Children as young as four in foster care are taking three or more psychotropic medications, and the length of time that children aged six or under are being medicated with psychotropics increases two-fold for every year that they live in foster care, according to a study in Psychiatric Services. University of Maryland researchers studied 1,491 foster children aged six and under in a mid-Atlantic city between 2009-11. While other studies have shown that psychotropic medicating of foster children is high, this is the first to examine developments over time in care. “The higher likelihood of using antipsychotic, antidepressant, and ADHD medications for three or more weeks per month with each increase in year of age suggests a trend toward chronic use,” they wrote. “Such use occurred over a very short period of tremendous developmental growth.”
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