Kids Are Taking Fewer Antibiotics, More ADHD Meds

Children and adolescents are getting fewer prescription drugs than they did in years past, according to a study that looks at a cross-section of the American population.

"The decrease in antibiotic use is really what's driving this overall decline in prescription medication use that we're seeing in children and adolescents," says Craig Hales, a preventive medicine physician at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics and lead author of a study published Tuesday in JAMA.

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Studies find drugs prescribed inappropriately

In unrelated studies released Tuesday, the agency found that nearly a third of antibiotics were prescribed needlessly, potentially feeding resistance to those drugs, and that very young children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder who should have been referred first for behavioral therapy might have instead been placed on medication, with unknown long-term consequences.

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Parents credit antibiotic for autistic child's 'monumental' improvements

A five-year-old boy with autism who has never really communicated, has suddenly started answering back when asked a question, is making better eye contact and is happier, according to his excited parents who link these “monumental” changes to an unexpected source.

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Despite Warnings, Antibiotics Still Overprescribed in Kids

Despite warnings from public health experts that overprescribing antibiotics could lead to difficult-to-treat “superbugs,” doctors are prescribing antibiotics to children about twice as often as they are actually needed, a new study found.

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U.S. kids getting more ADHD drugs, fewer antibiotics

The number of drugs dispensed to U.S. minors has dropped slightly over the past decade, bucking the rise in prescriptions to adults, according to a government report out Monday.

U.S. kids getting more ADHD drugs, fewer antibiotics

Everyone needs to see this story. Congratulations to Maryanne Godboldo.

Study: Millions of Kids' Antibiotic Prescriptions Unneeded

Pediatricians write more than 10 million unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions—for conditions like the flu and asthma—every year, suggests a new study.

Study: Millions of Kids' Antibiotic Prescriptions Unneeded

Antibiotic Prescriptions For Kids Drop 24% In 14 Years

Average annual antibiotic prescribing rates for children under 14 years of age dropped from 300 per 1,000 physician office visits to 229, a 24% fall, during the periods 1993-1994 to 2007-2008, a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) revealed today. MMWRs are issued by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

Antibiotic Prescriptions For Kids Drop 24% In 14 Years

Needless Antibiotics Often Doled Out to Asthmatic Kids

Pediatric asthma patients are nearly twice as likely to be prescribed an unnecessary antibiotic, compared with other pediatric patients, during an office or emergency department visit, recent studies revealed.

Needless Antibiotics Often Doled Out to Asthmatic Kids

Author Robert Whitaker questions the benefits of antipsychotic medications

Author Robert Whitaker questions the benefits of antipsychotic medications

Journalist and author Robert Whitaker used to think it was unethical for doctors to take schizophrenia patients off their medication. Having cofounded a publishing company in the 1990s that reported on clinical trials, he likened the removal of antipsychotic drugs to taking a diabetic off insulin. And that’s how he covered this issue in a Pulitzer Prize–nominated series of freelance articles for the Boston Globe in 1998.

Michigan kids overprescribed antibiotics

A study says Michigan children are among state residents who continue to be over treated with prescription antibiotic drugs.

Michigan kids overprescribed antibiotics

When the Best Rx Is No Rx

When Latonia Best's teenaged kids were little, doctors always prescribed antibiotics for their ear infections. But when her youngest son, 5-year-old Justin, was diagnosed with one recently, she heard something new: The pediatrician asked if she wanted to try waiting a few days to see if he would get better on his own.

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Children's Hospital receives federal contract to study antibiotic use in children with UTIs

In the largest study of its kind, pediatric researchers at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia have received a federal contract for a project to determine the most beneficial method of using antibiotics to treat urinary tract infections (UTIs) in children.

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