Drug prescriptions soar for child mental health

New figures released in July by the Department of Health in response to a parliamentary question by David Laws, the Liberal Democrat shadow children's secretary, show a massive rise in the number of prescriptions written by GPs to treat conditions such as depression, behavioural problems and psychoses in under-16s. Prescriptions of behaviour-altering drugs for conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder have increased from 48,264 in 1996/1997 to 454,797 in 2006/2007. Prescriptions for antidepressants rose from 78,353 to 109,535 over the same period. A Department of Health spokesperson said, 'There...