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A leading health academic has attacked what he considers over-use of antidepressants, after the release of figures suggesting the drugs have been prescribed to hundreds of young children, including babies.
Professor Max Abbott, AUT University's dean of health and environmental sciences, wants antidepressant use to be reviewed.
"Pharmac figures for children are so off-the-wall that the first thing to do is check them very carefully," said Professor Abbott, a psychologist, a pro vice-chancellor of the Auckland university, and a past president of the World Federation for Mental Health.
"The adolescent figures should also be checked, and if correct the prescribing doctors identified. If widespread, there might be a case for restricting prescribing rights."
Pharmac, the state drug-buying agency, is rechecking the figures, given to the United Future party and published in the Herald on Monday.
They show that the number of prescriptions written for antidepressants continues to grow and is now more than one million, although for those aged under 15 the number is declining.
In the last financial year 914 prescriptions were written for children under 5 and 5387 for those aged 5 to 14.
Last year, 9 were issued for infants, 24 for 1-year-olds, and 263 for 2-year-olds - down respectively from 453, 768 and 547 in 2004/5.
Pharmac on Sunday confirmed the figures were accurate, but was mystified by the prescriptions to babies.
It suggested some patients' date of birth may have been recorded wrongly and undertook to re-check the data.
Medical director Dr Peter Moodie said yesterday the re-check was incomplete and he had no answers yet.
Professor Abbott said there was no medical justification for giving powerful antidepressants to young children.
Extreme caution should be exercised in their use with older children and adolescents as the risk of suicidal ideas and behaviour and cardiovascular complications generally outweighed potential benefits.
He deplored an apparent over-reliance on chemical treatments rather than psychological and psycho-social intervention.
"In hindsight I fear that public-health depression awareness campaigns have been more about boosting pharmaceutical sales than providing comprehensive treatment and stimulating the development of prevention programmes."
A conference in Wellington in April marked the creation of the Infant Mental Health Association, set up to support practitioners and academics working in the area of mental health for young children.
One speaker, Wellington child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr Denise Guy, said social and emotional development difficulties were now being recognised in children aged 4 and under, but she would treat them with "family relationship work" rather than drugs.
