from Australia

http://www.pbs.gov.au/industry/listi...dolescents.pdf

Use of antipsychotics in children and adolescents

A Report prepared by the Drug Utilisation Subcommittee (DUSC) of the
Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC)


"In children and adolescents aged 0–19 years, use of the three most common atypical antipsychotics supplied between 2008 and 2011 in Australia on the PBS increased by 54%. Quetiapine had the highest rate of growth with age-standardised scripts increasing by 138%. Risperidone scripts increased by 46%, and olanzapine scripts increased by 8%"

_______________

http://anp.sagepub.com/content/early...04867414538675

Longitudinal trends in the dispensing of psychotropic medications in Australia from 2009–2012: Focus on children, adolescents and prescriber specialty

Aust N Z J Psychiatry June 13, 2014
Emily A Karanges, Chris P Stephenson, Iain S McGregor
School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

_______________

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2...ie-kids-report
SBS News
"Among people of all age groups, the study shows a 26 per cent increase in ADHD medication, a 23 per cent increase in antipsychotics and a 16 per cent increase in antidepressants."

It's horrifying.

I saw an article the other day too on how many UNDER FIVE year olds are on hyperactivity meds!!!!

and note, Chemar, in the first article it still has Haloperidol/Haldol in Table 1, unrestricted, for treatment of "Tourette's Syndrome and other choreas".

I don't have time to sift through it all again right now, but somewhere in one of the articles I read this morning it stated that the highest percentage of these prescriptions were from General Practitioners rather than Specialists. When the percentages were shown from Specialists such as Paediatricians, the number went way down. GP's were prescribing these medications with no follow-ups, no concurrent non pharma treatments (therapy, CBT or whatever) and no referrals on to Specialists. arrghhh.