NEW YORK (PNN) - November 21, 2011 - Foster children are being prescribed cocktails of powerful antipsychosis drugs just as frequently as some of the most mentally disabled youngsters on Medicaid, according to a new study.
The report, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, is the first to investigate how often youngsters in foster care are given two antipsychotic drugs at once.
The drugs include Risperdal, Seroquel and Zyprexa - among other so-called major tranquilizers - which were developed for schizophrenia but are now used as all-purpose drugs for almost any psychiatric symptoms.
“The (children) in foster care may come from bad homes, but they do not have the sort of complex medical issues that those in the disabled population do,” said Susan dosReis, an associate professor in the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy and lead author of the report.
The implication, Dr. dosReis and other experts said, is that doctors are treating foster children’s behavioral problems with the same powerful drugs given to people with schizophrenia and severe bipolar disorder. “We simply don’t have evidence to support this kind of use, especially in young children,” Dr. dosReis said.
In recent years, doctors and policy makers have grown concerned about high rates of overall psychiatric drug use in the foster care system, the government-financed program that provides temporary living arrangements for 400,000-500,000 children and adolescents. Previous studies have found that children in foster care receive psychiatric medications at about twice the rate of children outside the system.
The new study focused on one of the most powerful classes of drugs: antipsychotics. It found that about 2% of foster children took at least one such drug, even though schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, for which the drugs are approved, are extremely rare in young children.
“It’s a significant and important finding, and it should prompt states to improve the quality of care in this area,” said Dr. Mark Olfson, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University who did not contribute to the research.
