U.S. Children--Why Do They Receive So Much More Medication?
A recent study in the journal Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health reported that children in the US are about three times more likely to be prescribed psychotropic medications such as antidepressants than children in Europe.
The study, which compared children in the US, Germany and the Netherlands, said that the differences may be due to regulatory practices and cultural beliefs about medications and emotional and behavioral problems.
The study leader Julie Zito of the University of Maryland said that "Antidepressant and stimulant prevalence were three or more times greater in the United States than in the other two countries, while antipsychotic prevalence was 1.5 to 2.2 times greater."
Among the possible reasons for the differences are government cost restrictions in Europe, the larger number of child psychiatrists per capita in the United States and the use of two or more different psychotropic drugs in a single year in U.S. children. Whatever the reasons, it seems clear that parents need to be extreme watchful in this area and recognize that other nations are handling troublesome behaviors in ways that are quite different and far more conservative than those in our nation.
