January 16, 2008
Parents at their wits' end, wearing long sleeves to hide bruises and bite marks inflicted by their own offspring. Psychiatrists struggling to cope with children as young as 2 who show intractable behavior problems. Drug companies ready to suggest powerful drugs that can produce marked changes in a child's behavior -- getting heavily involved in state-level determinations of which drugs should be prescribed for which conditions. And a state struggling to keep up with rapid changes that have pushed Medicaid costs for powerful anti-psychotic drugs from $9 million seven years ago to almost $30 million in 2006.