From the February 5, 2010 issue of Psychiatric News:
Antipsychotic prescriptions for patients under age 18 increased by 22 percent from 2004 to 2008. The FDA continues to struggle with balancing the drugs' risks and benefits for this population.
Days before a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee reviewed the safety concerns about antipsychotic drug use in pediatric patients, two additional antipsychotics, quetiapine and olanzapine, were approved by the agency for treating youth with schizophrenia and those with bipolar I disorder.
With these additions, four second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) have been approved by the FDA for use in patients under age 18: risperidone, aripiprazole, quetiapine, and olanzapine. Indications are for the acute treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar I manic or mixed episodes based on three- to six-week clinical trials in pediatric and adolescent patients. Risperidone and aripiprazole have also been approved by the FDA to treat irritability associated with autistic disorders.
I have been a psychiatric social worker for 41 years and have worked at all levels of care. I have never before seen the medicating of children like is being done now. I have grave reservations about it.A
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