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A few months after the federal Government Accountability Office(GAO) issued a report on the use of psychoactive drugs by childrenin foster care in five states, a national study from PolicyLab atThe Children's Hospital of Philadelphia describes prescriptionpatterns over time in 48 states. The updated findings show thepercentage of children in foster care taking antipsychotics - aclass of psychoactive drugs associated with serious side effectsfor children - continued to climb in the last decade. At the sametime, a slight decline was seen in the use of other psychoactivemedications, including the percentage of children receiving 3 ormore classes of these medications at once (polypharmacy). As public scrutiny has increased about the use of psychoactivemedication by children over the past decade, children in fostercare continue to be prescribed these drugs at exceptionally highrates compared with the general population of U.S. children.According to the PolicyLab study, 1 in 10 school-aged children(aged 6-11) and 1 in 6 adolescents (aged 12-18) in foster care weretaking antipsychotics by 2007. The research team looked at the 686,000 foster-care childrenenrolled in Medicaid annually in 48 states from 2002-2007, and saw that both overallpsychoactive use and polypharmacy - the practice of prescribingmultiple classes of psychoactive drugs at once - increased from2002 to 2004, and then began to decline from 2005 to 2007.Prescriptions for antipsychotics, on the other hand, increased eachyear from 2002 to 2007. "While it is encouraging to see fewer kids being prescribedmultiple classes of drugs, and - to some degree - a slowing rate ofgrowth in the use of antipsychotics by 2007, these medications arestill being prescribed much too frequently to children in thefoster care system," said David Rubin,MD, MSCE, one of the study'sauthors and Director of PolicyLab. Previous studies have established that children in foster careexperience trauma and behavioral problems at higher rates thanother children, and therefore use mental health services - including psychoactive medications - more frequently.Recent research demonstrating serious side effects of thesemedications in children has focused attention on their use andprompted policy evaluation at both the federal and state level,particularly among high-risk populations like children in fostercare. "We're not saying these medications should never be used forchildren, but the high rate at which they're used by children infoster care indicates that other interventions and supports, suchas trauma-based counseling, may not be in place for them. In otherwords, health care providers may not have other, non-medication,tools to offer families dealing with mental health concerns," saidRubin. "Responding to high and growing levels of antipsychotic usewill not simply require efforts to restrict their use, but callsfor larger investments in mental health programs that help thesechildren cope with trauma psychologically." Prescription rates for both antipsychotic use and polypharmacyvaried widely from state to state. Over the six-year period,antipsychotic use increased in all but three states. Conversely, 18states showed an increase in polypharmacy, while 19 states showeddecline and 11 no change. In 2007, states reported prescriptions ofantipsychotics ranging from 2.8 percent to 21.7 percent of thefoster care population, and from 0.5 percent to 13.6 percent forchildren receiving multiple classes of psychoactive drugs. Theauthors note, however, that it's not possible to use this study tocompare states against one another. "In illustrating both the national and state-specific trends in theuse of psychoactive medications over time, we hope to provide aresource to officials at both the federal and state levels to helpidentify progress and prioritize intervention areas," notedMeredith Matone, MHS, a research scientist at PolicyLab whoco-authored the study currently published online in the journalChildren and Youth Services Review. Bryan Samuels, Commissioner of the Administration on Children,Youth and Families (ACYF), said "the study's findings contribute toongoing Federal efforts to improve the oversight and monitoring ofpsychoactive medications by providing a new snapshot in time on howthese drugs were used in almost every state in the nation." ACYF,part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, worksacross federal agencies and with the States to use the latest dataand research to design and deliver the best health care servicesfor vulnerable children. In August, ACYF will bring child welfare, mental health, andMedicaid leaders from all 50 States, DC, and Puerto Rico togetherto address the appropriate use of psychoactive medications in statefoster care programs. Additional References Citations. I am an expert from bi-metal-thermostat.com, while we provides the quality product, such as China Motor Thermal Protector , Overheat Protection Manufacturer, Snap Action Thermostat,and more.
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