Louis Theroux ..... America's Medicated Kids

bonerm

on now.

Documentary about the increasing number of parents in the USA who are turning to psychoactive medication to control their children's behaviour. Louis travels to one of America's leading children's psychiatric treatment centres, in Pennsylvania, to meet some children who have been diagnosed with several disorders, in an effort to understand what drives parents to put their children on drugs, and to find out if the latest pharmaceuticals are taking the place of old-fashioned parenting skills.

seanybiker

recording it. Will watch it later. Sounds interesting.

bonerm

Makes me not want to have children .... even moreso.

D-Generate

Was kinda boring.....

I like Louis Theroux but I don't like what he is doing these days... He is much better suited to documenting the offbeat/fringe/weird aspects of society rather than this which was quite mundane and never really amounted to much other than "You are drugging kids".

Weird Weekends was where it was at! None of the Kemp style crime docs and the moral docs like this one was.

rovert

D-Generate wrote: »

Was kinda boring.....

I like Louis Theroux but I don't like what he is doing these days... He is much better suited to documenting the offbeat/fringe/weird aspects of society rather than this which was quite mundane and never really amounted to much other than "You are drugging kids".

Weird Weekends was where it was at! None of the Kemp style crime docs and the moral docs like this one was.

A Weird Weekend with the Tea Baggers would be deadly.

It was funny to see Louie get through to kids better than their parents and therapists.

A Disgrace

rovert wrote: »

A Weird Weekend with the Tea Baggers would be deadly.

It was funny to see Louie get through to kids better than their parents and therapists.

I'm getting more and more scared of America every day

rovert

A Disgrace wrote: »

I'm getting more and more scared of America every day

uber-scared or just scared?

Latchy

D-Generate wrote: »

Was kinda boring.....

Boring .

I watched first 40 minutes before switching off

My name is URL

Not great by Louis Theroux standards. As for the kids, well I don't even know what to say about that. The parents didn't seem to have any emotional connection with them.. they talk about them as if they weren't there, and put words into their mouths when asking them how they feel etc

I reckon a lot of the issues those kids have been projected onto them by the parents.. And that family where everyone is on meds (including the dog).. seriously messed up family dynamic there!

FreudianSlippers

It was so-so. Interesting, but I didn't think some of those kids needed meds - just proper parenting.

I felt the worst for the poor children with OCD.

Dozen Wicked Words

It was probably Louis' worst doc that I have seen. After his documentaries on prison and paedophiles, the Police and Westboro Baptist church, as well as the classic Weird Weekend and celebrity "week with" this was a let down. I think the problem was we only saw kids already on medication and had no idea of how they were before. The one attempt to show a child off medication (the girl with the goat), fell flat.

Hugh just seemed like an average obnoxious teen, but his parents insisted he was only as "good" as he was due to the medication he was on.

My gut feeling is a lot of the children would do just as well with behaviour modification techniques, but as one of the Drs. said, its much quicker using drugs to do the job. This documentary did nothing to persuade me one way or the other.

BaZmO*

I enjoyed it but it was nowhere near his usual standard. When I saw the trailer for it I kinda knew where the documentary would go content wise.......Kids getting medicated for behavioural problems when simple Supernanny tactics would suffice......and tbh, it's what it ended being.

The older boy just seemed like an annoying kid that was screaming for attention. He certainly didn’t seem like someone with Asbergers (sp?). As soon as somebody talked to him like he was a human being he seemed like a normal, albeit slightly annoying kid.

The other little kid seemed the same. All the care workers were just molly coddling him, and that tantrum he threw when they where playing marbles was so put on.

All the parents seemed to be enabling their kids behaviour and at this stage it has become a self fulfilling prophecy.

The thing I don’t really like about LT doing these kind of documentaries is that it’s too easy for him, and it’s like shooting fish in a barrel. He also tends to get a bit smug, which is a shame because it doesn’t suit his style. He’s much better off when he looks totally out of his comfort zone interviewing the wackos and the nutjobs.

Also, what was the deal with the girl’s mother? Was she a bit on the vertically challenged side?  She always seemed to be propping up that countertop!

JohnMearsheimer

I enjoyed it for the most part. The subject matter wasn't as offbeat as some of his other documentaries but as usual it was very thought provoking. I thought it was interesting to watch Louis interact with children as well. The story about that kid Hugh was sad.....even more so when his father told how he thought that his son's self imposed punishment could lead to something more drastic in the future.