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February 26, 2007

State Monitoring Prescription of Children's Psychiatric Medication

The PA Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (OMHSAS) has initiated a methodology for identifying and alerting physicians who are prescribing psychotropic medications for children at doses significantly above current consensus guidelines. The process involves running state pharmacy claims against industry established high-dose triggers; determining the state's mean (average) dosing level for each medication; notifying all physicians who prescribed above the high dose indicators with an advisory indicating the mean dosing of the medication throughout the state, and their own mean  dosing level; and providing dosage ranges for the various medications. The age would be separately run in just two bands: under six years, and between six and 17 years.

If you are concerned about this issue, please contact Wendy Luckenbill at the Mental Health Association in PA, wluckenbill@mhapa.org or 866-578-3659 ext. 3.