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Recently, the increased use of psychotropic drugs by children and adolescents has been documented (see, e.g., Journal Watch Psychiatry Jun 19 2002). To study the trends in pediatric antipsychotic-medication use, all of which is off-label, researchers examined data on individuals ages 0 to 20 years from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey in 1993 through 2002 (range of annual physician response rates, 70%–73%). The data included the number of mental health visits involving antipsychotic medication, the type of antipsychotic (typical or second-generation), concomitant medications, patient demographics, and diagnoses.
Over 10 years, there was a sixfold increase in the annualized number of office-based medical visits that included prescr…