        |
 |
By Ami Albernaz
There is little doubt that the number of college students on psychoactive
medications has in-creased over the past decade, in some places,
dramatically. Articles that have appeared on the subject over the
past year have chalked up the rise to an increase in mental illness
among college students and to a greater likelihood of identifying
problems and seeking out drugs. While there are no hard statistics
yet for the national percentage of university students taking psychotropic
medication, informal surveys conducted by the University of Pittsburgh's
Robert Gallagher, Ph.D. have suggested a figure of between 30 and
60 percent of students who use their schools' counseling facilities.
University counseling centers, meanwhile, have been trying to adjust,
and to figure out how best to deal with the phenomenon.
With this goal, mental health providers from nine New England colleges
and universities met at the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge,
MA in October. The conference was spurred by writings on the topic
from Jeffrey Winseman, M.D. and Gertrude Carter, M.S.W., directors
of psychological services at Vermont's Bennington College. The two
say they became alarmed when some students began coming to the counseling
center to request prescription refills, while showing no interest
in therapy. Carter says that while she believes medication is warranted
in certain cases, she fears that prescriptions are replacing the
learning of coping skills that come from dealing with the stresses
of young adulthood and thriving in college - skills that can serve
the students later on in their lives.
"There's tremendous passion and angst that goes along with the
college years, and it's better for people to sift and sort through
it, unless it deserves to be treated with medication," she says.
"If you start saying 'take a pill' to cope, it's a substitute for
self-mastery."
Carter doubts that the students she sees are more prone to mental
illness than were students in the past, because the indicators for
severe mental illness, such as the number of hospitalizations per
year, have not increased in the 25 years she has worked at Bennington.
She said that what has occurred is an "increase in despair," caused
by more broken homes, less time spent with families and deteriorating
public schools. She attributes much of today's medication use to
the mental health language having permeated popular culture, a loosening
of diagnostic criteria and relentless marketing campaigns by drug
manufacturers.
As a result, Carter and Winseman have banned drug company representatives
from making visits to the Bennington campus, and require students
who are considering medication to go through a rigorous evaluation
first.
Other mental health providers at the conference also worry that
the accessibility and advertising of psychoactive drugs has led
people to seek them out before trying other therapy.
Gary Margolis, Ph.D., director of counseling Services at Middlebury
College, in Vermont, says that marketing campaigns for drugs such
as Prozac and Paxil have helped lead to an oversimplification of
emotional problems. At Middlebury, no medications are prescribed
without a commitment from students to receive counseling. In cases
in which medications are indicated, the counseling center works
closely with a community psychiatrist who Margolis says knows the
culture of the college and the difficulties often faced by students.
Yet other university counseling center directors note they do not
see drugs as supplanting traditional therapy. Jacqueline Bearce,
Ed.D., director of counseling services at Amherst College, in Massachusetts,
says that the increased number of students on medications is a sign
that they are handling their problems early on and are more aware
of the options available. Bearce adds that since the students she
sees who are on medication also seek out traditional counseling,
the use of psychotropic drugs has been, in general, a positive shift.
"The good news is that newer medications have allowed students
to function, and to live normal and productive lives," Bearce says.
Harry Rockland-Miller, Ph.D., of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst
agrees, and adds that there is less of a stigma now associated with
psychotropic drugs than there was in the past. He says that while
providers might sometimes be too quick to prescribe medications,
the opportunities they have allowed some students - namely, to succeed
in school - have outweighed the risks.
|
 |
