According to Reuters, “Children were the leading growth demographic for the pharmaceutical industry in 2009, with the increase of prescription drug use among youngsters nearly four times higher than in the overall population.” Last year, over one in four children in the U.S. and almost 30 percent of adolescents took at least one prescription medicine to treat a chronic condition.
Medco’s chief medical officer, Dr. Robert Epstein, said, “Looking at children was the real shocker for us,” in reference to the fact that the most significant increases in the medicating of children were seen in drugs for conditions not typically associated with them, such as for type 2 diabetes and antipsychotics.
It’s becoming more and more common for children to be taking drugs that are normally taken by adults, which Epstein says is “really disturbing.” With childhood obesity on the rise, a lot of kids are using cholesterol lowering drugs, blood pressure medicines and heart burn and acid reflux drugs. Epstein went on to say that, “We’ve got to get our arms around some very fast lifestyle modification or we’re going to have a real problem, having these adult illnesses show up in children who will have a changing life expectancy if they’re going to be sick from a very young age.”
If you are in need of a pediatrician, find one near you.
Related Posts:
Previous post: Eat Internationally and Lose Weight
Next post: Postpartum Depression For Dads?
