A recent article in the New York Times featured a young woman who had been prescribed 10 different psychiatric drugs by the time she graduated from high school. She’s one of the millions of U.S. children who are now taking one or more drugs to manage an array of mental disorders. In 4th grade, Renae Smith found herself struggling in school and was given Focalin, a prescription drug for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Still on her ADHD meds, she reported severe depression and anxiety as a freshman in high school and was prescribed the antidepressant Prozac. When the effects of Prozac dissipated over time, she was given an additional antidepressant, Effexor. Subsequent drugs were prescribed to stabilize mood, and more to dull the side effects of existing prescriptions. By the time she graduated from high school, she was taking 5 different mood-altering drugs and had been prescribed ten different psychiatric drugs in her young life The Centers for Disease Control an…