CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 215Autism Spectrum Disorder ResearchPharmaceutical Practices and Patient OutcomesAttention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 30 of the 30 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Psychotropic Medication Use and Polypharmacy in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

Open access
Spencer, Donna, Marshall, Jaclyn, Post, Brady, Kulakodlu, Mahesh, Newschaffer, Craig, Dennen, Taylor, Azocar, Francisca, Jain, Anjali·2013·PEDIATRICS
DOI 10.1542/peds.2012-3774PMC PMC3813388
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The objectives of this study were to examine rates and predictors of psychotropic use and multiclass polypharmacy among commercially insured children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). METHODS: This retrospective observational study used administrative medical and pharmacy claims data linked with health plan enrollment and sociodemographic information from 2001 to 2009. Children with ASD were identified by using a validated ASD case algorithm. Psychotropic polypharmacy was defined as concurrent medication fills across ≥ 2 classes for at least 30 days. Multinomial logistic regression was used to model 5 categories of psychotropic use and multiclass polypharmacy. RESULTS: Among 33,565 children with ASD, 64% had a filled prescription for at least 1 psychotropic medication, 35% had evidence of psychotropic polypharmacy (≥ 2 classes), and 15% used medications from ≥ 3 classes concurrently. Among children with polypharmacy, the median length of polypharmacy was 346 days. Older children, those who had a psychiatrist visit, and those with evidence of co-occurring conditions (seizures, attention-deficit disorders, anxiety, bipolar disorder, or depression) had higher odds of psychotropic use and/or polypharmacy. CONCLUSIONS: Despite minimal evidence of the effectiveness or appropriateness of multidrug treatment of ASD, psychotropic medications are commonly used, singly and in combination, for ASD and its co-occurring conditions. Our results indicate the need to develop standards of care around the prescription of psychotropic medications to children with ASD.

Overview

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1542/peds.2012-3774

Cites

30 of 30 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Verification

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Citations

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. Parr J. Autism. Clin Evid (online). 2010;2010:0322. Available at: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2907623/. Accessed August 2, 2013

Cited by

Sorted by citations

See all 215

Related

See all

Metadata

Authors
Spencer, D., Marshall, J., Post, B., Kulakodlu, M., Newschaffer, C., Dennen, T., Azocar, F., & Jain, A.
Affiliations
  • Optum (United States) (US)
  • Lewin Group (United States) (US)
  • Drexel University (US)
  • OptumHealth Behavioral Solutions, San Francisco, California
ORCID
Venue
PEDIATRICS
Publisher
American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
Published
2013-11-01
Volume
132
Issue
5
Pages
833-840
ISSN
  • 0031-4005 (ISSN-L)
  • 1098-4275
DOI
10.1542/peds.2012-3774
PMC
PMC3813388
OpenAlex
W2153868538
Cited by
215
References
29
Citations by year
2026: 10 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 24 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 17 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 19 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 5
FWCI
7.47
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • PEDIATRICS (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Geriatrics and Gerontology › Pharmaceutical Practices and Patient Outcomes
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Keywords
autism spectrum disorder, psychotropic drugs, polypharmacy, children, comorbidities, psychiatric comorbidity, prescribing patterns, standard of care
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Child, Child Development Disorders, Pervasive, Child, Preschool, Female, Humans, Infant, Male, Psychotropic Drugs, Retrospective Studies, Polypharmacy, Young Adult

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review