Better Monitoring Urged for Youth Taking Newer Antipsychotics

http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/short/41/15/1-a
Psychiatr News August 4, 2006Volume 41, Number 15, page 1
Children and adolescents prescribed newer antipsychotic medications must be closely followed as the risk of significant acute and long-term adverse effects may be higher than in adults.
A series of recent reports documenting increases of between 200 percent and 300 percent in the prescribing of second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) to children and adolescents since the mid-1990s has prompted experts to remind prescribers that a critical part of using the medications involves clinical monitoring and follow-up of the drugs' potentially serious acute and long-term adverse effects.