TODDLERS' USE OF DRUGS SOARS

50% Jump In Psychiatric Drugs For Children 2 To 4

CHICAGO (AP) - The number of 2- to 4-year-olds on psychiatric drugs
including Ritalin and anti-depressants like Prozac soared 50 per cent
between 1991 and 1995, the Journal of the American Medical Association
said today.

Researchers said they're troubled by the findings, based on a study of
more than 200,000 preschoolers, because the effects of such powerful
drugs in children so young are largely unknown. Some doctors worry the
drugs could be dangerous for children's development.

The number of children getting any of the drugs totalled about 100,000
in 1991, and jumped 50 per cent to 150,000 in 1995. That year, 60 per
cent of those on drugs were age 4, 30 per cent were 3 and 10 per cent
were 2-year-olds.

Although the study did not examine the reasons for the increases, lead
author Julie Magno Zito, an assistant professor of pharmacy and
medicine at the University of Maryland, suggested several
possibilities.

With an increasing number of children attending day-care centres,
parents may feel pressured "to have their children conform in their
behaviour," Zito said.

She also said there was a much greater acceptance in the 1990s of
psychoactive drugs.