At the moment, this trend is only tangentially-related to the topics this blog covers, as asenapine -- branded as Saphris® (a legacy Schering-Plough atypical antipsychotic) -- was not part of the December 8, 2009 portfolio of reviewed drugs, by the FDA Pediatric Advisory Committee (as a too-newly approved agent to have meaningful pediatric trend data), but it is where asenapine is headed, no doubt -- as Salmon has long warned us. This is a summary slide, from page 19 of the FDA slide deck:
. . . .Antipsychotic use among pediatric patients has increased by 22% over the 5 years. The greatest increase was seen for aripiprazole, during this time period.
Use among pediatrics aged 0-2 years and 3-6 years accounted for less than 1% of the total for each of the antipsychotic agents studied.
Risperidone had the most prescriptions dispensed (26%) to pediatric patients and had a greater amount of use in younger children compared to theother antipsychotics. Aripiprazolehad the second highest number of dispensed prescriptions (23%) in the pediatric population. . . .
As Salmon has repeatedly warned us -- there is a storm brewin' -- with respect to kids, now on Saphris, in the United States and Europe. It may take five years to materialize in full. . . but it is coming -- like a long, slow (but potentially-deadly) freight train, in the cold night.
