Boarding Schools for Girls

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced that it will not challenge a court order that requires it to ease restrictions on access to Plan B, the so-called "morning after" contraception pill. As a result of this decision, 17-year-olds will soon be able to purchase the drug without a prescription.

An April 23 article by Reuters writer Susan Heavy reported that 17-year-olds should have access to the medication within the year, a decision that was hailed by womens health and reproductive rights advocates:

The FDA on [April 22] said it would allow nonprescription access to 17-year-olds as soon as it received necessary information from the drug's maker, Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc, now part of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.

Teva said it would comply with FDA's request, but it could still take 10 months before the drug is available without a prescription for younger buyers.

Women's health advocates cheered the FDA's decision, with some adding that access should be loosened even more, to allow shelf sales without age restrictions. They along with company officials argue it is critical for women to have quick access to the drug, which aims to prevent pregnancy when used within 24 hours of sexual intercourse.

The FDA decision was announced less than six months after two studies documented an increase in the prevalence of sexual behavior among teens and adolescents.

Labels: health, teenagers, sex, contraception, medications

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U.S. youth between the ages of 5 and 19 are being medicated at record levels for a variety of conditions, with young girls showing the greatest increases, according to a report by researchers associated with the University of St. Louis, the Kansas Health Institute, and Express Scripts (a pharmacy benefit management company):

• The use of medication to treat Type 2 diabetes in young girls increased by 147 percent. (Among boys in the same age group, the increase was 39 percent.)


• Prescriptions for drugs to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder increased by 63 percent for adolescent girls, and 33 percent for boys.


• Among girls ages 15 to 19, antidepressant use increased by 6.8 percent. Use of similar medications among boys ages 15 to 19 decreased.

"Our study findings indicate that these increased levels of chronic medication use are symptoms of broader underlying issues affecting children today," Dr. Emily R. Cox, senior director of research at Express Scripts, said in a Nov. 3 university-issued press release.

"These trends are worrisome given that many of these therapies are treating conditions with modifiable risk factors and if not addressed, many of these children will carry these chronic conditions into adulthood," Cox said.

The study was published in the November 2008 edition of the journal Pediatrics.

Labels: medications, prescription_drugs

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