Vaccination News Home Page

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/19/health/19MEDS.html?tntemail0

Children's Use of Prescription Drugs Is Surging, Study Shows

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

ASHINGTON, Sept. 18 — Prescription drug use is growing faster among children than among the elderly and baby boomers, according to a new study that says spending on prescription medicines for pediatric patients has increased by 85 percent over the past five years.

The figures are drawn from an analysis by Medco Health Solutions, a pharmacy benefits management company and subsidiary of Merck, the pharmaceutical concern. Each year, Medco examines its own data to spot trends in prescription drug spending.

The research, scheduled to be made public on Thursday, did not find that children take more medicine than adults. In fact, said Dr. Robert Epstein, Medco Health's chief medical officer, children accounted for just 5 percent of prescription drug expenditures.

But in examining prescription drug use among 500,000 children under age 19, Dr. Epstein did find that more young people are taking medicine today than five years ago and are taking drugs for longer periods.

"This was the first time that we have noticed that the pediatric age group trend was beating all the other age groups," said Dr. Epstein, who took a close look at pediatric prescribing as part of the company's annual look at drug-use trends.

Experts, including Dr. Epstein, attributed the rise in spending to several factors. First, certain conditions, including asthma and allergies, as well as hyperactivity, are being diagnosed more frequently and treated more aggressively than ever before. In addition, the overall cost of medicines is going up; Dr. Epstein said 30 percent of the rise in spending was attributable to an increase in drug prices.

Dr. Epstein said the percentage of children taking prescription medicines for allergies had nearly doubled, to 11.7 percent in 2001-2002 from 5.9 percent in 1997-98.

The use of antibiotics, however, has "flattened out," he said, remaining steady at about 34 percent of children each year.

Steven Findlay, director of research at the National Institute for Healthcare Management, a nonprofit organization that tracks prescription drug spending, said he was not surprised by the findings.

"We're seeing, for the last 5 to 10 years, everyone acknowledges more use of medications across the board in kids," Mr. Findlay said.

Dr. Epstein found that 48.9 percent of children took one or more prescription medications within the past year compared with 45.7 percent five years ago. The average length of time children spent on medication also increased, to 51 days in the past year from 38 days five years ago.

Over the past several years, the Food and Drug Administration has been pressing pharmaceutical companies to test their medicines in children, and the Bush administration recently reauthorized a program giving drug companies six-month patent extensions for conducting such tests.

Mr. Findlay said the Medco findings provided further justification for that policy, adding that the trends in pediatric drug use were cause for concern.

"I think it warrants close watching by physicians, by parents groups, public interest groups, consumer groups and even pharmaceutical companies," he said. "Everyone is concerned that we have begun to use pills, which were originally designed and tested in adults, in children more and more. That has a different set of risks."

Vaccination News Home Page

ALL INFORMATION, DATA, AND MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE.  THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.