Psychoactive Medication Use Among Children In Foster Care

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
"Hope Lives Here"
Originally published April 30, 2012

A few months after the federal Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report on the use of psychoactive drugs by children in foster care in five states, a national study from PolicyLab at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia describes prescription patterns over time in 48 states. The updated findings show the percentage of children in foster care taking antipsychotics - a class of psychoactive drugs associated with serious side effects for children - continued to climb in the last decade. At the same time, a slight decline was seen in the use of other psychoactive medications, including the percentage of children receiving 3 or more classes of these medications at once (polypharmacy).

Psychoactive drugs prescribed at higher rates for foster children

As public scrutiny has increased about the use of psychoactive medication by children over the past decade, children in foster care continue to be prescribed these drugs at exceptionally high rates compared with the general population of U.S. children. According to the PolicyLab study, 1 in 10 school-aged children (aged 6-11) and 1 in 6 adolescents (aged 12-18) in foster care were taking antipsychotics by 2007.

The entire story is here.

Contact: Dana Mortensen, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, 267-426-6092

Antipsychotic drugs tied to diabetes risk in kids

By Amy Norton
Reuters/Yahoo! News

The antipsychotic drugs that are increasingly being used to treat bipolar disorder, autism and other mental disorders in children may come with an increased risk of diabetes, a new study suggests.

Previous research has linked the so-called second-generation antipsychotics to an increased risk of diabetes in adults. And there's been some evidence that the drugs can cause weight gain in children.

The new findings, published in the journal Pediatrics, add to concerns that the medications may ultimately lead to diabetes in some kids.

Using records from three U.S. health plans, researchers found that children and teens who started on an antipsychotic had four times the risk of being diagnosed with diabetes, versus kids not using any psychiatric medication.

They developed diabetes at a rate of just over three cases per 1,000 children per year. That compared with just under 0.8 cases per 1,000 among medication-free kids.

Second-generation antipsychotics include drugs such as Risperdal, known generically as risperidone, Zyprexa (olanzapine), Seroquel (quetiapine) and Abilify (aripiprazole).

The drugs are used to treat conditions like bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and irritability and aggression in children with autism. They are also sometimes given to children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), even though there's no research evidence to support that.

The entire story is here.

Parental Military Deployment Has Detrimental Affect On Adolescent Boys

Mary Guiden
University of Washington

Medical News Today

In 2007, nearly two million children in the United States had at least one parent serving in the military. Military families and children, in particular, suffer from mental health problems related to long deployments. 

A new study from researchers at the University of Washington (UW) concludes that parental military deployment is associated with impaired well-being among adolescents, especially adolescent boys. The study, "Adolescent well-being in Washington state military families," was published online in the American Journal of Public Health.

Lead author Sarah C. Reed, who has a master's degree from the UW School of Public Health, said the findings show that it is time to focus more on the children that are left behind in times of war. "There is a lot of research about veterans and active-duty soldiers, and how they cope or struggle when they return from a deployment," said Reed. "Those studies hit the tip of the iceberg of how families are coping and how their children are doing."

Adolescents are uniquely vulnerable to adverse health effects from parental military deployment. Healthy development, including identifying a sense of self and separation from family, can be interrupted during parents' active military service.

Media exposure and the developmental ability to understand the consequences of war may further disrupt adolescents' adjustment and coping. Teens may also have additional responsibilities at home after a parent's deployment, researchers said.

UW researchers used data from the Washington state 2008 Healthy Youth Survey, administered to more than 10,000 adolescents in 8th, 10th- and 12th grade classrooms. Female 8th graders with parents deployed to combat appear to be at risk of depression and thoughts of suicide, while male counterparts in all grades are at increased risk of impaired well-being in all of the areas examined (low quality of life, binge drinking, drug use and low academic achievement). 

Read the entire story here.