Wollongong researchers have found that anti-psychotic medication commonly prescribed for children can lead to increased depression and anxiety in adulthood.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
University of Wollongong PhD student Michael De Santis, who led the study, said researchers looked at the long-term impacts of three common drugs – Aripiprazole, Olanzapine and Risperidone.
Mr De Santis said while these drugs were often prescribed for adults for mental illnesses such as schitzophrenia, there had been an ‘’exponential rise’’ in prescriptions for children.
Worryingly, many of these prescriptions were ‘’off label’’ meaning they fell outside the guidelines laid down by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
‘’For instance Risperidone is not recommended for use in children under nine and then only for severe mental illnesses such as childhood onset schitzophrenia,’’ Mr De Santis said.
‘’Yet we’re seeing drugs such as Risperidone used for ages as low as five – for conditions like autism, oppositional defiant disorder and ADHD.
‘’They might control the short-term symptoms, but there has been limited research looking at the long-term effects of these drugs, which are extremely potent.’’
So Mr De Santis - and a team of neuroscientists at the University of Wollongong and the Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute – embarked on a rat study to look at those enduring impacts.
He said long-term behavioural changes were found, particularly in male rats.
‘’The study revealed that early exposure to anti-psychotics had an effect on critical neurotransmitters in the brain, which had an effect on neurodevelopment,’’ he said.
‘’So there were long-term alterations to a number of adult behaviours, including increased levels of of anxiety and depressive-like behaviours and an increase in hyperactive behaviour.
‘’We found that the most significant effects on behaviour were seen in the male cohort.’’
The research, recently published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, is part of a larger NHMRC project into anti-psychotic drugs led by Professor Chao Deng.
‘’We hope this study will help fill the critical knowledge gap in this area and assist paediatricians and psychiatrists prescribing anti-psychotics,’’ he said, ‘’so they can weigh-up the risks versus the benefits of prescribing these drugs in such a critical time period.”
Professor Deng and his team are now looking at the impacts of early anti-psychotic use on the neurotransmitter systems dopamine and serotonin, which influence mood, behaviour and learning.