Read what I wrote in the thread where the 4 y.o. ODd on meds given by her psychiatrist.
Too many doctors are too liberally giving out psyche meds. Several people are wanting to med up their kids for the wrong reasons.
I completely believe that ADHD, childhood bipolar, depression, psychosis etc are real diseases, and medication of child patients with these disorders can be beneficial. However, I also believe that several parents & teachers are just wanting to med the kids because they find it the easier thng to do.
There's no real way IMHO for a doc to find out if every, or at least a majority child truly is justified to take meds. All you got is what the parents & teachers tell you and often times they have an agenda.
Like I brought up, several kids in those nanny shows just needed someone to watch them critically for several days to see the problem. While I know Nanny 9-1-1 and SuperNanny certainly aren't science, I did see similar programs as a psychology major that were scientifically done.
Similar kids would probably have just been drugged up by a psychiatrist.
If you ask me, a social worker, nurse practicioner or something of the like (a trained person) should watch the parents with the kids every day for a week from wake to sleep and record what was going on. That's one of the only ways a psychiatrist will be able to get a REAL and objective way to gauge the patient.