Tomorrow’s Health: Child ER visits, wrong meds for seniors & school COVID policies
WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) -A study says it’s just as likely doctors will prescribe the wrong medication as it is for nurse practitioners. And a million kids visit the ER for mental health disorders every year.
Child ER visits for mental health
More than 1 million children visit the emergency department for mental health disorders every year.
New CDC data collected from 2018 to 2021 shows mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and behavioral and emotional disorders were the most common reasons.
About one quarter of children end up being prescribed at least one psychiatric medication.
Wrong meds for seniors
Older patients are just as likely to be inappropriately prescribed medication from nurse practitioners as they are from primary care physicians.
A study looked at more than 73,000 primary care physicians and nurse practitioners. Both groups prescribed inappropriate medication 1.7% of the time, which researchers say is too high and needs to be addressed.
School COVID policies on target
University of Southern California researchers say school policies that keep students with COVID-19 out of the classroom for five days are more than sufficient.
Their study found the median time a child is infectious after testing positive is just three days, while 18% of children are still infectious on day five.
They also found no difference between how long vaccinated and unvaccinated children remained infectious.
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