Despite the known risks of adverse effects in children and adolescents and potential consequences for children’s developing bodies and brains, researchers have found a steady increase in the prescriptions of psychiatric drugs by Australian doctors to young people. The study published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry examined the prescription to over half a million children under 19 years old of drugs used to treat psychiatric disorders, including depression, anxiety, attention deficit disorders, psychosis, and sleep problems. From 2011 to 2018, the prescriptions of melatonin, a drug used to treat sleep problems, increased by 600 percent. Prescription of drugs used to treat attention deficit disorders almost doubled, while antipsychotics increased 63 percent, and antidepressants increased 43 percent. The increases were sharpest in 10 to 14-year-olds. There are also growing concerns that among the lockdowns and anxiety of the pandemic the figure could be even higher after the …