Prescriptions for antipsychotic medications rose 73 percent between 2001 and 2005 among children ages 19 and younger, Associated Press reported May 3.

A report from Medco Health Solutions Inc. also noted that use of a new group of drugs known as atypical antipsychotics rose 80 percent among young patients during the same period. Fifteen percent of all prescriptions for antipsychotic medications are now written for adolescents and children.

The drugs are intended to treat serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia, but the trend worries some observers that doctors are prescribing them to children with other behavioral problems. The atypical antipsychotics are not even approved for use in children, although doctors have discretion in prescribing them, anyway.

The rate of growth in prescribing these drugs to youth has slowed somewhat in the last year, perhaps because of a 2003 warning that the atypical antipsychotics may be linked to diabetes and high blood sugar.