By Maria Cendeja

A US study says that more drugs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and fewer antibiotics are being prescribed to US children and teenagers now than a decade ago, according to AFP.

Contraceptive prescriptions rose 93% from 2002 to 2010, though the reasons for the rise remain unclear. The research was published in the journal Pediatrics.

Prescriptions for kids ages 0-17 dropped 7% during the same period of time, while prescription drugs dispensed to adults rose 22%.

"Children are experiencing fewer serious medical problems than perhaps they had in the past," said Victor Fornari, director of child and adolescent psychiatry at North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System in New York.

The report tracked the number of prescriptions dispensed for the youths, not the number of patients, and was based on two major US commercial prescription databases.

A key rise was seen in stimulant medications for ADHD, which the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes as one of the most common neurobehavioral conditions of childhood, affecting about five million children.

ADHD diagnoses have been rising in recent years, and Fornari said the 46% rise in ADHD prescriptions noted in the Pediatrics study was likely in keeping with the higher number of cases.

"Given the prevalence of these disorders it is likely to reflect a greater awareness and recognition of these conditions and an understanding of the negative impact of failing to treat ADHD. That failure to treat results in lower academic achievement, a greater rate of conduct disorders, earlier entry into substance abuse and a higher likelihood of entering the juvenile justice system or the criminal justice system. There has been a much greater awareness that you want to treat ADHD early to prevent the bad outcome. I think this increase may reflect that," added Fornari, who wasn’t involved in the study.

The most frequently dispensed drugs were antibiotics, accounting for about a quarter of all pediatric prescriptions between 2002 and 2010, said the report.

The data showed a 14% decline in antibiotic dispensing over that period, which Kenneth Bromberg, chairman of Pediatrics at The Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York, described as good news.

"Almost no one is chronically on antibiotics. It suggests the use of antibiotics for ambulatory type things has gone down, which is very good. The more we cut back on unnecessary antibiotic use in humans, the better off we will be in terms of antibiotic resistance," said Bromberg, who also was not involved with the research.

Other findings included a 42% drop in prescription medications for coughs and colds, a 14% rise in asthma meds, and a 93% spike in prescriptions birth control.

The study couldn’t explain why there was such an increase, but suggested it could be a result of youths taking pills for longer periods of time.