Suicide on Seroquel Sparks Florida Bill Limiting Drug Use for Foster Children

New legislation introduced in Florida is designed to prevent unnecessary antipsychotic medication prescriptions to youths in the state’s foster care program.

The Gary Myers Bill, Senate Bill 2718, is named after a 7-year-old boy who hung himself in the bathroom of a foster home last April after taking Seroquel. A task force that investigated the incident found that the risks of suicide from Seroquel may not have been effectively communicated to Myers’ foster parents. The task force discovered that 13 percent of the state’s foster children were on antipsychotic medications, as compared to 4 to 5 percent of children in the general population.

If passed, the law would have volunteer guardians assigned by the Florida Department of Children and Families to oversee the mental health of each foster child. It would ban the inclusion of foster children in clinical trials and would require that the child be 11 years old for many medications. An independent review would be conducted before prescribing an antipsychotic to anyone under 11.

In addition, the bill would require counseling and a treatment plan for children with mental health issues and taking antipsychotics that would include a counselor explaining the possible side effects to the child, allowing them a final say in whether they are placed on antipsychotics.

The bill’s consideration comes after a recent study found that prescriptions of antipsychotics for very young children are increasing, and FDA drug safety reviewers are calling for more investigation into the side effects of Seroquel, Zyprexa and similar drugs.

Seroquel (quetiapine fumarate) is an atypical-antipsychotic that is a top selling drug for AstraZeneca, generating nearly $5 billion a year in sales. Approved by the FDA in 1997 for the treatment of schizophrenia, it is also commonly used off-label for treatment of anxiety, obsessive dementia, compulsive disorders and autism. Seroquel has been used by more than 19 million people worldwide.

AstraZeneca currently faces thousands of Seroquel lawsuits that allege the company failed to adequately warn about the risk of weight gain and other metabolic side effects, which allegedly caused users to develop diabetes and other Seroquel health problems.

Atypical antipsychotics generate more than $12 billion in sales every year, with Seroquel leading the pack with nearly $4.45 billion in sales last year.