Generation Rx-A film review

 

The main thesis of this film explores the commercialization of mental disorders and the prescriptions used to treat them.  We also see the corrupt nature of the prescription drug entities and the government bodies that are supposed to regulate it but ultimately fail.  The main arguments of this film show how ill advised we are as consumers as well as who is feeding the information to the doctors that we are programmed to trust.  The film shows in great detail that companies are there to make a dollar (69 billion a year or 139,000 dollars per second) which shows greed as overwhelmingly taken over our moral compass.  This films ties into what we have been learning in this section about ADHD and the labeling that is happening to our youth.  In the article, Are some ADHD-labeled kids just young for their grade, we learn that at what age a child enters school changes the diagnosis rate of ADHD.  After watching the film and the full push that pharmaceutical companies were making for this diagnosis in our schools, it makes me wonder do any of our kids have ADHD and does it really exist?  The statistics given in the film that the United States consumes 90%  of the Redlin in the world leads me to believe as an educated consumer that something isn’t just wrong with the kids in the United States but that are powerful entities such as the panel of the DSM and the FDA are in the pockets of the pharmaceutical companies who are pushing their agendas down our throats and making billions and billions of dollars.  I found no arguments lacking in this film and the film made me think long and hard about the DSM and what it really entails.  The biggest point that sticks out to me and that I would like to study further is how many minority children are misdiagnosed with ADHD and put on to medicine that is mind altering.  I would also like to see the amount of children that go into our juvenile detention centers that are immediately medicated.  In the article, Pharmaceutical Advertising and Messaging about Mental Illness, the pills that are being sold are shown as a "cure all" pill and when the general public are not educated about these medications they cannot make a choice for their children.  I would like to see from a minority perspective because the education would be even more important.  This film was outstanding and I put it on my Facebook so that all parents I know can make informed choices.