Pharmalot brings us More Teenagers On More Meds: Why? Why indeed.

The problem with data like this is we can’t answer the question of why more teenagers are being prescribed more and more medications. Are they experiencing psychological disorders and more health problems than in past generations? Or are we just getting better at recognizing problems and issues that in the past would go undiagnosed? Or are there other factors that are contributing to the rise of prescriptions (e.g., social, family or peer pressures)?

The number of teenage girls taking drugs for Type 2 diabetes nearly tripled in just five years, while use of chronic meds for psychotic behavior and insomnia roughly doubled among boys and girls aged 10 to 19, a study showed.

Not surprising (to me anyways) is that antipsychotic medications, once rarely prescribed outside of adult schizophrenia, are enjoying a surge in prescriptions amongst teens:

Medco found prevalence of kids taking antipsychotic drugs, once called major tranquilizers, roughly doubled, with about 1.2 percent of boys and 0.75 percent of girls taking them in 2006. Widely used antipsychotic — including Risperdal, Zyprexa, Seroquel and Clozaril — are approved for treating schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in adults, but not children.

The study was conducted by a company called Medco, the largest pharmacy benefits management company, and analyzed the prescriptions of 370,000 children from 2001 to 2006.

FOXNews has more.

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

Like this author?
Catch up on other posts by John M. Grohol, PsyD (or subscribe to their feed).

Comments

This post currently has 2 comments. You can read the comments or leave your own thoughts on our new comments page.

Trackbacks

No trackbacks yet to this post.

    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 16 May 2007
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.