ArticleEuropean journal of pediatrics2007
Use of psychotropic medications in Italian children and adolescents.
Article in European journal of pediatrics, 2007. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 56 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cost-effectiveness of Multisystemic Therapy for adolescents with antisocial behaviour: study protocol of a randomized controlled trial.BMC public health · 2013Trial
- Off-label drug use in children and adolescents treated with antidepressants and antipsychotics: results from a prospective multicenter trial.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2025Article
- Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on prescription of psychotropic medications in the Italian paediatric population during 2020.Italian journal of pediatrics · 2024Article
- Patterns of internalizing symptoms and disability functioning in children and adolescents.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2022Article
- Ten Years (2011-2021) of the Italian Lombardy ADHD Register for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Children and Adolescents with ADHD.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- 'Use of antipsychotics in children and adolescents: a picture from the ARITMO population-based European cohort study'.Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences · 2020Article
- Psychotropic medicine prescriptions in Italian youths: a multiregional study.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2016Article
- Antipsychotic prescribing in youths: a French community-based study from 2006 to 2013.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2015Article
- Neuroleptic malignant syndrome in an adolescent with CYP2D6 deficiency.European journal of pediatrics · 2014Article
- Trends, correlates, and disease patterns of antipsychotic use among children and adolescents in Taiwan.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2013Article
- Increase in psychotropic drug use between 2006 and 2010 among adolescents in Norway: a nationwide prescription database study.Clinical epidemiology · 2012Article
- Antidepressant and antipsychotic use in an Italian pediatric population.BMC pediatrics · 2011Article
- Psychotropic medication in the French child and adolescent population: prevalence estimation from health insurance data and national self-report survey data.BMC psychiatry · 2009Article
- [Off-label use in child and adolescent psychiatry. An ongoing ethical, medical and legal problem].Der Nervenarzt · 2009Review
- Differences in generic sertraline for children: real or artefact from cost containing to clinical quality of generics use.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2006Review
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionThe evidence of psychotropic drug safety and efficacy in the pediatric population is scant and widely debated. Yet, the prescription prevalence and incidence are increasing. A drug utilization study, based on a multiregional prescription database was therefore carried out in a sample of 1,484,770 Italian children and adolescents younger than 18 years during the year 2004. Furthermore, the trend of psychotropic prescription prevalence was evaluated from 1998 to 2004. During 2004, 4,316 children and adolescents received psychotropic drugs (2.91 per thousand youths). Antidepressants were prescribed to 3,503 youths (2.36 per thousand), antipsychotics to 1,005 (0.68 per thousand), and lithium to 73 (0.05 per thousand). A total of 265 youths received drugs from more than one psychotropic class. The prevalence rate of psychotropic drug prescriptions increased with increasing age, with a statistically significant trend ([Formula: see text]; p<0.0001), and it increased in the period 1998-2004 with a statistically significant trend ([Formula: see text]; p<0.0001), reaching its highest value in 2002 (3.08 per thousand). The trend for antidepressants was similar ([Formula: see text]; p<0.0001), while the prevalence of antipsychotics did not increase.
conclusionEven though the prevalence of psychotropic drug prescriptions in Italian children is lower than that reported in other countries (e.g. United States, Canada, Netherlands, UK), the increase in antidepressant prescriptions raises some concerns. Data concerning safety and efficacy of these antidepressants in pediatrics are still limited and further studies are needed to guarantee evidence based therapeutic approaches in children, adolescents and their families.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.