Zyprexa

Both Both manufacturers state on the drug packaging that safety and effectiveness in children is not known.

The reason that some doctors are prescribing these medications is that children with ADD can have outbursts.

These drugs will calm a child.

The data that was studied was of children around the age of 13 years and were involved with an annual national health survey.

The survey gave data of prescriptions that were given out at 119,752 doctor visits.

Using this data the researchers estimated the national statistics for the number of children taking anti-psychotic medications.

This study raises concern that both doctors and parents in the United States are possibly mistreating their children with inappropriate drug treatments.

Possibly these children need therapy with a behavior therapist if they are not already doing so.

It would be interesting to see of those prescribed these medications how many had regular therapy.

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Anti-psychotics are intended for use against schizophrenia and other psychotic illnesses.

However, attention deficit disorder is sometimes accompanied by temper outbursts and other disruptive behavior.

As a result, some doctors prescribe anti-psychotics to these children to calm them down - a strategy some doctors and parents say works.

The drugs, typically atseveral dollars a pill, are considered safer than older anti-psychotics - at least in adults - but they still can have serious side effects, including weight gain, elevated cholesterol and diabetes.

Anecdotal evidence suggests similar side effects in children, but large studies of youngsters are needed, Cooper said.

Data analyzed: The researchers analyzed data on youngsters age 13 on average who were involved in annual national health surveys.

The surveys involved prescriptions given during 119,752 doctor visits.

The researchers used that data to come up with national estimates.

Cooper said some of the increases might reflect repeat prescriptions given to the same child, but he said that is unlikely and noted that his findings echo results from smaller studies.

The study appears in the March-April edition of the journal Ambulatory Pediatrics.

Heavy marketing by drug companies probably contributed to the increase in the use of anti-psychotic drugs among children, said Dr.

Daniel S...

That was up from 90, or 29 percent, the year before, and 86, or 31 percent, in 2002.

The rejection rate now may be even higher.

The FDA recently toughened its procedure by requiring that possible names be checked against overseas brands because of concerns about U.S.

drugs that have names identical to some used abroad, but very different uses.

To find out whether a drug works, a manufacturer runs studies, with the guidance of the FDA.

The agency then decides whether the product merits approval.

With a proposed name, the agency does its own internal tests to see whether the name is likely to be confused with that of an existing drug.

The tests involve writing the names on mock prescriptions to check how they would look in real-world conditions, conducting Web searches and using a proprietary software program that the agency has never released.

The pharmaceutical companies, adept at getting their way on big Washington policy matters, admit to being stumped sometimes by the process.

The proof: a graveyard of expensive but never used drug names.

Eli Lilly & Co.

reaped a bonanza of positive brand publicity from a successful clinical trial of its experimental sepsis drug, dubbed Zovant.

But the FDA rejected the name, saying that it was too close to others used in critical care.

The other drugs were Zofran, an antinausea drug, and Zosyn, an an...