Healthy Skepticism Library item: 13137

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Publication type: news

Silverman E.
Congress Eyes Psychotropics & Foster Care Kids
Pharmalot 2008 Mar 6
http://www.pharmalot.com/2008/03/congress-eyes-psychotropics-foster-care-kids/

Notes:

Rep.Jim McDermott is himself a psychiatrist. Bio here:
http://www.house.gov/mcdermott/biography.shtml

Full text:

The House Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support will hold a hearing on Wednesday in response to reports that the meds are disproportionately given to foster care children as a substitute for counseling. In announcing the hearing, Jim McDermott, a Democrat from Washington who chairs the subcommittee, also expressed concern that the drugs are increasingly prescribed for off-label treatments.

Antipsychotics are approved for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, but recent reports indicate the meds are often given to kids for ADHD. Moreover, until very recently, these weren’t approved for children at all and the issue has prompted anger from legislators in some states, such as New York and New Jersey, over the money paid by Medicaid for prescriptions. Similarly, nursing homes are being eyed for using the meds to numb the elderly. Psychotropics also include antidepressants, which are at the center of a controversy over side effects involving suicidal thought and behavior.

Psychotropic meds have been increasingly prescribed for children in recent years, but the use of these drugs appears to be particularly elevated for children in foster care, according to the committee. One recent study found that psychotropic drug treatment was three or four times more common for youth in foster care than for other children receiving health care services through the Medicaid program.

“Some children in foster care need and benefit from psychotropic medication,” McDermott says in a statement. “But these drugs should not be used as a shortcut to treat foster children when more effective treatments, including counseling, might provide long-term benefits. We need to carefully oversee the prescription of these medicines, especially when it comes to placing foster children on multiple drugs or prescribing medication for off-label use.”