MEDIA ADVISORY: 10.12.10 Seminar on Treating Mental Disorders in Poor and Vulnerable Children

Please join us for an October 15 seminar, Treating Mental Disorders in Poor and Vulnerable Children, co-sponsored by The Hastings Center, a bioethics research institute, and Brooklyn Law School’s Center for Health, Science and Public Policy. This seminar will include a distinguished group of roundtable participants, including Erik Parens and Josephine Johnston, co-directors of The Hastings Center’s project on controversies over diagnosing and treating psychiatric illness in children, funded by the National Institute for Mental Health.

When: 
Friday, October 15, 2010

Where: 
BrooklynLaw School
SubotnickCenter, 10th Floor
250 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11201

Details:
9:30 – 11 a.m.: How socioeconomic status affects psychotropic medication prescription rates
11:15 a.m.- 12:45 p.m.: What’s wrong with the American system of approving psychotropics for use in children?

For detailed schedule and participants click here. 

RSVP

To register please click here.

About the Program: 
More than two decades of research shows that poor and vulnerable children in America, including children in foster care, receive more psychotropic medications than other children their age. These medications may include complex drug combinations that are prescribed off-label and without adequate evidence of favorable benefit-risk ratios. The purpose of this roundtable is to better understand the significance of these patterns and disparities in the use of psychotropic medications, particularly antipsychotic drugs, among American children. Ultimately, the goal of this program is to identify changes in policy and practice that are likely to improve psychopharmacologic prescription practices among poor and vulnerable youth.

Contact: Michael Turton, Communications Associate,turtonm@thehastngscenter.org, 845-424-4040 x 242.