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Volume 03
Journal of Clinical Psychology and Cognitive Science
Mental Health 2019
November 13-14, 2019
November 13-14, 2019 | London, UK
WORLD CONGRESS ON MENTAL HEALTH
Clin Psychol Cog Sci, Volume 03
The use of psycopharmacy as a response to the school complaints
Leticia Nascimento Mello
Catholic University of Petrópolis, Brazil
T
he Education Secretary in the city of Petrópolis, a city located in the country of Rio de Janeiro state, in Brazil, contains a
Counseling of School Psychology (CSP) which receives referrals about students with school complaint. By school complaint
we understand “the difficulties which refer to the schooling process of the child/student and generate referrals of psychological
evaluation or individual service” (Oliveira, Bragagnolo & Souza, 2014, p. 06). We made a documental research analyzing these
referrals, produced in 2013 and 2015, aiming the identification of the diagnoses and uses of psychotropic drugs in children by
behavioural with the goal of investigating a possible appropriation of medicalizating speeches by the educational institutions
and, therefore, a drug therapy treatment as an answer to school complaints. The analysis of the referrals revealed that from 254
children, 65 received diagnoses, being the most frequent the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (27) and the Oppositional
Defiant Disorder (12). Among these, 6 children were diagnosed with both disorders. Independent of medical diagnoses, 100
children use psychotropic drugs, considering that among the 144 students who were referred but did not use any psychotropic
drug, 41 were referred to specialists with this goal. The medications with a higher number of prescriptions were Carbamazepine,
Ritalin and Risperidone. Treating school complaints with diagnoses and medications that blame children and their families is to
neglect a precarious educational system and the social indicators which promote inequality and violence. It is a Psychology’s duty
to analyze and question which educational practices Psychology itself is cooperating when the professionals receive referrals that
silence these realities and reproduce a biologizing model, which has in the medical intervention a correcting possibility for those
who uncover the school as a sickness promoting institution.
leticiamellopsi@gmail.com