Massachusetts tracks pre-school children's psychiatric drug use

The northeastern US state of Massachusetts has launched an early warning network to detect excessive psychiatric drug dosing for pre-school children. The project, which has led to 35 cases being investigated in three months, is based on an analysis by MassHealth, the Massachusetts Medicaid program, of the medical records of 82,900 children aged between two and five years.

The move came in response to the death of a four-year-old child in December 2006, from an overdose of clonidine, a treatment for hypertension and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, the Boston Globe reports. MassHealth figures reported by the newspaper show that 955 under seven-years-old children were prescribed the drug, and 536 children aged under seven were treated with antipsychotics that offer increased risks of diabetes and obesity.

Robert Keane, the state's Deputy Mental Health Commissioner, told the Globe that the program is not intended to second guess physicians' medical judgement. However, he argued that MassHealth's initiative would help them to make more informed decisions, when prescribing larger doses of mental health drugs.