Psychotropic drug prescriptions for teens surge 250 percent over 7 year period (press release)

http://www.newstarget.com/z020151.html

NewsTarget.com printable article
Originally published August 25 2006
Psychotropic drug prescriptions for teens surge 250 percent over 7 year
period (press release)
Psychotropic drug prescriptions for teenagers skyrocketed 250 percent
between 1994 and 2001, rising particularly sharply after 1999, when the
federal government allowed direct-to-consumer advertising and looser
promotion of off-label use of prescription drugs, according to a new
Brandeis University study in the journal Psychiatric Services.
This dramatic increase in adolescent visits to health care professionals
which resulted in a prescription for a psychotropic drug occurred despite
the fact that few psychotropic drugs, typically prescribed for ADHD,
depression and other mood disorders, are approved for use in children under
18. The study is one of the first to focus on prescriptions to adolescents,
rather than children in general.

The study shows that by 2001, one in every ten of all office visits by
teenage boys led to a prescription for a psychotropic drug. Other findings
in the study show that a diagnosis of ADHD was given in about one-third of
office visits during the study period. Also, between 14 and 26 percent of
visits in which psychotropic medications were prescribed did not have an
associated mental health diagnosis, said lead author Professor Cindy Parks
Thomas, an expert on prescription drug trends, at Brandeis University's
Heller School for Social Policy and Management.

"There is an alarming increase in prescribing these drugs to teens, and the
reasons for this trend need further scrutiny," said Thomas. "Our study
suggests a number of factors may be particularly important to assess,
including the impact of direct-to-consumer advertising and other marketing
strategies."

Additional factors likely fueling the trend, noted by the authors, include
greater acceptance among physicians and the public of psychotropic drugs,
the advent of new medications with fewer side effects, increased screening
for mental health disorders, and patient demand for such drugs.
Nevertheless, the study noted that overall, pharmaceutical companies
increased their spending on television advertising six fold, to $1.5
billion, between 1996 and 2000, with the trend accelerating after 1997, when
the Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act was passed.

However, at the same time teenagers were being prescribed more psychotropic
drugs than ever before, other prescription drugs taken by adolescents were
trending down, said Thomas. For example, the use of antibiotics, the most
widely prescribed drugs for teenagers, fell dramatically in response to
widespread public educational campaigns about the dangers of antibiotic
resistance due to overuse of these drugs.

"The dramatic increase in prescribing of psychotropic medications is of
considerable concern, particularly because these medications are not without
risks," Thomas said.