Prescribing of unlicensed medicines or licensed medicines for unlicensed applications in child and adolescent psychiatry

AIMS AND METHOD Child and adolescent mental health services in north-west England ( n =21) participated in a prospective collection of information regarding all instances of new prescribing of medication over the 6-month period September 1999 to February 2000. RESULTS A total of 478 new prescriptions were issued to 411 individuals. Eight prescriptions (2%) were for an unlicensed drug and a further 188 (39%) were of licensed drugs but used in a manner outside of their product licence. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS This level of unlicensed and outside-licence prescribing is similar to levels previously found in studies both within paediatric practice and in adult mental health practice. Anxiety about excessive beyond-licence prescribing by child mental health services is unlikely to be justified.