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Anti-Psychotic Drugs taken by Children have drastically Increased – Are
all these kids Bipolar and Schizophrenic?
March 17th, 2006
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The A.D.D. Book |
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A study reported
that there was a huge increase in the amount of children taking
anti-psychotic prescription drugs in recent years. These drugs are
often used to treat attention deficit disorder (ADD) as well as other
behavior problems. The problem is that the psychotic drugs have not
been proven to work for a many of these children taking the drugs. The
study was first reported in the March-April edition of the journal
Ambulatory Pediatrics.
Dr. William
Cooper, a pediatrician with the Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital and lead
author of the study made a statement of concern, "because it looks like
these medications are being used for large numbers of children in a
setting where we don't know if they work."
The study reports
that the number of children that have been prescribed anti-psychotic
drugs went up an estimated 2.5 million in 2002 compared to 1995. In
1995 there was around 8.6 out of every 1,000 children that were taking
anti-psychotic medication compared with 40 out of every 1,000 children
in 2002.
Why the drastic
increase in children taking these drugs? The researchers believe that
it correlates to the new drugs that came onto the market, Zyprexa and
Risperdal. These two drugs were marketed heavily. Both Zyprexa and
Risperdal are used for the treatment of schizophrenia and acute bipolar
mania. Both manufacturers state on the drug packaging that safety and
effectiveness in children is not known. The reason that some doctors
are prescribing these medications is that children with ADD can have
outbursts. These drugs will calm a child.
The data that was
studied was of children around the age of 13 years and were involved
with an annual national health survey. The survey gave data of
prescriptions that were given out at 119,752 doctor visits. Using this
data the researchers estimated the national statistics for the number of
children taking anti-psychotic medications.
This study raises
concern that both doctors and parents in the United States are possibly
mistreating their children with inappropriate drug treatments. Possibly
these children need therapy with a behavior therapist if they are not
already doing so. It would be interesting to see of those
prescribed these medications how many had regular therapy.
Nicole Wilson
Best Syndication
Books on ADHD
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