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| Children in the US overprescribed antipsychotic drugs |
Are doctors
going crazy? US psychiatrists prescribe antipsychotic drugs to children in one
third of all visits, which is a rate almost three times higher than during the
1990’s.
Roughly 90
percent of antipsychotic prescriptions written between 2005 and 2009 were
prescribed for something other than what the US Food and Drug Administration
approves them for.
Researchers
say the increase in antipsychotic drug prescription is largely to treat
disruptive behaviors, including attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD) – even though those disorders are not treatable by antipsychotics.
Medications
such as Abilify and Risperdal, which are used primarily to treat patients with
schizophrenia, are increasingly being prescribed “off label” to control
youngsters with ADHD who have problems controlling their behavior.
“Only a
small proportion of antipsychotic treatment of children (6 percent) and
adolescents (13 percent) is for FDA-approved clinical indications,” said Dr.
Mark Olfson, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University, in an
interview with Reuters.
Children
with ADHD are most often taking drugs approved for schizophrenia, bipolar
disorder and irritability with autism.
“People
from all walks of life are taking medications for mental-health conditions,”
psychiatrist David Muzina told the Wall Street Journal.
In 2010,
Americans spent $16.1 billion on antipsychotic drugs meant to treat bipolar
disorder, schizophrenia and depression.
But whether
they are effective or not, the drugs have been known to cause other health
problems, such as diabetes, high cholesterol, muscular tics and weight gain. A
University of Massachusetts study found that kids taking antipsychotics were
four times more likely to develop diabetes.
Between
1993 and 2008, 31 children died from taking Risperdal and more than 1,200
suffered serious health problems.
“We have a
national catastrophe,” Dr. Peter Breggin told US News & World Report. “This
is a situation where we have ruined the brains of millions of children.”
But in many
cases, antipsychotic drug prescriptions are not even necessary to treat
behavioral disorders. There are psychosocial interventions, such as parent
management training, that are able to reduce aggressive and disruptive
behaviors in kids, Olfson said.
Instead of
taking the time and money to gradually reduce their children’s behavioral
problems, parents are opting for antipsychotic medications for an instant fix.
Drugged
from a young age onward, many American children will grow up dependent on
serious antipsychotic drugs they had no need for.
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