Who uses psychotropic drugs in preschool children?
Both physicians and nonphysicians provide psychotropic medications to preschool children. Among physicians, one finds general practitioners (GPs), pediatricians, and psychiatrists to be most frequently involved in this practice. Adams’study of the prescribing patterns of 100 GPs and 28 consultant child psychiatrists during a 3-month period in a circumscribed area of England provides some interesting data (15). Based on a questionnaire returned by 83% of the GPs and 79% of the consultants, she found that 73% of the GPs and 46% of the consultants stated that they prescribed hypnotics to preschool children. Further, 37% of the GPs and 18% of the consultants prescribed antidepressants, primarily for the treatment of enuresis. Sixty-one of the GPs (73%) and 16 of the 22 child psychiatrists (72%) had prescribed any psychotropic medication for children aged under 18 years during the period covering her investigation. Trott and colleagues (16) investigated the prescribing habits of all 787 reg
