Editorial: Need better handle on psychiatric drugs

Thursday, July 25, 2002 | 9:07 a.m.

The number of school-age children taking anti-psychotic drugs has reached staggering levels. This week USA Today reported that an estimated 532,000 children ages 6-18 are taking these powerful drugs, a tenfold increase from a decade ago. There long has been a concern that anti-psychotic drugs are being overprescribed for children, with the drugs being used for what really are social problems that aren't medical in nature. So a panel of national experts recently was asked by New York state mental health officials to study the issue. The panel is set to recommend that anti-psychotic drugs not be the first course for doctors to take to curb a child's anti-social behavior, such as fighting and biting.

Drugs have played an important role in the development of medicine, easing pain and suffering and successfully treating severe illnesses that otherwise might require hospitalization. But too many patients have come to expect that every doctor's office visit should result in some form of medication to take care of their physical ailments, and the same is true for mental illnesses as well. Not every cure can be found in a pill, and we hope that both parents and doctors heed the advice to go slow on prescribing anti-psychotic drugs for children.