• Posted February 9, 2026

Young People At Risk From Psychiatric Drug Combos, Study Says

About 1 in 4 young people could be at risk from prescription medicines they’re taking for psychiatric conditions, new research shows.

About 26% of children and young adults taking these meds have been prescribed a combination that could cause serious drug interactions, researchers reported in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

These clashing drugs can cause dangerous conditions that include abnormal heart rhythms, excessive sedation or dangerously elevated serotonin levels, researchers said.

“While these medicines can be helpful, our research highlights the need for careful monitoring when multiple medications are used, more research on long-term safety and better access to non-drug treatments like therapy,” said senior author Sean Hennessy, a professor of epidemiology, systems pharmacology and translational therapeutics at the University of Pennsylvania.

“Families should have open dialogue with their clinicians to help weigh the benefits and risks of these prescriptions and ensure regular follow-up to keep treatment safe and effective,” he said in a news release.

For the study, researchers analyzed data collected between 2001 and 2020 by a federal health survey to track prescriptions of mental health drugs among young people 6 to 24 years of age. 

The drugs included antidepressants, ADHD stimulants, antipsychotics and medications for anxiety or mood disorders.

During the study period, prescriptions increased from 5.3% in 2001-2004 to 8.3% in 2017-2020, researchers said. All categories of drugs saw increases.

ADHD stimulant medications in particular doubled, with prescriptions rising from nearly 3% to 5%.

The greatest increases were among children ages 6 to 11 and young adults ages 20 to 24, while use among adolescents remained relatively stable.

Researchers also found an increase in young people taking more than one mental health drug, with the rate nearly doubling from 1.8% to 3.3%.

Among those taking more than one drug, 26% were taking meds associated with major drug interactions, results showed.

Half of those prescribed an antipsychotic medication — which treat conditions like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia — were at risk of a potentially dangerous interaction with another drug they’d been prescribed, researchers found.

Just under half of those taking antidepressants were similarly at risk, the study said.

Systems are in place to catch these cases, but the “complexity of real-world care like when patients switch providers or get care from different clinics” can cause dangerous combinations to be missed, lead researcher Lin-Chieh Meng, a doctoral student in epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania, said in a news release.

However, some of these combinations could be intentional, as doctors swap out drugs to try to improve treatment of young people’s problems, researchers said.

“Some of what we observed may be the most recent episode of a long line of unsuccessful treatment attempts,” researcher David Mandell, director of the Penn Center for Mental Health, said in a news release.

“All medicine has tradeoffs and, as a mentor of mine says, ‘The brain doesn’t know the DSM,’ ” Mandell said, referring to the manual used to diagnose and treat mental conditions. “In some cases, the risks associated with this may be worth the benefit, though it still should undergo a very high level of scrutiny.”

More information

The National Alliance on Mental Health has more about psychiatric medications.

SOURCE: University of Pennsylvania, news release, Feb. 4, 2026