Last week, we reported on warnings about the possible risks of suicidal behavior among children and teens taking antidepressant drugs. An April 2, 2004 report indicated that pre-school children are the fastest growing group of patients in the United States getting antidepressant medication, with use nearly doubling between 1998 and 2002.

Express Scripts, which keeps statistics on drug use, said the number of prescriptions written for anti-depressants is growing by about 10% a year in children and adolescents.

The study looked at a random sample of 2 million children covered by commercial insurance between 1998 and 2002. Among children under age 5, the number of girls being prescribed an antidepressant doubled and the number of boys went up by 64%.

Writing in the April, 2004 issue of Psychiatric Services, Express Scripts said antidepressant use for all children under 18 increased from 1.6 percent in 1998 to 2.4 percent in 2002.

"A number of factors acting together or independently may have led to escalated use of antidepressants among children and adolescents," Tom Delate, director of research at Express Scripts, said in a statement.

"These factors include increasing rates of depression in successive age groups, a growing awareness of and screening for depression by pediatricians and assumptions that the effectiveness experienced by adults using antidepressant medications will translate to children and adolescents."

Upon close scrutiny, the reasons for ever increasing drug use do not hold up. A growing awareness and screening for depression among physicians is creating more of a drug culture not a healthier society. Assumptions about effectiveness with children because of presumed effectiveness with adults has rarely been found to be true and now holds the added specter of raising the possibility of suicide.

Yes, be afraid but THINK BEFORE YOU ACT!!!