Your Kids on Drugs: Scary Statistics

“A 2005 study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University revealed a disturbing 212-percent jump from 1992 to 2003 in the number of teens 12 to 17 abusing controlled prescription drugs. These included depressants and stimulants.

Americans spent some $2.5 billion in 2003 on psychiatric drugs for children, according to figures from Medco Health Solutions, a top pharmacy benefits management company that serves some 65 million members. That represented an attention-grabbing jump in just three years of 183 percent in such spending overall and of 369 percent in spending for ADHD drugs for preschoolers.”

—Lidia Wasowicz, UPI Sr. Science Writer, Jan. 27, 2006, Consumer Health, “Ped Med: The ADHD quandary”