By Judith Warner
Riverhead; $25.95
Purchase We've Got Issues
When I first saw Judith Warner’s We’ve Got Issues, I wasn’t sure I wanted to read it. I assumed it was just another anti-medication book. Warner set out to write a what’s-wrong-with-today’s-doctors-and-parents rant, with ADHD treatment at the top of her list. Then she started her research, and reversed her position.
Talking with parents, about their kids, led Warner to defend the opposite premise: that children’s mental health issues are real and that neither parents nor responsible doctors rush to “drug” children.
Warner supports her premise with a thorough, balanced recounting of the history of psychiatric medications and decades of mental health research, punctuated with quotes from dozens of experts and parents. She closes with a look at the future of children’s mental health treatment, citing promising developments in research, attitudes, and trends.
Warner does indeed, as she promised in her preface, “articulate a new way to realistically, compassionately, and productively think about and help a very vulnerable population of kids.” This parent thanks the author, on behalf of one of those kids.
