Are We Overmedicating Our Children? Available to Purchase

To the Editor.—

I was dismayed, yet not surprised, after reading the report by Mandell et al¹  concerning psychotropic medication use among children with autism spectrum disorders. Having a child with classic autism who is now 12 years old and treating >150 families in 2 different states (New York and Virginia) who have children with autism, I have personally witnessed the increased use of psychotropic medications and their adverse effects. However, the evidence-based data for this increase are sparsely supported in the literature.^2,3  I understand that some children with autism may inevitably require medications, yet having toddlers and small children placed on antidepressants, neuroleptics, anxiolytics, and mood stabilizers when their neurodevelopmental architecture is quite vulnerable should make general pediatric physicians pause and wonder what they are treating. Theoretically, we can manipulate the serotonin and dopamine receptors with a pill and perhaps modify outburst and anxious...