Medical regulators to investigate risky psych drug prescribing to California foster youth

[alp227]

Source: SJ Mercury News

With pressure on California's foster care system to curb the rampant use of powerful psych meds on children, concern is mounting about the doctors behind the questionable prescribing.

For months, the state has adamantly refused to release data that this newspaper sought to expose which physicians are most responsible. Now, in response to a request from state Sen. Ted Lieu, California's medical board is investigating whether some doctors are "operating outside the reasonable standard of care."

The action comes after this newspaper's investigation "Drugging Our Kids" revealed doctors often prescribe risky psychotropic drugs -- with little or no scientific evidence that they are safe or effective for children -- to control behavior, not treat serious mental illness. Many of these drugs are approved only for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other relatively rare mental illnesses.

To examine the problem, the newspaper spent nine months negotiating with the state Department of Health Care Services to release a decade of prescribing data that did not identify individual patients.

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_26419624/medical-regulators-investigate-risky-psych-drug-prescribing-california

[gwheezie]

1. I remember when bush the lesser was president

He tried to get a bill passed that would require all public school students be screened for mental illness. It would have been a gift to pharma. It's a big business.