Research from the Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute investigating the long-term impact of drugs used for mental disorders in children can continue thanks to a national fellowship grant.
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Dr Jiamei Lian has been looking into how antipsychotic drugs (commonly prescribed to treat bipolar disorder and schizophrenia in adults) affect the developing brains of children and adolescents and was given $318,768 from the Health and Medical Research Council to further her studies.
Dr Lian’s initial results have already revealed these drugs “will cause long-lasting alterations” in brain function and behaviour of adults.
Early drug exposure may cause permanent brain changes that may only present later in adulthood.
- Dr Jiamei Lian
“Antipsychotic drugs are increasingly used to treat various mental disorders in paediatric patients; however, there is limited research around the long-term consequences,” Dr Lian said.
She hopes her findings will give clinicians a greater understanding of the risks and benefits of using these drugs on children.
“Childhood and adolescence is a critical period of brain development that is sensitive to drug exposure,” she said.
“Although antipsychotic drugs were developed to treat schizophrenia symptoms in adults, they have been sharply increased for use (mostly off-label) in children over the past decade.
“Early drug exposure may cause permanent brain changes that may only present later in adulthood.”
The research could provide crucial information for developing guidelines for the use of these drugs and for paediatricians to reconsider or reassess the benefit of prescribing them to young patients.
“I will further examine how early antipsychotic exposure influences cognitive functions, and whether early drug exposure in developing brains alters their response to antipsychotic treatment in adulthood using an animal model,” Dr Lian said.
Mental health problems affect approximately nine per cent of Australia’s 4.1 million children.
The fellowship is awarded by the NHMRC to an Australian-based early career researcher of outstanding ability to help them continue their research in the field of biomedical science.