Psychotropic Medications Overused Among Foster Children
New research finds that psychotropic medications are frequently used to treat youth in foster care. The pattern is disturbing because effectiveness and safety of the pharmaceuticals has not been established.
Psychotropic medication act on the central nervous system to alter emotion or behavior temporarily.
In a study of Texas children with Medicaid coverage, the latest in a series of analyses of state Medicaid records, foster care youth received at least three times more psychotropic drugs than comparable children in poor families.
But there is no clear treatment advantage to the foster children, according to Julie Zito PhD, professor of pharmacy and psychiatry at the says a University of Maryland, Baltimore researcher.
Of 32,135 Texas foster care children enrolled in Medicaid from September 2003 to August 2004, 12,189 (38 percent) were dispensed one or more psychotropic medications. Among those receiving psychotropic medications, 41.3 percent of a random sample of 472 youths received three or more psychotropic drugs daily.
The medicated children were most likely to be Caucasian males, and 10 to 14 years of age. This sizable proportion of youth receiving drug combinations poses questions about appropriateness, benefits and risks, says Zito.
The Texas study also indicated that decisions to give some children three or more psychotropic drugs may be largely based on behavioral and emotional symptoms rather than conclusive diagnosis of a specific mental condition.
“These data do not provide sufficient information to address questions of severity and impairment that might explain such complex drug regimens,†Zito suggests.
Emphasizing symptoms can lead to the diagnosis of more than one mental disorder in a patient, leading to greater use of combinations of drugs, said the study, which was published earlier this year in the journal Pediatrics.
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By RICK NAUERT, PH.D.
Senior News Editor
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