Chemical Kids ; A Boom in Drug Therapy for Children Is Spurring a Debate within the Medical Community. Are Psychotropic Drugs Being Overprescribed?

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Throughout the 1990s, family physicians and psychiatrists in the US would compare notes in clinic hallways and at conferences: The scuttlebutt was about a perceived boom in prescriptions for drugs designed to treat a range of mental conditions - for kids.

Recently, researchers have been putting hard numbers to the trend, confirming a dramatic rise - as much as a threefold increase - in the share of young patients treated with stimulants, antidepressants, "mood stabilizing" anticonvulsants, and other psychotropic drugs that previously had been prescribed primarily for adults.

The rise has been so steep and so sudden that the medical community is …