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ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The COVID pandemic caused a drop in visits to doctor’s offices, which led to a drop in the number of prescriptions being filled for both children and adults.
In time, prescriptions for adults returned to normal, but the same didn’t happen for children. Researchers at the University of Michigan compared prescriptions filled before the pandemic to those filled through the pandemic up to December of 2020.
Overall, prescriptions for children fell by just over a quarter, but not for all medications. Antibiotics saw the biggest drop, while antidepressant use didn’t budge. Overall, children needed 27% fewer prescriptions during the pandemic than before.
“When we looked at drugs that are typically used to treat infections, like antibiotics and cold medications, the drop was much larger, right around 51%,” Dr. Kao-Ping Chua said. “I think it’s simply because kids weren’t getting sick.”
Social distancing, extra hygiene and mask use reduced infections overall, but Chua observed something else.
“I think there’s a lot of evidence to show that antibiotics are overused for both adults and children,” Chua said.
Medications used for other conditions saw a much smaller decrease.
“If we looked at chronic disease medications, like drugs that are used for ADD, asthma and depression, the drop was about 17%,” Chua said. “One of the major findings of the study, in my view, is that antidepressant dispensing did not change.
That might suggest children who needed antidepressants were able to get them.
“If it’s true that the mental health is worse now during the pandemic than before, then perhaps the lack of rise means that there hasn’t been enough antidepressants prescribing to meet the increased need,” Chua said.
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August 11, 2021 at 05:44AM
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Number of prescription drugs being filled for children, adults dropped during COVID pandemic - WDIV ClickOnDetroit
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