An increasing number of minors covered by Medicaid are being prescribed multiple psychiatric medications.
A study of mental health care in Maryland found people 17 and younger experienced “a 4% increased odds of psychotropic polypharmacy per year from 2015 to 2020.”
“Polypharmacy” is defined as taking three or more different classes of psychiatric medications, according to DNYUZ.
The medications include antidepressants, mood-stabilizing anticonvulsants and sedatives. They also include drugs for ADHD and anxiety drugs.
The practice of polypharmacy is becoming more commonplace. Some experts warn the practice can be unsafe.
Polypharmacy, a prescribing practice that some experts warn can be unsafe, is becoming more commonplace. https://t.co/OLVi1jDcTz
— NYT Health (@NYTHealth) February 17, 2024
Published Friday in JAMA Open Network, the study focused on patients 17 or younger enrolled in Medicaid in Maryland from 2015 to 2020. There was a 9.5% increase in polypharmacy in the group.
The data of 126,972 young people was analyzed. In 2015, 4.2% of Medicaid enrollees under the age of 17 in the state had prescriptions for three or more different classes of psychiatric medications at the same time. In 2020, the number rose to 4.6%.
The study concluded that “The findings emphasize the importance of monitoring the use of psychotropic combinations, particularly among vulnerable populations, such as youths enrolled in Medicaid who have a disability or are in foster care.”
In “monitoring the use of psychotropic combinations,” one would hope it included assessing if they were effective or not.
In 2016, an Oxford study found that most antidepressants do not work on young people.
The study found that “most available antidepressants are ineffective, and some may be unsafe, for children and teenagers with major depression.”
It shouldn’t come as a shock that psychiatric drugs in young people can be unsafe. You don’t need a medical degree or a doctorate to figure it out. Powerful drugs that impact the brains of minors should be a last resort.
The Maryland study found that the numbers were even higher for minors in foster care. The prevalence of polypharmacy among those patients rose to 11.3% from 10.8%.
In a culture where confusion is nurtured by progressives who promote gender theory to school children, an increase in mental illness is to be expected.
Pumping at-risk minors from low-income families full of multiple psychiatric drugs will only increase the problem, not cure it.
