[Vaccines, vaccines, vaccines, affecting the immune system and child.]
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,” Emily Cox, 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. Cox 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, Cox 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/