Over-Drugged Medicaid Children

As reported in the Wall Street Journal (here):"Federal health officials have launched a probe into the use of antipsychotic drugs on children in the Medicaid system, amid concern that the medications are being prescribed too often to treat behavioral problems in the very young.  "The effort applies to a newer class of antipsychotic drugs known as "atypicals," which include Abilify, the nation's No. 1 prescription drug by sales. The drugs were originally developed to treat psychoses such as schizophrenia, but some now have Food and Drug Administration approval for treatment of children with conditions such as bipolar disorder and irritability associated with autism.  "Medicaid spends more on antipsychotics than on any other class of drugs. Abilify, made by Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., appears on lists of the top 10 drugs paid for by Medicaid in various states.  "Children on Medicaid are prescribed antipsychotics at four times the rate of privately insured children, according to a study by Stephen Crystal, a professor of health policy at Rutgers University, that looked at data from 2004 on 6- to 17-year-old children in seven states" (find the report attached to this post).Meanwhile, major anti-psychotic drug marketers contribute to mental health advocacy groups such as the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and have paid enormous settlements to the DOJ for illegally marketing antipsychotics.The biggest pharma NAMI funder in 2009 was AstraZenc...
Source: Pharma Marketing Blog - Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: Cymbalta Seroquel medicaid anti-psychotics Children Abilify Source Type: blogs