California toughens stance on use of mind-altering antipsychotic drugs for poor children, foster youth, By Karen de Sá, March 12, 2015, Los Angeles Daily News: “State regulators are rejecting thousands of requests from California physicians to prescribe antipsychotic drugs to poor children and foster youth, a dramatic first step in the state’s new effort to curb the excessive prescribing of powerful mind-altering medications. Nearly 1 in every 5 requests for the medications were denied in January because they were medically unnecessary or unsubstantiated. That is triple the rate of denials that occurred in October, when the state first began requiring an extra level of oversight, suggesting the scrutiny is growing tougher over time…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty