Topics
Recent Updates
September 01, 2010
TAKE STEPS TO PROTECT YOURSELF PART TWO
August 27, 2010
TAKE STEPS TO PROTECT YOURSELF
August 25, 2010
HOW GOES THE HOUSING RECOVERY
August 23, 2010
DEATH GRIP OF DEBT
August 19, 2010
HOME EQUITY LOANS BECOMING UNCOLLECTIBLE
ARE TODDLERS REALLY PSYCHOTIC
Posted by: Darrell Castle
January 07, 2010
Topic: Personal Injury
A new study reported January 4, 2010 in Business Week Magazine found that the rate of children aged 2 to 5 who are given antipsychotic medications has doubled in recent years. Researchers from Columbia University and Rutgers University looked at data on more than 1 million children with private health insurance and were concerned because very little is known about the effectiveness or safety of such powerful psychiatric medications in children this age. Dr. Mark Olfson, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia, said that prescribing antipsychotics to children ages 4 to 5 is justifiable only in rare intractable situations in which all other treatments including family and psychological therapy, have failed. It's questionable whether 2 and 3 year olds should ever be prescribed antipsychotics, Olfson said.
The study, which is published in the January issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, presumes that only children with the most severe mental problems would be given such potent drugs. Yet, the researchers noted that less than half of children on antipsychotics had received any mental health services, including a mental health assessment or treatment from a psychotherapist. Dr. Olfson raised the question of whether doctors had done everything they could to help the child before turning to medications.
Overall the relative numbers of children prescribed antipsychotics remains small but it is growing rapidly. In 1999 to 2001, about one in 1300 was being treated with antipsychotics. By 2007, that had risen to one in 630, according to Olfson. Children on Medicaid are even more likely than children with private insurance to be prescribed antipsychotics.
The most common antipsychotic drug prescribed was risperidone which is sold under the name Risperdal. Risperidone is used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and is approved by the FDA to treat unstable mood or irritability in children with autism aged 5 and up. Dr. Peter Jensen at the Mayo Clinic said that this trend is concerning. "We have no doubt there are prescribing practices out there that are very, very worrisome." Jensen went on to say that in his experience he had never to put a child of 2 or 3 on antipsychotics. "There is so much else that can be done."
