The Health and Human Services inspector general’s office found that thousands of foster kids may have been prescribed “powerful psychiatric drugs” without proper treatment plans or follow-up medical care. According to the Associated Press, an IG report released Monday states that approximately one in three foster care children in a sample of states were given drugs—including medications for “attention deficit disorder, anxiety, PTSD, depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia”—when they may not have needed them. Other kids may not be receiving drugs that they do need, according to the report. In one case, a 6-year-old boy diagnosed with learning disorders, outbursts, and a “hair-pulling disorder” was put on four different psychiatric drugs, and investigators found no evidence that he’d been put on a treatment plan. After a proper review, one drug was taken away, one drug dosage reduced, and two medications were replaced. According to the report, foster children are also “much more likely” to get powerful drugs than children in general. “These children are at greater risk of not getting the medications they need, but equally important, they are at risk of getting powerful medications that they do not need,” assistant inspector general Ann Maxwell said.
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