The diabetes risk of children and adolescents treated with antipsychotics is nearly three times as high as in minors who are not treated with drugs, according to a Danish long-term study of approximately 50,000 young psychiatric patients. Antipsychotics are psychopharmaceuticals used in autism, depression, ADHD, anxiety and sleep disorders. Girls are at a higher risk of developing type II diabetes due to the use of antipsychotics.
Psychopharmaceuticals in Childhood
More and more children and adolescents are diagnosed with a type of mental illness. In most cases, the treating physicians do not wait long before prescribing strong drugs, such as antipsychotics, a subgroup of psychopharmaceuticals, even though the focus in the treatment of mental illness should initially be on a non-drug therapy.
If the patients are treated only with drugs (antipsychotics), this leads to a suppression of the symptoms, but not to a remedy of the cause. For example, sufferers are often dependent on medicines for their whole lives and suffer from their strong side effects sooner or later.
Increased blood fat levels and movement disorders are the most common side effects of the drugs mentioned.
In addition, it has been shown in adults that psychopharmaceuticals are not only increasing in the frequency of use, but also lead to an increased risk for Diabetes Type II. Corresponding data for underage patients was not available until recently, but this has now changed due to the present study.
Antipsychotics Promote Diabetes
Psychiatrist Dr. Rene Ernst Nielsen from the Danish Aalborg University Hospital collected the data for a total of 48,299 children and adolescents who were treated in a psychiatric institution in Denmark between 1999 and 2010.
The aim was to determine whether antipsychotic drugs could increase the risk of diabetes among 18-year-olds.
The analysis of the data showed that 7,253 of the study participants received antipsychotics during their treatment in psychiatry. From this group, 52 patients were affected by diabetes, with a risk of 0.72 percent.
41,046 participants were treated non-medically. Their diabetes risk was only 0.27 percent.
Thus, the intake of antipsychotics increased the risk of diabetes among the students almost three times.
Dr. Nielsen and his colleagues also noted that the gender and the age of the treated adolescents were also of importance.
Girls had a higher risk of diabetes than boys. The older the adolescents when taking antipsychotics for the first time, the higher their risk of developing diabetes.
These results are all the more alarming when one considers that children and adolescents who are actually suffering from a psychosis are prescribed antipsychotics by their doctors.
Even in the case of symptoms for which antipsychotics are not even recommended, such as ADHD, anxiety or sleep disorders, these strong psychopharmaceuticals are often prescribed.
The Danish scientists recommend treating mental disorders with minors in as many ways possible, in order to prevent prescription drugs.
Only when these methods fail should doctors prescribe psychopharmaceuticals - and only if the patients can be regularly examined for changes in blood tests or cardiovascular problems in order to keep the health risks as low as possible.
Avoid Medication
Behavioral disorders, especially ADHD, have become a popular phenomenon. The number of people affected increases so rapidly that one is now asking whether appropriate diagnoses are not made too quickly and arbitrarily.
This can have serious consequences since these disorders are now treated with strong drugs such as antipsychotics in most cases.
Children and adolescents should be first assigned to alternative treats to medication. The most important alternatives are, of course, psychotherapy or behavioral therapy.
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