More Kids Are Taking More Meds Than Ever Before

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More Kids Are Taking More Meds Than Ever Before

Pharmalot | Ed Silverman | More American children are taking pills

for diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol than ever before,

reflecting a rise in chronic diseases related to obesity. The use of

drugs for type-2 diabetes, in particular, doubled in children ages 5 to

19 and statins rose by 15 percent between 2002 and 2005, according to a

study published in the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The study tracked the prescription records collected by Express Scripts,

the pharmacy benefits manager, for about 3 million children a year. The

use of drugs for asthma rose 47 percent and high blood pressure meds rose

2 percent, the study found

(here it is).

“Ten or 15 years ago we weren’t even discussing these conditions, which

were mainly in adults,” , a senior director of research at

Express Scripts, tells Bloomberg News. “Now, we are seeing a growing

number of children being treated for chronic conditions that they are

going to take into adulthood.”

Drug use was especially high among girls, who were more than twice as

likely to be taking a diabetes med as boys, even though girls aren’t more

likely to have the disease, the researchers said. suggests this may

be because girls visit the doctor twice as much as boys.

There was also a 40 percent rise in drugs for attention deficit

hyperactivity disorder with the increase for girls, at 63 percent, rising

faster than for boys, at 33 percent. And ADHD drug use rose in among 15

to 19 year olds, an age group for which use typically declines as

teenagers are taken off the meds. That may be a sign that ADHD drugs are

being used more as stimulants to help teens keep up with schoolwork or

for recreational use, posits.

Doctors may be also prescribing more medicines to children after a 1997

law encouraged drugmakers to study the effects of their medicines in

adolescents, Bloomberg notes.

ARTICLE SOURCE

http://www.pharmalot.com/2008/11/more-kids-are-taking-more-meds-than-ever-before/

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Sheri Nakken, former R.N., MA, Hahnemannian

Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Nevada City CA & Wales

UK

Vaccines -

http://www.wellwithin1.com/vaccine.htm Vaccine Dangers &

Childhood Disease & Homeopathy Email classes start in December

2008