Are your kids little addicts?

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[sSRI-Research] Are your kids little addicts?

 

 

 

 

Are your kids little addicts?

 

http://news./s/usatoday/20051114/ts_usatoday/areyourkidslittleaddicts

By Kim Painter, USA TODAYMon Nov 14, 6:49 AM ET

 

As shocking health statistics go, this one is an eye-popper:

Prescription sleeping-pill use is up 85% among older children and

adolescents. The recent study that includes this information also

shows a doubling of use among young adults.

 

 

So are we raising a generation of pill-dependent insomniacs -

overscheduled kids so hyped up on caffeinated sodas, energy drinks and

Frappuccinos that they need drugs to fall asleep?

 

 

Not really. A closer look at the data, and some additional

information, suggests the actual number of kids getting sleeping pills

is tiny and the reasons complex.

 

 

The study, from managed-care company Medco Health Solutions, looked at

prescription data for 2.4 million customers. Among them were 554 kids

ages 10 to 19 getting " hypnotic " medications (drugs classified

specifically as sleeping pills) in 2000; four years later, 1,032 kids

were getting the drugs - 0.3% of the 342,568 kids in the sample.

That's 3 kids in 1,000. And the vast majority likely were teens, not

children, says Medco's chief medical officer Robert Epstein.

 

 

Still, experts find any increase troubling - because, they say, the

medications included in the study have not been tested on children and

teens, and, even if safe, are probably inappropriate for most kids.

 

 

" I'm not sure why people are prescribing these medications. Sometimes

children with neurodevelopmental problems like autism have sleep

problems that are very severe and we sometimes prescribe medication

for them, " says Thomas Anders, president of the American Academy of

Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and a researcher in pediatric sleep

disorders at the UC-Davis M.I.N.D. Institute. However, Anders says,

most specialists don't use hypnotics in children - not even the new

ones now heavily marketed to adults. Instead, they use other sedating

drugs, often older antidepressants with long pediatric track records.

 

 

" But we never prescribe and shouldn't prescribe a sleep medication

with a child who only has insomnia, " he says. That's because insomnia

- in children as in adults - is primarily a learned behavior that can

be unlearned, specialists say. Behavior-changing techniques like

enforcing a sleep schedule and insisting kids fall asleep only in

their beds - work for most kids.

 

 

Judith Owens, a sleep specialist at Hasbro Children's Hospital in

Providence, says she recommends that parents try a behavior-changing

plan even if they try medication, too. She says newer medications

should be studied to find better options for the few children - mostly

with disabilities - who truly need them.

 

 

But she also suspects a lot of kids and teens getting pills aren't

chronic insomniacs at all, but instead are kids going on overseas

trips or facing other temporary sleep disruptions. Some parents have

long coped with extended plane trips by slipping their children

sedating antihistamines bought over the counter, she says.

 

 

After speaking with Anders and Owens, I asked Medco to look again at

their data. Sure enough, 61% of the prescriptions in 2004 were never

refilled - suggesting they were for one-time, not chronic, use. And

Medco found that 39% of kids of all ages taking hypnotics also took

some other behavioral drug, and 13% took at least two more. The most

common were antidepressants (31%), followed by ADHD drugs (12%) and

anti-psychotics (9%). Anti-psychotics are sometimes prescribed for

children with autism and bipolar disorder. Antidepressants are used in

a wide range of disorders, including anxiety, obsessive-compulsive

disorder and autism. Those profiles suggest that many kids getting the

pills - for sound reasons or not - have complex health problems, not

just insomnia.

 

 

Have a health or medical question? E-mail yourhealth.

Please include your name, city and daytime phone number. Selected

questions will be answered in the paper.

 

 

 

2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

 

 

 

2005 Inc. All rights reserved.

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