Nearly 20% of youths in foster care receiving psychotropic medications received two or more such drugs in the same drug class, in a study presented here at the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP).
Professionally developed monitoring guidelines would help to validate any necessary prescriptions for multiple psychotropic medications, noted lead author Julie M. Zito, PhD, MS, Associate Professor in Pharmacy and Psychiatry, Department of Pharmaceutical Health Services Research, School of Pharmacy, University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland, United States.
Dr. Zito and colleagues selected a random sample (n = 472) from a total of 32,135 Medicaid foster-care enrolees in Texas in 2004. All subjects were 19 years of age or younger (64% over the age of 10; 5% were age 4 years and under) and all received at least one psychotropic drug in the study year (2004).
The psychotropic drugs were classified under 8 drug descriptions: anticonvulsants; alpha agonists; antianxiolytics; antidepressants (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, tricyclic antidepressants, other); antipsychotics (atypical and conventional); ADHD drugs (amphetamines, methylphenidate, atomoxetine); lithium; and miscellaneous.
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Saturday, November 3, 2007
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