According to a study published in the Lancet Psychiatry, researchers from doctors' offices have doubled antipsychotic prescriptions to children and youth in England.
The number of prescriptions for antipsychotics to English youth has increased by twofold between 2000 and 2019, according to a study, despite the absence of data about their safety in children who are smaller in size and still developing rapidly.
Researchers from the University of Manchester looked at more than seven million children and adolescents between the ages of three and 18.
Antipsychotic prescriptions for youth used to treat severe mental diseases such autism, schizophrenia, and ADHD—were found to have grown from 0.06 percent to 0.11 over the previous 20 years.
Although the proportion is minor, co-author Matthias Pierce, a senior research fellow at the University of Manchester, noted that the greater prevalence of these diseases and a rising propensity among clinicians to prescribe antipsychotics ...