Dec. 3, 2012 By Brenda Goodman, MA — Most teens with mental
illnesses don’t take medications for their conditions, a new
survey finds. The study contradicts reports of widespread and
indiscriminate pill-popping in high schoolers. If anything,
researchers say, many kids may not be getting enough help for
real problems that are affecting their lives. “The one thing
that we heard over and over when we started this study was that
parents are getting their kids prescriptions for stimulants so
they can do better on the SATs,” says researcher Kathleen
Merikangas, PhD, chief of the genetic epidemiology branch in the
intramural research program at the National Institute of Mental
Health in Bethesda, Md. But researchers, who questioned teens
for the study, say they found no evidence of that trend. “I was
surprised that the rates were as low as they were. I thought the
frequency of medication use was lower than we would have
expected,” Merikangas says. She points out that not treating
mental health problems in teens can