Many Poor Kids’ Prescriptions Go Unfilled, Study Finds

Thursday, September 27th, 2012

While most parents whose low income qualifies them for health coverage through Medicaid fill prescriptions for antibiotics and other medications for acute illnesses, many fail to fill pediatricians’ orders for vitamin and mineral supplements, a new study has found.  Reuters Health reports:

Antibiotics and other drugs for infections were filled 91 percent of the time, versus 65 percent of prescriptions for vitamins and minerals, for example.

“When your child has an ear infection and is in pain, you have much more of a sense of urgency,” [lead researcher Dr. Rachael] Zweigoron [of the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston] said. But if a doctor recommends a vitamin D or iron supplement, she added, parents might not see the immediate need.

That raises the question of whether parents always know why a pediatrician has prescribed a medication or supplement. “Are we, as pediatricians, doing a good enough job of explaining the importance to parents?” Zweigoron said.

The findings, which appear in the journal Pediatrics, are based on 4,833 kids seen over two years at two clinics connected to Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.

All of the children were on Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor. So it’s not clear if the findings would be the same for U.S. kids with private insurance.

Image: Child taking medicine, via Shutterstock

Study: Fewer Antibiotics, More ADHD Drugs in Use Among Children

Friday, June 22nd, 2012

A new study has found that over the past decade, more medications for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are being prescribed to U.S. children and teenagers, while fewer antibiotics are being prescribed.  One-quarter of all prescriptions given to children are still for antibiotics, the study reports, but overall the number of antibiotics prescriptions has fallen 14 percent during the years 2002-2010.  Yahoo News reports on the study, which was published in the journal Pediatrics:

Overall, prescriptions for kids ages 0-17 dropped seven percent during that time period, while prescription drugs dispensed to adults rose 22 percent, it said.

“Children are experiencing fewer serious medical problems than perhaps they had in the past,” said Victor Fornari, director of child and adolescent psychiatry at North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System in New York.

The report tracked the number of prescriptions dispensed for the youths, not the number of patients, and was based on two major US commercial prescription databases.

A key rise was seen in stimulant medications for ADHD, which the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes as one of the most common neurobehavioral conditions of childhood, affecting about five million children.

Image: Toddler taking medicine, via Shutterstock

Doctors Debate ‘Temper’ Disorder Name, Relevance

Monday, October 24th, 2011

Doctors and mental health professionals are deep in debate over whether a new named disorder for children with severe temper tantrums should be included in the new version of the mental health diagnostic reference manual.

Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, or DMDD, would be diagnosed in children 6 years old or older if they suffer from severe irritability and uncontrollable outbursts–far beyond the  “temper tantrums” that every child experiences at some point in normal development.

The Los Angeles Times reports that some proponents of the new diagnosis say it could help reduce the number of bipolar disorder diagnoses made–and medications prescribed–in children who might be able to be managed differently under a DMDD diagnosis.

Opponents, including pediatrician Dr. Claudia Gold, argue that the new label could do just the opposite, leading to more psychiatric prescriptions, not fewer.

“DMDD is being created as a new diagnosis to stem the rising tide of diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children. But I fear that this label will have the same fate, as clinicians feel helpless in the face of these troubled young families,” Gold writes on CNN.com

The new diagnostic reference volume, the DSM-5, will be published in May of 2013.

(image via: http://babyparenting.about.com/)