The week’s March 6th issue of U.S. News & World Report features a report on the use of psychiatric drugs in children. The article is available on this weeks news stands or by visiting http://www.usnews.com (save the pages for offline viewing as they will probably be removed next week.)
Although the article is written from a medical mindset, there is much valuable information provided.
U.S. News reports that since psychotropic medications are untested on children, prescribing them to children becomes a process of trial and error. “The treatment children get is often dangerously haphazard” says the report.
The US is #1 again. (don’t get too excited doctor) According to the report, the United States consumes 80 percent of the world’s methylphenidate (the generic term for Ritalin.)
About the prescription of psychiatric drugs and children, a Columbia University professor had this to say: “pediatricians and family practitioners should not be prescribing these drugs for children under 18. They don’t have the time or the skills.”
The report features a table of some of the most common psychiatric medications along with 1999 prescription totals and the numbers are just staggering. For example, more than 84 million prescriptions were filled in 1999 for SSRI anti-depressants such as Prozac.
Source: US News Cover Story March 6th, 2000
planetc1.com-news @ 7:21 pm | Article ID: 951798060
Comments are closed for this article!