Doctors are increasingly prescribing antipsychotic drugs to treat young children, even infants, for conditions that some psychiatric experts say rarely warrant such strong treatment, The New York Times reports.
More than 500,000 young children and adolescents take antipsychotic medication, according to a 2009 study by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
In another study, researchers at Columbia University found that the rate of antipsychotic drugs for children 2-to-5 years old doubled between 2000 and 2007. Only 40 percent of the children had received proper medical health assessments, which are required under the standards set by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Some doctors believe that antipsychotics are the key to keeping kids with severe problems safe and in school. But others say such strong medication could hurt, among other things, their brain development.
The FDA has approved the antipsychotic Risperdal for children as young as 5 with autistic disorder and aggressive behavior, self-injury tendencies, tantrums or severe mood swings. The agency approved the drugs Seroquel and Abilify for children as young as 10 with bipolar disorder.
But doctors also can legally prescribe them for uses they have not been approved for, even for preschoolers.
The trend is fueled by a marketing blitz that has pushed anti-psychotics to the top-selling class of drugs, generating $14.6 billion in revenue last year.
Medicaid data for the state of Texas shows that children in foster care were medicated more frequently, prompting a current Government Accountability Office investigation of the practice. The FDA has also issued stronger warnings about prescribing the drugs to children.
