A March 26, 2015, article published on the online news website
Capital, highlights the findings of a recent report showing that children in the United States are being over-prescribed antipsychotic medications. The report entitled "Second-Generation Antipsychotic Drug Use Among Medicaid-Enrolled Children: Quality-of-Care Concerns", was published by the U.S Department of Health Human Services (
Report warns of overprescription for children on Medicaid).
The report reviewed Medicaid claims in 2011 for second generation antipsychotics (SGAs) prescribed to children in New York, California, Florida, Illinois and Texas and identified the following concerns:
- 41 percent of SGA claims were for the wrong treatment.
- 17 percent of claims for SGAs were prescribed for children too young to take the drugs.
- 37 percent of the claims for SGAs showed children were mixing too many different kinds of drugs.
- Only 8 percent of the claims filed for SGAs were for the limited number of medically accepted reasons the drugs are used to treat.
- 92 percent of the claims filed for SGAs were for conditions that included bipolar disorder, mood disorders and autism spectrum disorders.
Although there is no Federal Medicaid requirements for the appropriate prescribing of SGAs to children, many federal and state agencies and professional associations have provided information and guidelines on the prescribing of antipsychotic drugs to children. These guidelines include the AACAP practice parameter, the HEDIS measures, and the ACF information memorandum. They provide information on the development of medication monitoring plans, dosage and durataion of treatment, and a clear rationale for the use of multiple drug regimens.
Cerilliant provides Certified Spiking Solutions® for a wide selection of antipsychotics, their metabolites, and stable-labeled internal standards including atypical antipsychotics asenapine, aripiprazole, clozapine, 9-hydroxyrisperidone, iloperidone, lurasidone, olanzapine, quetiapine, risperidone, and ziprasidone as well as typical antipsychotics chlorpromazine, fluphenazine, haloperidol, and thioridazine. These Certified Spiking Solutions® are suitable for a wide range of GC/MS or LC/MS applications from clinical toxicology, forensic analysis, and urine drug testing to calibrator preparation and isotope dilution methods.
Click on the link below to view our comprehensive listing of antipsychotic drug reference standards: