The Anglo-American film-maker returns to our screens with another thought provoking documentary
Louis Theroux: America’s Medicated Kids
First aired: BBC Two, Sunday April 18th, 9pm
Rating: 
What do you do with a problem like … a child diagnosed with oppositional defiance disorder, Asperger’s and ADHD? Well, the BBC could have made a misguided Andrew Lloyd Webber talent show, but thankfully the Corporation left this one to Louis Theroux.
The film follows the daily lives of several American families, all of which have something in common - one or more of their children has a ‘mental disorder’ - oh, and they have filled their child with medication to try and solve the problem.
Hugh Kelly is the central subject – a ten year old boy with more labels than a deeply reduced punnet of strawberries in Sainsbury’s. There can be no denying that the boy is troubled, his manner is that of an Edwardian gentleman (who likes playing video games) and he has a penchant for attaching tissues to the windowsill with sticky tape.
At the end of their tether, his parents took him to a doctor, and now Hugh is on every drug going. Now, I’m not saying the parents are ‘pill happy’ but it’s worth noting that both of them, and the family dog are also on regular medication for anxiety issues.
Poor Hugh has been told he’s ‘mental’ for so long and is consuming such a cocktail drugs, it is impossible to know where the young man with problems ends and the ‘pharmacist’s hangover’ begins?
Anti-depressants and anti-psychotics are tested on adults – but most of them have never been fully (if at all) tested on kids … so is ten years old too young to start? No …
Meet, Jack, he’s got a lot of anxiety. If he loses a game he gets angry … oh, and he’s six. SIX! A six year old boy who doesn’t like losing, oh no, call the men in white coats. Oddly, that’s what Jack’s parents did, and then they stuffed him full of antidepressants. The sweet young lad now attends a special OCD help centre where he is forced to constantly monitor his anxiety … did I say he’s six.
Diagnosed with ADHD, Kaylee is a young teenage girl who agrees to come off her medication to act as a control subject for Louis. She seems pretty well – apart from everyone in her house (including her brother – an ADHD sufferer himself) constantly banging on about ‘mental illness.’ It’s no wonder one of her best friends is (I’m not joking) a prize winning pygmy goat called Bella. At one point Kaylee gets a bit tense and ends up taking her medication – she feels instantly better – , begging the question, would a placebo have done? Do these kids really need the drugs?
After departing from his staple of Weird Weekends and When Louis Met… Theroux has taken a little time to regain his voice as the more mature Louis mark two, but in this programme we see a return to form.
There are no Nazis, survivalists or Anne Widecombe … just a balanced, beautifully constructed and well paced documentary. Theroux uses his effortless charm to engage with the subjects in a way that no other interviewer can – opening their hearts and minds to deliver the viewer a smorgasbord of fascinating, poignant and deeply important questions which will continue to stay in their consciousness long after the show has ended.
Louis Theroux: America’s Medicated Kids was first aired on BBC 2, Sunday April 18th
I am a Dad, psychologist and director of non-for-profit http://www.gamesforlife.co.uk that with the University of Herts study has recently shown that mind -controlled educational computer games may provide a non-medical alternative for ADHD see http://www.herts.ac.uk/news-and-events/latest-news/Treatment-for-hyperactivity-in-children.cfm
I watched Louis Theroux with interest and suggest iPlayer viewing till this Sunday at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00s56gx/Louis_Theroux_Americas_Medicated_Kids/
have your own opinion and discuss