Commentary:  The take home message is that the mental health needs for pediatric & adolescent patients should be top priority.  This article reveals e raw prescription counts for all Central Nervous System medications for each age group.  The rising rates are startling with double digit increases for all age groups from 2010 onward.  Potential reasons for this increased medication usage could be that there are, in fact, more pediatric mental illness cases.  An economic downturn, as we have  experienced, can affect the mental health of many persons, as well lead to more prescribing opportunities by physicians.  In any event, we as healthcare providers should be cognizant that mental health diagnoses are relatively common on the whole, and this should highlight our responsibility to inquire from parents about family issues and from patients stressors at home, education, activities and teenage inquiry about drug use, sexuality, and other high risk behaviors.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/821194