The Tragic Death of Rebecca Riley

Since there was no mention of it in any of the articles, I can only assume that Rebecca and her parents did not see a therapist in order to find non-medication methods of managing Rebecca's behavior. Even though the father, Michael Riley, blamed his temper on bipolar disorder, he did not take medication. So why was it okay to give Rebecca medication?

I know that it's easy for me to be self-righteous about not giving children psychiatric drugs. My son, at least so far, shows no signs of any type of psychiatric disorder. And given that he's a normal child in every other way and not always an angel, I can imagine that caring for a young child with depression or bipolar disorder is a challenge that my husband and I are lucky we weren't presented with. So I have no idea what the Rileys went through. However, I know that my husband and I would try non-medication ways to treat him first. Although I am on an antidepressant and am very enthusiastic about the success of these drugs in treating depression, I would try my hardest not to put my child on one. We just don't know enough about treating children with psychiatric drugs at this point. To my way of thinking, they should be reserved for the most severe cases.

I do know of one parent who had her son's pediatrician prescribe one psychiatric medication after another for her son's “depression.” Unfortunately, she never had her son properly diagnosed with depression by a psychiatrist. She didn't understand why none of the antidepressants worked for him. I was dying to say to her, “That's because he doesn't have depression, you idiot! If you don't have depression, then antidepressants don't do anything!” Talk about stating the obvious. (Ironically, she wasn't at all concerned about the eating disorder she created in her son by telling him he was too fat.)

But I prefer to think that's she's the exception instead of the rule. At the end of the day I believe that what we have, more often than not, are doctors who are taking their best guess, using the information they have available, in treating psychiatric disorders in children and parents who are trying to do their best for their child, but are at their wit's end.

In the Rebecca Riley case, however, in the final analysis I think the tragic result was due to neglect by the parents compounded by a doctor who was too willing to prescribe medicine that probably was unnecessary and excessive. It's unutterably sad that a little girl spent most of her short life with neglectful parents, in a fog from drugs that she didn't need. And it should never, ever happen again.