Doctors Increasingly Prescribe Psychiatric Drugs to Preschoolers

From the NY Times (9.1.10):

Child’s Ordeal Shows Risks of Psychosis Drugs for Young
By DUFF WILSON

...More than 500,000 children and adolescents in America are now taking antipsychotic drugs, according to a September 2009 report by the Food and Drug Administration. Their use is growing not only among older teenagers, when schizophrenia is believed to emerge, but also among tens of thousands of preschoolers.

A Columbia University study recently found a doubling of the rate of prescribing antipsychotic drugs for privately insured 2- to 5-year-olds from 2000 to 2007. Only 40 percent of them had received a proper mental health assessment, violating practice standards from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

“There are too many children getting on too many of these drugs too soon,” Dr. Mark Olfson, professor of clinical psychiatry and lead researcher in the government-financed study, said... 

...Many doctors say prescribing them for younger and younger children may pose grave risks to development of both their fast-growing brains and their bodies. Doctors can legally prescribe them for off-label use, including in preschoolers, even though research has not shown them to be safe or effective for children. Boys are far more likely to be medicated than girls...

>>> For the Full Article

Comments

[Margaret Simms]

This is horrific...As a parent the greatest concern for my child is whether she has access to the best life she can lead. A lifestyle that considers health, wellness, opportunity, and social welfare.
The increasing amount of antipsychotic drugs prescribed to preschool aged children suggest that we are becomming a culture that focuses on short-term band-aid solutions without the consideration of long-term effects. These children without the proper assessment are being exploited because they cannot advocate for themselves and yet they are left to deal with the reprecussions of how these drugs will affect the rest of their lives.

Margaret Simms
Honolulu

[Steve @ 2010 Taxes]

Quite a sad situation that youngsters and treated with drugs before serious effort is put into other methods of treatment.