Study Shows Surge in Psychiatric Drug Use in Kids
 (NY, Reuters Health, 1/14/03)

When Julie Magno-Zito of the University of Maryland and colleagues analyzed data on about 900,000 young people 20 years and under who were covered either by Medicaid programs in 2 states or by an HMO in the Northwest, the researchers found that psychiatric drugs had been prescribed to about 6% of this group. Furthermore, the statistics showed that psychotropic medications were prescribed more often to those on Medicaid, a program for the poor, than to those in the HMO and to males more frequently than to females. These finding leave experts to speculate as to whether the dramatic rise in the prescribing of these medications to youngsters in recent years is a reflection of a heightened awareness of the mental states of children or whether it is the result of inappropriate drug promotion.