody' knows to be true? As soon as she started doing her research, meeting parents and doctors, her opionion changed by 180 degrees. She met desperate parents, whe spent years trying to help their kids before, resigned and with the feeling of a failure, they turn t...more

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Apr 23, 2010 Scott Huizenga rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Parents who need some comfort

Shelves: first-reads

We've Got Issues is Judith Warner's attempt to justify the world's increasing use of medications for mental illness, particularly in children. This book would have been better as a New York Times column (as it once was) than as a full book. I use the term "full" liberally. A promising start quickly turned to a poorly-researched diatribe filled with anecdotes and pop culture references, but relatively few solid studies or statistics.

Warner's effort surely does not suffer from too few footnotes. U...more We've Got Issues is Judith Warner's attempt to justify the world's increasing use of medications for mental illness, particularly in children. This book would have been better as a New York Times column (as it once was) than as a full book. I use the term "full" liberally. A promising start quickly turned to a poorly-researched diatribe filled with anecdotes and pop culture references, but relatively few solid studies or statistics.

Warner's effort surely does not suffer from too few footnotes. Unfortunately, they are largely without relevance. Warner relies heavily upon second-hand media souces (Newsweek, UPI) and online magazines (Salon.com? And what the hell is "Spiked Online" anyway?) for her references. It appears that much of Warner's research was conducted via Google searches in which she simply finds statistics ("seek and ye shall find" as she notes in the book) that fit the particular questions that she posed. Even the more scholarly sources are from what are generally second-tier medical journals. There was not much New England Journal or JAMA in this book.

Warner takes great pains to portray herself as a moderate in the debate. This leads to so many contradictions that the main points become irrelevant by the end of the book. She begins the book with the premise that we are indeed over-medicated. But, she is so touched by the stories she heard that she changed her mind. She attacks liberals as too flighty and hostile of psychiatry; and conservatives as too close-minded and traditional. The "perfect" middle.

She insists that our fascination with medication is not simply a result of our over-stressed, ultra-competitive society. We have issues, after all. Then, she spends the last three chapters bemoaning society as over-stressed and ultra-competitive. Somewhere along the way, the same author of Perfect Madness forgot which book she was writing.

Our fascination with pharmaceuticals is more than just massive drug company marketing. We have issues, after all. Yet, she devotes an nearly a full chapter to the need of pharmaceutical reform. Psychiatrists get a bum rap from psychologists, social workers, and others for their perceived over-reliance on drugs over therapy. But, she then talks about the need for mental health parity particularly through cognitive behavioral therapy. "Psychiatry has changed" she writes at one point. That's it. She never elaborates on how or why it has changed. But, hey, how could one distrust a profession that waited until 1980 to officially remove homosexuality as a diagnosable illness?

The contradictions continue for most of the book. For example, on one hand only the wealthy can take advantage of new and expensive therapies and coping mechanisms especially for childhood illnesses like ADHD and autism. Then, she cites another crack source that says the privileged may be less likely to go to therapy because of the stigma. Which is it? Warner so desperate to prove a multitude of points throughout the book that she forgets which points she was trying to prove in the first place. Perhaps during Warner's "awakening" from a pharma-doubter to a true believer, she forgot to remove the parts of the book that conformed to her original thesis.

I was about to give this book an average 3 out of 5 stars. Perhaps I was too critical. Perhaps it was unfair of me to expect an academic exploration. That is not the point of this book. But, by the time Warner got to the last few chapters on society pressures, and wants for more government action with no data, I could barely squeak 2 stars out of this book. Warner does a decent, journalistic job of preaching to the converted. It is a light read for those who want to learn more about the subjects of childhood mental illness but do not want to spend a month at the medical library. I cannot recommend this for anyone who craves anything beyond some personal interest stories and "common sense" sililoquies.(less)

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Apr 10, 2010 Jennifer W rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads, mental-health, non-fiction

I won this on Firstreads!! My second!!

Unfortunately, just after I got this book, I hit a reading funk. I have finished reading it, even if a little late.

I absolutely recommend this book to anyone who works with kids, has kids, or has theories about "kids today." I went to school to teach kids; I now work with adults with mental illnesses. I have to say this book startled me in many ways. Many times I read on the page thoughts I'd had in my head, "It must be this... or that..." "If only parents...more

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Mar 08, 2012 Tracey rated it 4 of 5 stars

Felt like I was being hit over the head with the same points over and over at times, but this is a great book for giving a sense of perspective to mental health issues in general, and in children in particular. Like despite the fact that the common perception is that "all" kids are on medication of some sort, very few actually are and the sad fact is that a LOT of kids that really need help aren't getting it. There is still a huge stigma around mental health for both children and adults (and the...more

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May 19, 2011 Katen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An excellent book about the lack of mental health care for children. The author originally set out to write a book about how Americans parents push psychiatrists to prescribe psychotropic medications to children to give them an edge. She couldn't find any of these parents or psychiatrists. What she did find were parents overwhelmed by their kids' serious mental health issues and psychiatrists who lamented a lack of well-researched treatment options for kids.

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Dec 01, 2010 Kristen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: parenting

I am a big fan of Judith Warner's and I learned a lot from this exploration of whether we are overmedicating our children (Warner argues that we are not). I thought the book could have been better organized - perhaps this was due to the fact that Warner ended up defending a thesis the opposite of what she believed when she undertook the assignment. Worth reading, especially by parents of school-aged kids or kids about to be.

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Jun 01, 2011 Charlotte Osborn-bensaada rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: social-reform

If you have a child suffering from any number of mental health issues or have passed judgement on a parent's choice to medicate or not, this is a book you should read. Coming in as a skeptic Warner begins to realize mental health issues, their portrayal in the popular culture and our medical system force parents into jeopardy.

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Aug 16, 2010 Tiffany rated it 4 of 5 stars

There were times when this book dragged or was repetitive, and there were a few sections I thought about skimming, because they didn't pertain to me. I am so glad I did read this book though. It is hard living in the world of having a child with special education needs. Even though you know other parents, it can still feel lonely and scary. This book was a revelation in a lot of ways for people like me who grew up in the generation that said ADHD was nonsense. It was also wonderful to read about...more

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Sep 10, 2010 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars

I've been a fan of Judith Warner since she wrote her Domestic Disturbances blog for the NY Times. This is an outstanding book. I recommend it to anyone who has worried that too many kids are on medication, anyone connected to a child with mental health issues, anyone who cares about parents.

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Jun 15, 2011 Michele Host rated it 4 of 5 stars

Compelling, well-researched, and occasionally horrifying, Warner examines Americans' unwillingness to medicate mentally ill children using her own learning process as a starting point. A must-read for anyone working with children or in the medical field.

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Mar 18, 2010 Robin added it

I really liked it because as a child I had a learning disability and was smacked on my hands, and I also have depression and take meds, which help me. It's a new look on how to help kids now and if I had it I would have been much happier.

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Feb 13, 2012 Beth E rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: children-family, non-fiction

Very interesting discussion on mental health issues for children and the labels we apply to children suffering from these illnesses. I do think there is tighter regulation on pharmaceutical companies these days regarding gifts to doctors, etc to encourage prescribing their products, however I think we can go further to help ensure that doctors are not unduly influenced. A very good book and a good one for thought on how to be aware of and in support of children and their developmental needs.

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Aug 13, 2010 Teresa rated it 1 of 5 stars

I could not get past the first few chapters of this book. The same thing was repeated multiple times. There are a lot of citation going on from other sources that is distracting.

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May 07, 2010 Melissa rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

Won this on first reads.

I have very strong feelings on this type of issue. Medically, I think this country is too much into the "throw a pill at it" mentality. I have been through dealing with family who have had issues like this (ADHD,depression, bipolar, etc) and while I feel that there are alot of things we still do not know, I think there is also alot that we just do not want to deal with that we do know.

I can not say how much I agree or disagree with the author but I can say that there wer...more

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Jun 07, 2010 Debra Morris rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is such a great book; I learned so much about the mental health professionals and the the misconceptions the public has about children who need medicine.

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Mar 20, 2010 Kara rated it 1 of 5 stars

Somehow her research and anecdotes allow her to dismiss all other research and anecdotes because... ? So irritated with her self-indulgent approach that this blabber ("I didn't find this so it can't be true!) that it went back to the library by page 100. And "assortative mating"? Does she really intend to tread there?

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