According to a contentious new executive order, Donald Trump has set his sights on psychiatric medications, and medical experts nationwide are getting ready to significantly alter regulations pertaining to minors.
The 78-year-old Republican leader announced the launch of a new campaign called the ‘Make America Healthy Again Commission’ at a White House event earlier this week.
The new panel, which will be chaired by US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., will concentrate on the mental health and mental illness of American children.
Trump’s latest kid health policy
By “evaluating the threat that potential over-utilisation of medication,” “certain chemicals,” and “certain other exposures” pose to children, Trump’s new order aims to “dramatically lower chronic disease rates and end childhood chronic disease.”
Additionally, the policy promises to “evaluate the prevalence of and threat posed by the prescription of mood stabilizers, stimulants, antipsychotics, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, and weight-loss drugs.”
The new commission must produce an initial report on prescriptions for these medications within 100 days of the order date. Eighty days later, the panel must propose a strategy with suggestions for the federal government regarding strategies to promote children’s overall health.
Why are medical experts worried?
The medical community is concerned about the new policy’s suggestion that mental health medication, which is frequently life-saving in cases involving depression and anxiety, poses a hazard to children, even though Trump’s emphasis on children’s health may be partly commendable.
Commonly prescribed pharmaceuticals, such as SSRIs, antipsychotics, and stimulants, can have physical adverse effects like any other medication, but they are also essential for many young people who are dealing with mental health issues.
The number of youngsters affected by ADHD and ADD will also decline; according to the survey, there are 8.4 million of them.
Dr. Lelach Rave, interim executive director of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Washington Chapter, has spoken out after the news was made public on Wednesday, February 19, in an interview with The Seattle Times.
“Any parent who has a child who is struggling with depression or anxiety or psychosis, it’s a scary place to be,” she said. “And there’s a lot of harm that goes with having untreated illness.”
“Not that you discount the risks of medications because they’re real as well, but there is real risk with disease,” the renowned physician went on.
According to the article, a number of other medical professionals in Washington have responded that while tracking prescriptions is a good idea, they think a federal regulation may cause a rift between doctors and their patients.
Summer Starr, interim director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Washington, also expressed her worries, speaking directly to the ramifications for mental health.
“You’d never deny someone cancer treatment,” she said. “That doesn’t carry the same amount of stigma. This merely makes the efforts to de-stigmatize mental health much more difficult.
She went on to say that depriving kids and teens of early mental health and mental illness therapy may have an effect on their future recovery.
“I do know that the earlier people are able to get the support that is needed for mental health recovery, the better that process is for them.”