Why Are Antipsychotic Drugs Prescribed to Children?

A growing trend of drug misuse is alarming medical experts, policymakers, and patient advocates.

In recent years, there has been a massive increase in off-label use of a class of drugs called "atypical niacantipsychotics."

April 4, 2012 | Source: Mercola.com | by Dr.Mercola

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A growing trend of drug misuse is alarming medical experts, policymakers, and patient advocates.

In recent years, there has been a massive increase in off-label use of a class of drugs called “atypical niacantipsychotics.”

These drugs, which include Seroquel, Zyprexa, Risperdal and Abilify, are only approved to treat disabling mental illnesses, but they’re being prescribed by psychiatrists and primary-care doctors to treat conditions they were never approved for, such as:

 -Anxiety
 -Attention-deficit disorder 
 -Insomnia 
 -Behavioral problems in toddlers, and 
 -Dementia

Atypical antipsychotics have carried a black-box warning-the strongest warning label possible for  drugs-since 2005, cautioning that use in elderly patients with dementia increases risk of death.