News Release

Antipsychotic use in youths with ADHD is low, but still cause for concern

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Columbia University Irving Medical Center

NEW YORK, NY (JULY 26, 2019) -- Although fewer young people with ADHD are treated with antipsychotic drugs than suspected, many prescriptions for the drugs do not appear to be clinically warranted, according to a new study from psychiatry researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. They also found that antipsychotic use among youths with ADHD was highest among preschool-age children.

Background

In recent years, pediatricians and parents have expressed concern that some physicians are prescribing antipsychotic drugs to youths with ADHD who have significant aggressive or impulsive behavior. Youths with ADHD who are treated with antipsychotics are often also diagnosed with depression, oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), or conduct disorders (CD), even though there is limited evidence that the drugs are effective for ODD or CD and no evidence they are effective in treating depression.

"We didn't know how widespread this practice was among young people starting ADHD treatment," says senior author Mark Olfson, MD, MPH, Elizabeth K Dollard Professor of Psychiatry, Medicine, and Law at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. "There are substantial risks associated with the use of antipsychotic drugs in young people, including weight gain, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, and even unexpected death."

To determine the prevalence of antipsychotic use in youths with ADHD, the researchers analyzed medical and prescription drug data on 187,563 commercially insured youths (ages 3 to 24) who were diagnosed with ADHD between 2010 and 2015. None of the youths had a recent coexisting psychiatric diagnosis (such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder) that would warrant treatment with antipsychotic drugs.

What the Study Found

The researchers found that 2.6% of youths diagnosed with ADHD were prescribed an antipsychotic drug within a year of diagnosis--four times the rate among young people in general. Antipsychotic drug use was highest (4.3%) in the youngest children diagnosed with ADHD, those aged 3-5 years.

In about half of those taking antipsychotic drugs, the researchers identified a potential diagnostic rationale--such as bipolar disorder, psychosis, ODD, or CD--for prescribing them.

"While antipsychotics are not FDA-approved for these diagnoses, there is scientific evidence to support their use in treating severe symptoms of ADHD," says Ryan S. Sultan, MD, lead author of the paper and assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

The study also found that fewer than half of the children and adolescents taking antipsychotic drugs had been treated first with stimulants such as Adderall and Ritalin, the recommended medication treatment for ADHD.

"Many physicians bypassed stimulants and went right to antipsychotics--contrary to expert opinion about treatment for ADHD, and unnecessarily exposing patients to the risk of severe side effects such as substantial weight gain," adds Sultan.

What the Study Means

"It's reassuring that only a relatively small percentage of these children were prescribed antipsychotics," Olfson says. "But we should be working to reduce that number even further. For at least half of the young people in our sample who were prescribed antipsychotics, we couldn't find a rationale in their claims records to explain why they were taking these medications."

"While hospitalization and use of other medications may be markers for more severe symptoms, we don't have enough information from these records to determine symptom severity," adds Sultan. "Antipsychotic medications play a small role in the treatment of severe ADHD symptoms, but in the absence of severe symptoms, there are safer, more effective medications for youths with ADHD."

Both Sultan and Olfson suggested that many of the behavioral symptoms that prompted physicians to prescribe antipsychotic medications as an initial treatment might have been resolved by prescribing recommended ADHD medications first.

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More Details

Mark Olfson, MD, MPH, is also a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

Ryan S. Sultan, MD, is a child psychiatrist at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

The study is titled "Antipsychotic Treatment Among Youths With Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder" and was published July 26 in JAMA Network Open.

Additional authors are Shuai Wang (Columbia University Irving Medical Center and New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY) and Stephen Crystal (Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ).

The study was supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (grants 1R01HSO26001-01A1 and U19HSO21112-01) and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Pilot Research Award for Attention Disorders.

Dr. Olfson received personal fees from Lundbeck Pharmaceuticals during the conduct of the study. No other disclosures were reported.

Columbia University Irving Medical Center provides international leadership in basic, preclinical, and clinical research; medical and health sciences education; and patient care. The medical center trains future leaders and includes the dedicated work of many physicians, scientists, public health professionals, dentists, and nurses at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Mailman School of Public Health, the College of Dental Medicine, the School of Nursing, the biomedical departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and allied research centers and institutions. Columbia University Irving Medical Center is home to the largest medical research enterprise in New York City and State and one of the largest faculty medical practices in the Northeast. For more information, visit cuimc.columbia.edu or columbiadoctors.org.

The Columbia University Department of Psychiatry is among the top ranked psychiatry departments in the nation and has contributed greatly to the understanding and treatment of brain disorders. Co-located at the New York State Psychiatric Institute on the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Irving Medical Center campus in Washington Heights, the department enjoys a rich and productive collaborative relationship with physicians in various disciplines at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. Columbia Psychiatry is home to distinguished clinicians and researchers noted for their clinical and research advances in the diagnosis and treatment of depression, suicide, schizophrenia, bipolar and anxiety disorders, eating disorders, substance use disorders, and childhood psychiatric disorders.


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