Consultation with child psychiatrist helps reduce overprescribing and off‐label prescribing to foster youth

Abstract

It may sound surprising that children are prescribed psychotropic medications without the involvement of a child psychiatrist — and that many of these medications are off‐label or overprescribed as a result — but that's what happens to foster children and other children in the child welfare system. A promising intervention for reducing overprescribing and off‐label prescribing to youth in state welfare systems is the involvement of child psychiatrists, according to a recent study, titled “Within‐Subject Change in Psychotropic Prescribing Patterns Among Youth in Foster Care Associated With a Peer‐to‐Peer Physician Consulting Program.”