The overuse of antipsychotics

It's a form of drug abuse your own doctor won't tell you about--because odds are, he's guilty of it himself.

But this isn't about his drug problem... after all, he's not the one taking the meds.

You are--because a shocking number of patients are being given atypical antipsychotics off-label for conditions where there's little to no evidence they actually work.

A new study shows how quickly the market for these meds has grown: From 6.2 million prescriptions in 1995 to 16.7 million in 2008.

And while the bulk of the prescriptions early on were for approved uses, 9 million Americans now take these drugs off-label, according to the study in the journal Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety.

"Physicians want to prescribe and use the latest therapies--and even when those latest therapies don't necessarily offer a big advantage, there's still a tendency to think that the newest drugs must be better," Stanford University School of Medicine's Dr. Randall Stafford, who worked on the study, said in a statement.

That "tendency" adds up to big bucks: Atypical antipsychotics did a combined $10 billion in sales in the United States alone, and represent 5 percent of all prescription drug spending.

Expect that number to rise--because docs just can't seem to help themselves around these meds. Once approved for schizophrenia, atypical antipsychotics are now given for everything from bipolar disorder to autism.

One study last year even found a growing number of doctors giving these drugs to toddlers.

It's like an addiction--doctors are addicted to prescribing them.

But while these meds may not help your condition, they'll put you at risk for some of the worst side effects you can imagine: heart disease, diabetes, potentially deadly blood clots and more.

Dementia patients given these meds--as so many are in nursing homes these days--can even expect a shorter life.

It's shocking when you realize that you can't even trust your own doc to give you or a family member a med that's proven to work... but as this new study shows, you need to ask, ask, ask any time you get a new drug prescription.

And you can start with this simple question: What proof do you have that this drug will help me?

On a mission for your health,
Ed Martin
Editor, House Calls