Tens of thousands of children between the ages of 6 and 17 are overmedicated in France. This is revealed by an alarming report adopted on 7 March by the High Council for the Family, Children and Age (HCFEA). Relayed by Le Parisien, this 190-page document is to be published publicly this Monday.

According to this report, doctors tend to prescribe psychotropic drugs normally reserved for adults to children who are depressed, prone to mood disorders or victims of school bullying, which has the effect of modifying their physical activity, emotions and behavior.

Medicines for adults

According to the president of the HCFEA's Council for Children and Adolescents, Sylviane Giampino, this phenomenon has doubled between 2010 and 2021, placing the France "among the most prescribing countries in Europe". In the absence of appropriate medicines for children, 40% of prescriptions in cities are made without any marketing authorization, which is also the case for 67 to 94% of prescriptions dispensed in hospitals.

According to cross-data from the National Health Insurance Fund (CNAM) and the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM), consumption rates among children under 20 years of age have increased, between 2014 and 2021, by + 48.54% for antipsychotics, + 62.58% for antidepressants, + 78.07% for psychostimulants and + 155.48% for hypnotics and sedatives.

Act on a case-by-case basis

The whistleblowers do not question the usefulness of these drugs, which aim to give these young people a semblance of normal life, but indicate that their side effects "are sometimes not very adapted" to the child's brain, as recalled by child psychiatrist Marie-Rose Moro, who in 2019 had already published an alarming report on the issue.



It is therefore essential to meet the child several times and to carry out a global assessment before prescribing such psychotropic drugs. The subject will once again be at the centre of the table at the Pediatrics and Child Health Conference, which will take place next June.

  • Health
  • Adolescence
  • Mental health
  • Child
  • Medicine