The number of teenage girls taking drugs for Type 2 diabetes nearly tripled in just five years, while use of chronic meds for psychotic behavior and insomnia roughly doubled among boys and girls aged 10 to 19, a study showed.

Meanwhile, adolescent use of drugs for depression and ADHD, leveled off or dropped in the past two years, after widespread new warnings about safety concerns. The study, an analysis of prescriptions from 2001 to 2006 among 370,000 insured children aged 10 to 19, was conducted by Medco Health Solutions, the big PBM.

Experts say the findings raise questions about physical and mental health problems in youth, the appropriateness of putting them on strong, long-term meds mostly designed for adults, and whether it might be better to focus on other strategies, such as counseling, exercise and changes in diet, caffeine intake and bedtime routine.

“There’s increasing use of medication in children the last 20 years, but does that mean we’re treating them successfully or that we’re overmedicating?” said Dr. Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health. Probably both, he said, but some children aren’t getting needed help.

Dr. Wayne Snodgrass, chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ committee on drugs, said the levels of medication usage found in the study might be appropriate, but it’s hard to know without details on why each prescription was written.

“It deserves watching,” he said, particularly because adolescents’ brains are still developing. Dr. Snodgrass said worried parents should question their child’s doctor about their treatment or seek a second opinion.

The most striking trend was a 167 percent spike in girls 10 to 19 taking pills for type 2 diabetes, formerly called adult-onset diabetes. Medco found it jumped from 0.1 percent in 2001 to 0.27 percent in 2006; among boys, prevalence up 33 percent, to 0.08 percent. And use of prescription sleeping pills nearly doubled, to about 0.3 percent of boys and 0.44 percent of girls.

Medco found prevalence of kids taking antipsychotic drugs, once called major tranquilizers, roughly doubled, with about 1.2 percent of boys and 0.75 percent of girls taking them in 2006. Widely used antipsychotic - including Risperdal, Zyprexa, Seroquel and Clozaril - are approved for treating schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in adults, but not children.

One take-away message: marketing works.

Further reading…
Associated Press via USA Today;
Medco press release.[tags]Medco, Overmedicating[/tags]