Behaviour drugs given to four-year-olds prompt calls for inquiry | Society | The Guardian

Behaviour drugs given to four-year-olds prompt calls for inquiry | Society | The Guardian: "

Behaviour drugs given to four-year-olds prompt calls for inquiry

ADHD medication given in breach of NHS guidelines as professor says parents putting pressure on GPs


* Rowenna Davis
* guardian.co.uk, Friday 18 March 2011 21.08 GMT
* Article history

Child taking a pill Children as young as four have been prescribed Ritalin-style drugs in breach of NHS guidelines. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod

Children as young as four are being given Ritalin-style medication for behavioural problems in breach of NHS guidelines, the Guardian has discovered, prompting the leading psychological society to call for a national review.

Family-based therapy is recommended for treating children with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), with prescription drugs used only for children over six years old and as a last resort.

The figures, based on data from 479 GPs, show prescription rates were highest for children aged six to 12, doubling to just over eight per 1,000 in the five years up to 2008. Children aged 13 to 17 had the second highest rate at six per 1,000, while those aged 25 and over had less than one per 1,000.

Concern is greatest over children under six who should not be receiving drugs at all, says the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice).

There are no reliable figures for how many children under six have been given Ritalin. But Professor Tim Kendall, joint director of the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health, who chaired the Nice guideline committee, confirmed that he had heard reliable reports of children in nursery and pre-school being prescribed medication unnecessarily, and that it was often parents who were putting pressure on GPs.

He said: 'There are two reasons why parents go shopping for a diagnosis. The first is to improve their child's performance at school, and the second is to get access to benefits. There are always GPs that will do it, but it's wrong to give a child a diagnosis without also consulting schools and teachers.'