Byline: Kelly Patricia O'Meara, INSIGHT
For many people it is difficult to comprehend how children younger than 5 could be prescribed mind-altering drugs and be taking them on a regular basis, but according to a recent survey by Express Scripts Inc., a private pharmacy benefit manager that researches drug trends, not only are children from birth to age 5 being given antidepressants, it is this age group that has shown the largest proportional increase in the use of antidepressants.
The Express Scripts survey, titled Trends in the Use of Antidepressants in a National Sample of Commercially Insured Pediatric Patients, 1998 to 2002, presented prescription-claims data that showed "the overall prevalence of antidepressant use among children increased from 160 per 10,000 (1.6 percent) in 1998 to 240 per 10,000 (2.4 percent) in 2003, for an adjusted annual increase of 9.2 percent. The growth in the overall prevalence of antidepressants use was greater among girls (a 68 percent increase) than boys (a 34 percent increase). In 2002 antidepressant use was highest among girls aged 15 to 18 years, at 640 per 10,000 (6.4 percent). The trend of increasing overall use of antidepressants among children and adolescents appears to have been driven primarily by greater use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors."
The survey concludes that "the growth in the prevalence of use of antidepressant medications among youths appears to be continuing, and the rate of increase between 1998 and 2002 is similar to the rate of increase seen in the period of the second-generation antidepressants (late 1980s to mid-1990s)." This survey comes on the heels of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommending that pharmaceutical companies "change the labels of 10 drugs to include stronger cautions and warnings" due to increasing criticism about the potential for violence and suicide in adolescent and pediatric patients while taking the drugs. The antidepressants that fall under the FDA's recommendation, which also are included in the Express Scripts survey, include Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Luvox, Celexa, Lexapro, Wellbutrin, Effexor, Serzone and Remeron.
