GP psychotropic scripts for children ‘rising substantially’
A general practice study shows marked increases in prescribing of stimulants, antipsychotics and melatonin
GP scripts for psychotropic drugs to treat Australian children “rose substantially” over the past decade despite ongoing debate over efficacy and safety, researchers say.
They found the increase was most pronounced for ADHD medications, followed by antipsychotics and antidepressants.
The University of Adelaide researchers examined both subsidised and private scripts for psychotropics from the MedicineInsight database, which covers about 9% of all GP practices in Australia.
The scripts were written for some 537,371 patients under the age of 19 between 2011 and 2018.
