Prescription drug use in the pediatric population fell from 2002 to 2010, but the use of birth control and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medications rose, the FDA reported.

Outpatient contraceptive prescriptions jumped 93% from 2002 to 2010 among kids 17 and younger, Grace Chai, PharmD, of the agency’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research in Silver Spring, Md., and colleagues found.

ADHD drug scripts rose 46% over the same period in the national analysis of prescription databases reported in the July issue of Pediatrics.

via Medical News: FDA: ADHD Drugs Top Rx for Kids – in Pediatrics, General Pediatrics from MedPage Today.

Birth control and chronic sedation have replaced traditional parenting.