Florida's Children First

Overmedicating Foster Kids: The Cost of Skimping on Care

December 2, 2011

The statistics that came out of this week’s GAO report on psychotropic drug use among American foster children were bone-chilling: In 2008, children in Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon and Texas who’d been removed from their parents and placed in the care of state child welfare agencies were being prescribed psychiatric drugs at rates 2.7 to 4.5 times as high as non-foster care children on Medicaid. Thousands of children were taking medications at doses that exceeded FDA-approved maximum levels. Hundreds of foster children were taking more than five medications at once and some were taking up to ten drugs simultaneously. Even some infants were being prescribed psychiatric medications.

Read more: http://ideas.time.com/2011/12/02/bromides-are-no-better-than-zyprexa/#ixzz1fn9DFjeP

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