A risky drug may get wider market – The FDA may approve Zyprexa for kids, despite its significant side effects in adult use.

St. Petersburg Times
By ROBERT FARLEY
It sounds like a cosmic, FDA joke:
The Food and Drug Administration approves the antipsychotic drug Zyprexa to treat adults with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. It becomes a market wonder, a bestseller. But the side effects turn out to be dangerous; some patients develop diabetes.
Some 30,000 people sue the manufacturer, Eli Lilly. [...]

Prescription Abuse Seen In U.S. Nursing Homes – Powerful Antipsychotics Used to Subdue Elderly – Huge Medicaid Expense

Wall Street Journal
By LUCETTE LAGNADO
In recent years, Medicaid has spent more money on antipsychotic drugs for Americans than on any other class of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, AIDS drugs or medicine to treat high-blood pressure.
One reason: Nursing homes across the U.S. are giving these drugs to elderly patients to quiet symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and [...]