HEALTH
REPORT - Spending Up for Behavior-Related Drugs for Children
By Jerilyn Watson
This is the VOA Special English Health Report.
More and more children take medicines to treat depression
and other problems such as aggressiveness and lack of self-control.
In fact, a new study says Americans spent more on behavior-related drugs
for children last year than on antibiotics or asthma medicines. The
research shows that spending increased seventy-seven percent between
two-thousand and two-thousand-three.
One reason was increased use. The report says the
number of children on behavioral drugs increased more than twenty percent.
But these medicines also cost more than traditional drugs for problems
like infections. And patients usually stay on behavioral medicines longer.
The report is by a company that administers drug plans
for health care providers around the country. Medco Health Solutions
studied the records of three-hundred-thousand young people up to age
nineteen. It found that among children who take at least one medicine
from their doctor, nearly nine percent are on a behavior-related drug.
Medco says five percent of all children in the United States take behavioral
medicine.
Some of the largest increases involve medicines to
treat attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder. The study says spending
for such drugs last year increased three-hundred-sixty-nine percent
for children under age five. Companies have been developing new treatments
for children who have difficulty learning and staying calm.
Also, Medco says spending for anti-depressants for
children grew twenty-five percent between two-thousand and last year.
Use of these drugs increased by twenty-seven percent.
Some parents say anti-depressants and other behavioral
drugs have improved their children's lives. But others worry that too
many young people are being given such medicines and that some drugs
could be harmful.
In March, the United States Food and Drug Administration
asked makers of anti-depressants to include a warning statement. The
agency says health care providers should carefully observe adults and
children who take these drugs.
Scientists are investigating the possibility that
some patients might become more depressed and try to kill themselves.
This might be especially true at the beginning of treatment or when
the amount of medicine is increased or decreased.
This VOA Special English Health Report was written
by Jerilyn Watson.
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