Drug Education News

The Daily Mail:

Thousands of children with behavioural problems are being prescribed anti-psychotic drugs with dangerous side effects, doctors warn.

The powerful tranquillisers, designed to treat psychosis and schizophrenia in adults, are being used to calm children who are simply hyperactive.

Around 8,000 youngsters are taking anti- psychotics such as Risperdal and Zyprexa despite the fact that these have been linked to a host of health problems from diabetes to brain damage, BBC1’s Panorama reports.

Whether children should prescribed these drugs is one question but if they are then it seems like a good reason for guidance on handling these medicines to have been developed I’d have thought.