Psychiatric Drugs Prescribed Less in Young Children

It might not be so easy to get Adderall for young kids after all. Psychiatric drugs are being prescribed less in very young children after reaching a peak in the mid-2000s, according to a study released Monday by the journal Pediatrics. The decrease occurred despite an overall increase in the number of children diagnosed with behavior disorders. Between 1994 and 1997, 1 percent of all preschoolers were prescribed psychotic drugs—but that number spiked to 1.5 percent between 2002 and 2005 before going back down to 1 percent between 2006 and 2009. The results come on the heels of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launching a review into the use of anti-psychotic drugs on children younger than age 17 in the Medicaid system.