Uso de medicamentos psicotrópicos por crianças e adolescentes: uma revisão integrativa.

Abstract

Mental disorders are increasingly common among children and adolescents. Psychotropic drugs are the main strategy for the treatment of mental health problems and their use has increased over the years. These drugs act on the Central Nervous System (CNS) causing several changes. The profile of psychotropic drugs use varies between countries due to existing cultural, socioeconomic and epidemiological differences. Thus, this study aimed to conduct a survey of data on the psychotropic drugs use in childhood and adolescence and its related factors through an integrative literature review. Data collection was carried out from the PubMed databases, Regional Portal of the Virtual Health Library (VHL) - MEDLINE and Science Direct, during april 2021, to identify studies on the subject between the years 2008 to 2021. At the end of the selection, 45 articles were included in this review. According to the extracted data, stimulants are the psychotropic drugs most used by children and adolescents, mainly for the treatment of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), respectively. The United States is the country that consumes the most psychotropic drugs. The most common mental disorders are depressive episodes and hyperkinetic disorder. Off-label prescription of psychotropic drugs for children and adolescents is common, especially among antidepressants and antipsychotics. This review contributes to the design of data that are available in the literature and those that are still needed for a better understanding and deepening of the subject, being of importance for the development of future studies. In addition, the data collected shows that it is necessary to control and ration in the use of psychotropic drugs in childhood and adolescence.