Psychotropic medication use among children with autism spectrum disorders enrolled in a national registry, 2007-2008.

The team pulled 2007-2008 records for the children with autism from a national registry.

They counted how many kids took at least one psychotropic drug.

Then they checked if age, IQ, other diagnoses, insurance type, or home county predicted use.

One in three children (35 %) was on a psychotropic medicine.

Older kids, those with intellectual disability, kids on Medicaid, and families in poorer or southern/mid-western counties were more likely to receive pills.

Need was not the only driver—zip code and wallet mattered too.

Yamashiro et al. (2019) asked the same question for adults with ASD. They found even higher prescribing—showing the pill trend grows with age.

Together the two surveys trace a life-span climb: one in three kids, then even more adults, are medicated.

Iversen et al. (2021) link repetitive behaviors to weak executive function. If we target EF with ABA instead of adding drugs, we may cut the need for pills shown in E et al.

You can’t change a family’s county, but you can question every drug. When a child on Medicaid or from a rural area lands on three meds, ask: “Would behavioral skills training replace this pill?” Push for prior-auth of ABA before approving the next refill.