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Big Money for Pharma, Big Risk for Kids: When Doctors Prescribe Antipsychotics and SSRIs for Children With Autism

childrenshealthdefense.org childrenshealthdefense.org

The FDA has approved only two drugs, both antipsychotics, for treating children with autism. Both are approved specifically for treating “irritability associated with autism.” However, doctors often also prescribe, off-label, other drugs, including stimulants and antidepressants, without the benefit of studies on how multiple drugs may interact.

Ten years ago, a Huffington Post investigation revealed that Johnson & Johnson had illegally promoted Risperdal, an antipsychotic drug associated with serious side effects, to children and the elderly.

Today, the drug remains one of only two medications approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat autism. The other is aripiprazole, also an antipsychotic, marketed as Abilify and sold by Bristol Myers Squibb.

According to the Huffington Post’s 15-part investigative report, the FDA had prohibited Johnson & Johnson salespeople from “trying to promote Risperdal to doctors to treat children because of its feared side effects, including hormonal disorders.”

Yet, the company “organized special sales units illegally targeting doctors who treated the elderly and children,” even as adverse events — including gynecomastia, which causes enlargement of breast tissue in males — were reported in some children who took the medication.

Read Full Article Here…(childrenshealthdefense.org)


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