More and more children on antipsychotics

heidi · Moderator Joined: 16 Dec 2005 Posts: 529

There has been an alarming rise in use of antipsychotic drugs in the treatment of children who suffer from attention deficit disorder and other behavioral problems. These drugs are made for treating schizophrenia and other psychotic illnesses and have not been proved to work in treating ADD/ADHD although these disorders may be followed by temper outbursts and other disruptive behavior.

The number of children taking antipsychotic drugs has increased fivefold between 1995 and 2002. this makes an increase from 8.6 to 40 out of 1000 children from the mid -1990s until today.

Today the number of the children taking antipsychotic drugs is estimated to a 2.5 million. This jump in antipsychotic use is related to the introduction of the heavily marketed medications such as Zyprexa and Risperdal.

Half of the prescriptions were given for ADD disorders, although it is not known with certainty if the drugs would work. However, antipsychotics are being prescribe in order to try to calm the children down, which has been shown to work so far.

More and more children on antipsychotics

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