Drugs ‘not best response’ to treat children

HEALTH Minister Micheál Martin has admitted that administering mood-altering drugs to children in care is “not the best response” to treating them.

Mr Martin was responding to a report in the Irish Examiner yesterday which revealed that 20% of children in high support care are prescribed drugs such as Prozac and Ritalin. They range in age from eight to 14.

The minister said while “clinicians and medical doctors are best placed to give these children a chance, we’d obviously be concerned about over-medication”. Mr Martin said children with challenging behaviour should have access to multi-disciplinary teams to assess their care needs.

However he pointed out that doctors and psychiatrists have “clinical autonomy” in treating their patients, which means it is up to the doctor to decide on the appropriate medication for the patient in his care.

The minister said the issue of medication in psychiatry was “constantly under review”.

“There are different schools of opinion in relation to the use of drugs. There are people who would argue that Ritalin is not nearly as widely prescribed here as it is in other jurisdictions. A psychiatrist speaking at a conference I attended last year said not enough Ritalin was used. I would stress that this is his view, I am not expressing a personal view,” he said.

Ritalin is used to improve attention span levels for children suffering from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Prozac is an anti-depressant not approved by the Irish Medicines Board for use by anyone under 18.

The Irish Association of Care Workers (IACW) yesterday defended administering mood-altering drugs to children in their care.

IACW spokesman Noel Howard said care workers, in administering (not prescribing) medication to children in care “are only doing so in the context of the medical section of a child’s care plan”, which “are subject to inspection by the Social Services Inspectorate (SSI)”.

Mr Howard said care workers, as part of their professional responsibility, regularly queried “the possibility of approaches other than the medical [in treating the child’s behavioural problems] and would wholeheartedly support sanctioned alternatives”.

He said the IACW agreed with the view put forward in yesterday’s Irish Examiner report that children were often wrongly labelled “in the often incorrect belief [of parents] that something can now be done because of a diagnosis”.

However Mr Howard said research should also be carried out to assess the prescription of similar mood-altering drugs to children not in residential care.

“The question can legitimately be asked, in our view, as to whether a comparative study of a similar age group in the community at large might not reveal an even greater percentage on Prozac or Ritalin?

“If such research was conducted and the percentages were higher than care centres that would not be a cause for complacency but it might put the question in context,” he said.

Mr Howard said that if children in care were being medicated for anything other than valid reasons, “the regular inspections carried out by the SSI would, in the first instance, be the vehicle to address this issue”.