American children take anti-psychotic medicines at about six times the rate of children in the United Kingdom, according to a comparison based on a new U.K. study.
And with scant long-term safety data, it's likely the drugs are being over-prescribed for both U.S. and U.K. children, research suggests.
Among the most commonly used drugs were those to treat autism and hyperactivity.
In the U.K. study, there were 595 anti-psychotic prescriptions for children in 1992, or a rate of fewer than four children per 10,000 using the drugs. By 2005, 2,917 prescriptions were written, or a rate of seven children per 10,000 — a near-doubling, said lead author Fariz Rani, a researcher at the University of London's School of Pharmacy.
The study is in the May edition of the journal Pediatrics.
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