“The number of children taking powerful anti-psychotic drugs has nearly tripled over the last 10 to 15 years, according to recent research. The increase comes not because of an epidemic of schizophrenia or other forms of serious mental illness in children, but because doctors are increasingly prescribing the drugs to treat behavior problems, a use not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). And a disproportionate number of those prescriptions are written for poor and minority children, some as young as age 2. Doctors are prescribing anti-psychotics even though there’s minimal evidence that the drugs help kids for approved uses, much less the unapproved ones, such as behavioral problems. ... ‘What’s not known about the long-term effects is very troubling,’ Christopher Bellonci, M.D., assistant professor at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, said. ‘The younger you go, the more you can affect the developing brain.’ ... ‘There’s a societal trend to look for the quick fix, the magic bullet that will correct disruptive behaviors,’ David Rubin, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia ... in children and adolescents, the drugs are most commonly prescribed to treat disruptive behavior disorder in boys. ... Anti-psychotics have become huge moneymakers for the drug industry. In 2003, annual U.S. sales of the drugs were estimated at $2.8 billion; by 2011, that number had risen to $18.2 billion.” (“Are too many kids taking antipsychotic drugs?” ConsumerReports.org, December 2013) Comments are closed.
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