State Rep. Peter Koutoujian, House Chairman of the Joint Committee on Public Health, today announced the committee is planning oversight hearing to address the practice of prescribing medication to children in hopes of learning what legislative and policy measures can be taken to better protect children.
The hearing, which is in the process of being scheduled, is being planned as a direct result of the House Commission on Child Abuse and Neglect, which has been meeting this month. The upcoming hearing will also be held due to the death of 4-year-old Rebecca Riley of Hull, who authorities say slowly overdosed on medication her parents has given her to treat what had been diagnosed as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and bipolar disorder.
“There is a tremendous amount we don’t know about the effects of certain medications on children,” said Koutoujian. “The fact is that children don’t have the ability to say ‘no’ to these kind of treatments. The Rebecca Riley case represents a tremendous failure by the state, parents, physician and pharmacy and highlights the need for closer scrutiny of the types of medications being administrated to children. We need to see what we can be done to help prevent similar tragedies from occurring.”
According to the National Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys, released last year, antipsychotic prescriptions for people ages 20 and younger rose six-fold from 1993-2002.
A 2004 study by the Center for Health and Health Care in Schools at George Washington University reported an estimated 4 million children have been identified as having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The same report found that antidepressant prescriptions among commercially-insured school-age children and youth doubled between 1998 and 2002.
As the Boston Globe noted in this editorial:
Koutoujian said the hearings will also question whether therapists sometimes diagnose mental health disorders in children who are actually victims of abuse, putting a focus on the responsibility of health professionals and the state Department of Social Services.
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