Research shows that more young people are using multiple psychiatric medications
The news
A growing number of children and adolescents are prescribed multiple psychiatric medications to take at the same time. according to a new study in the state of Maryland. The phenomenon is increasing despite warnings that combinations of psychotropic drugs in young people have not been tested for safety or studied for their impact on the developing brain.
The study, published Friday in the JAMA Open Network, looked at prescribing patterns among patients age 17 or younger enrolled in Medicaid in Maryland between 2015 and 2020. In this group, there was a 9.5 percent increase in the prevalence of “polypharmacy,” which the study defined as taking three or more different classes of psychiatric medications, including antidepressants, mood-stabilizing anticonvulsants, sedatives, and ADHD medications and anxiety medications .
The big picture
The study only looked at one state, but data is have been used in the past to study this issue, in part because of the relative ease of collecting data from Medicaid, the health insurance program administered by states.
At the same time, research using nationally weighted samples has revealed the increasing prevalence of polypharmacy among youth. A recent article drew Data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey showed that in 2015, 40.7 percent of people ages 2 to 24 in the United States who were taking a medication for ADHD were also taking a second psychiatric medication. That figure was up from 26 percent in 2006.
The latest data from Maryland shows that the practice, at least in one state, continues to grow and was “significantly more common among youth who were disabled or in foster care,” according to the new study.
Mental health experts said psychotropic medications can be very helpful and doctors have the discretion to prescribe what they feel is necessary. A concern among some experts is that many medications used in commonly prescribed cocktails are not approved for use in young people. And it is unclear how the simultaneous use of multiple psychotropic medications affects long-term brain development.
The numbers
The latest study found that in 2015, 4.2 percent of Medicaid enrollees under the age of 17 in Maryland had overlapping prescriptions for three or more different classes of psychiatric medications. That figure rose to 4.6 percent in 2020.
The figures were higher among people in foster care, where the prevalence of polypharmacy rose from 10.8 percent to 11.3 percent.
“The findings highlight the importance of monitoring the use of psychotropic combinations, especially among vulnerable populations, such as youth enrolled in Medicaid who have disabilities or are in foster care,” the study concludes.