Increased use of psychotropic drugs in children

Increase in psychotropic prescription in children

10/19/2011

The prescription of psychotropic drugs to children and adolescents has continued to increase. As the Techniker Krankenkasse found in a recent evaluation of their insured's medical records, more and more children are receiving drugs to treat mental health problems such as depression, aggression or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)..

According to the figures of the Techniker Krankenkasse (TK), the prescription of psychotropic drugs in children and adolescents increased dramatically between 2006 and 2010. For example, the number of people with TK insurance between the ages of six and 17, who received drugs to treat ADHD, was around 20,000 in 2006. In 2010, at least 29,000 TK insured persons of the corresponding age group received psychotropic drugs for ADHD, which corresponds to an increase of a whopping 32 percent, according to the results of the current TC examination.

According to the TK, most of the psychotropic drugs in children and adolescents were prescribed because of the so-called Zappelphilipp syndrome. The condition known as ADHD is today by far the most commonly diagnosed mental impairment in adolescents. But also against aggression or depression, drugs were increasingly used. For example, the prescription of risperidone, an agent used to treat behavioral disorders such as uncontrolled aggression, has also increased significantly.

Use of psychotropic drugs in children is highly controversial
The use of psychotropic drugs in children and adolescents is not uncontroversial in the art world. Nevertheless, the number of prescriptions has skyrocketed in recent years. In particular, the regulation of methylphenidate or methylphenidate hydrochloride (Ritalin) for the treatment of ADHD shows the figures of the TK according to a worrying development. The increase of 32 percent also suggests too frivolous prescription practice. The number of prescriptions has also increased noticeably in risperidone. The number of children treated with risperidone has risen from 682 in 2006 to 1,532 in 2010, TK reports. Accordingly, the number of affected children has changed „insured more than doubled.“ According to the experts of the Techniker Krankenkasse, one fifth of the prescriptions for medications that have also increased in prescriptions of antidepressants indicated that they should not be used in children and adolescents. Also, many prescriptions of antidepressants by non-specialist physicians such as family doctors.

Threatening side effects and long-term consequences for children by psychotropic drugs
Since the late effects and long-term effects of the use of psychotropic drugs have so far been insufficiently researched, the physician Prof. Hannsjörg Seyberth, chairman of the commission for drug safety in the pediatric age of the German society for child and youth medicine, assesses the clear increase of the prescriptions particularly critically. Imminent immediate side effects of methylphenidate or Ritalin include, for example, headache, abdominal pain, internal arousal, nausea, cognitive impairment, depressive moods, as well as triggering and augmenting existing uncontrollable, recurrent motor contraction of individual muscles or muscle groups (TICs). Also anxiety states, loss of appetite and effects on the growth of children, according to the experts of the TK can be possible consequences of the drug methylphenidate. Instead of prematurely prescribing psychotropic drugs to adolescents, alternative therapeutic options such as psycho- or behavioral therapies should be used, the expert said. According to Seyberth „Children today operate under a tremendous family and school pressure“, as a result of which the increase in mental illness is co-founded. But tackling behavioral problems with medication is the wrong way to go, according to the chairman of the Commission on Drug Safety in Children.

Almost two tons of ADHD medication a year
In view of the massive increase in the prescriptions for ADHD drugs, the Federal Joint Committee (Joint Self-Administration of Physicians and Health Insurance Funds, G-BA) had only recently changed the drug guidelines for the prescription of appropriate psychotropic drugs at the end of last year. Since then, doctors are only allowed to prescribe drugs such as Ritalin and Co. if other therapeutic measures have been used previously, but have been unsuccessful. The G-BA emphasized that by far not every particularly active child has ADHD, and that - with the appropriate diagnosis - drug treatment can often be avoided through therapeutic measures. How much of the corresponding medicines are actually prescribed today is based on figures from the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices, which states a prescription amount of the active substance methylphenidate in Germany of a total of 1,735 kilograms in 2009. A rethinking of the medical profession seems urgently needed here. (Fp)

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Picture: Nicole Celik