As with probably most good documentaries, we learn a great deal from "America's Medicated Kids," but everything we learn raises new questions. We are left with a shaded picture of the American habit of treated sometimes very young children with psychoactive medications (reproduced in a microcosm) without easy answers about whether it is right, whether it is helpful, and to what extend the "illnesses" being treated may just be part of the children's personalities.
A great strength of Theroux is that he is a master of drawing out his subjects on pointed subjects without withholding his opinions yet while remaining polite, friendly, and non-threatening. This works even more to his advantage here as he draws out not only parents and doctors but the children themselves, who are often surprisingly revealing and on more than one occasional seem a bit disturbingly self-conscious and removed from their own experienced, seeing themselves as patients.
The centerpiece is a much-medicated, much-diagnosed boy called Hugh and his family. He comes across as a very complex and interesting figure, and these segments are funny and touching as well as fascinated. We get the desperation or relief of the parents as well as the sometimes confused states of the kids.