New Warning Against Anti-Psychotic Medication Use Among Children

As today's children become increasingly overmedicated, a group of psychiatrist warned in a new statement of the dangers tied to prescribing anti-psychotic medication for behavioral issues among children.

The American Psychiatric Association's (APA) new warning of the disputed uses of anti-psychotic medications is part of a broader campaign to educate patients and doctors about unneeded and possibly harmful medical treatments and tests.

The campaign is called Choosing Wisely, and so far more than 50 medical groups have chimed in with lists of common practices that patients and doctors should question - everything from ordering too-frequent colonoscopies to using antibiotics for colds.

Doctors who overprescribe the medications "are doing what they think might help," often without first trying safer or more effective alternatives, says Joel Yager, a psychiatry professor at the University of Colorado-Boulder, who co-authored the new list.

The Choosing Wisely campaign is led by the non-for-profit group Advancing Medical Professionalism to Improve Health Care. Consumer Reports is creating educational materials based on the lists of questionable practices.

The medical group also warn against using prescribing medication as routine or first-choice treatments for:

• The behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia. This is a common practice in nursing homes. But side effects can include confusion, sedation and hastened death.
• Children and teens with any condition other than a psychotic disorder. Use in children has risen rapidly, especially among poor and minority children, despite research linking the medications to weight gain, cardiovascular changes and an increased risk of type 2 diabetes.

•Adult insomnia. There's inadequate evidence they work for the sleeping problem, the psychiatric group says.