Researchers with the Child and Adolescent Health Research Design and Support Unit at the University of Louisville have announced the launch of a three-year study to figure out why children in Kentucky are being given psychiatric medications at a rate that’s twice the national average.
“Of the almost 600,000 children receiving Medicaid in Kentucky, one in seven – 14 percent – has been prescribed at least one of these powerful psychiatric drugs,” states a University of Louisville press release. “Equally troublesome, almost half – 42 percent – of the children in Kentucky’s foster care system have been prescribed at least one. Both statistics are almost twice the national average. Nationally, just 7.4 percent of kids receiving Medicaid and 26.6 percent of kids in the foster care system have been prescribed a [psychiatric medication].”
Rate of Prescribing Psychotropic Drugs to Kentucky Kids Studied at UofL (University of Louisville press release on Newswise, December 12, 2014)
