New research reveals a stark disparity: children covered by Medicaid are given powerful antipsychotic medicines at a rate four times higher than children whose parents have private insurance. And the Medicaid children are more likely to receive the drugs for less severe conditions.
Some experts say they are stunned by the disparity in prescribing patterns. But others say it reinforces their own experience that children with diagnoses of mental or emotional problems in low-income families are more likely to be given drugs than receive family counseling or psychotherapy.
Too many children from poor families receive powerful psychiatric drugs not because they actually need them, but because it is deemed the most efficient and cost-effective way to control problems.