Pat McFadden MP: To ask the Secretary of State for Health
(1) if he will estimate the number of children who have been prescribed Ritalin or a similar drug;
(2) if he will estimate the number of children under the age of six who have been prescribed Ritalin or a similar drug; and if he will assess trends in the number of such prescriptions in the last five years;
(3) if he will estimate the number of children under the age of six in Wolverhampton who have been prescribed Ritalin or a similar drug;
(4) what guidance (a) his Department and (b) the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence issues to practitioners on the prescription of Ritalin and similar drugs to young children.
Anne Milton: I refer the right hon. Member to the answer I gave the right hon. Member for Birkenhead (Mr Field) on 4 April 2011, Official Report, column 684W.
The Information Centre Prescribing Team has advised that this information is not available for children's prescriptions. They have however provided information on the numbers of all Ritalin prescriptions dispensed in the community as follows:
Ritalin is a branded version of the drug Methylphenidate Hydrochloride. The following table shows the total number of items dispensed for Methylphenidate Hydrochloride overall (including Ritalin) and for Ritalin separately for individuals of all ages.
Methylphenidate Hydrochloride prescriptions dispensed in the community in England
Thousand
Prescription items
Methylphenidate Hydrochloride
Of which : Ritalin
1997
92.1
92.1
1998
126.6
126.6
1999
158.0
157.9
2000
186.2
181.3
2001
208.5
180.6
2002
254.0
161.8
2003
314.5
124.5
2004
359.1
67.8
2005
389.2
30.7
2006
456.9
26.5
2007
535.3
25.5
2008
573.4
22.8
2009
610.2
20.2
Notes:
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