Between 1995 and 2002, five times more children were prescribed anti-psychotic drugs to treat attention-deficit disorder and other behavioral problems, the Associated Press reported March 16.
In 1995, 8.6 of every 1,000 U.S. children were prescribed drugs like Zyprexa and Risperdal; by 2002, that rate had risen to 40 of every 1,000 kids, researchers said.
Anti-psychotics are supposed to be used to treat diseases like schizophrenia, but many of the children's prescriptions are for ADD.
Some observers say the trend is due to heavy marketing by pharmaceutical companies.
"It looks like these medications are being used for large numbers of children in a setting where we don't know if they work," said lead researcher William Cooper of Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.
The research appears in the March-April 2006 edition of the journal Ambulatory Pediatrics.
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