Sean Martin
June 6th, 2006, 10:37 PM
Use of Antipsychotics by children increase fivefold
The use of potent antipsychotic drugs to treat children and adolescents for problems like aggression and mood swings increased more than fivefold from 1993 to 2002, researchers reported yesterday.
The researchers, who analyzed data from a national survey of doctors' office visits, found that antipsychotic medications were prescribed to 1,438 per 100,000 children and adolescents in 2002, up from 275 per 100,000 in the two-year period from 1993 to 1995.
The findings augment earlier studies that have documented a sharp rise over the last decade in the prescription of psychiatric drugs for children, including antipsychotics, stimulants like Ritalin and antidepressants, whose sales have slipped only recently. But the new study is the most comprehensive to examine the increase in prescriptions for antipsychotics.
From 2000 to 2002, the new study found, more than 90 percent of the prescriptions analyzed were for the newer medications, and most of the patients were boys, predominantly Caucasian children, who were significantly more likely to see psychiatrists than other ethnic groups.
Some experts also pointed to an increase in the diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children as a contributing factor. In recent years, psychiatrists have begun to diagnose the disorder in extremely agitated, often aggressive children with mood swings — short surges of grandiosity or irritation that alternate with periods of despair. These symptoms in children are thought to be related to the classic euphoria and depressions of adult bipolar disorder.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/06/health/06psych.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
The use of potent antipsychotic drugs to treat children and adolescents for problems like aggression and mood swings increased more than fivefold from 1993 to 2002, researchers reported yesterday.
The researchers, who analyzed data from a national survey of doctors' office visits, found that antipsychotic medications were prescribed to 1,438 per 100,000 children and adolescents in 2002, up from 275 per 100,000 in the two-year period from 1993 to 1995.
The findings augment earlier studies that have documented a sharp rise over the last decade in the prescription of psychiatric drugs for children, including antipsychotics, stimulants like Ritalin and antidepressants, whose sales have slipped only recently. But the new study is the most comprehensive to examine the increase in prescriptions for antipsychotics.
From 2000 to 2002, the new study found, more than 90 percent of the prescriptions analyzed were for the newer medications, and most of the patients were boys, predominantly Caucasian children, who were significantly more likely to see psychiatrists than other ethnic groups.
Some experts also pointed to an increase in the diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children as a contributing factor. In recent years, psychiatrists have begun to diagnose the disorder in extremely agitated, often aggressive children with mood swings — short surges of grandiosity or irritation that alternate with periods of despair. These symptoms in children are thought to be related to the classic euphoria and depressions of adult bipolar disorder.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/06/health/06psych.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin