Doctors Are Increasingly Prescribing 'Off-Label' Medications To Kids, Research Shows

BOSTON (CBS) -- A new study published in the journal Pediatrics finds that doctors are prescribing "off-label" medications to children at increasing rates. Off-label means prescribing a medication for a condition that the FDA has not approved that drug to be used for.

Researchers at Rutgers University looked at about two-billion office visits for and found that about 20 percent of the time, doctors ordered one or more off-label drugs and with increasing frequency.

The practice was more common with doctors in southern states and with specialists. The drugs were often used to treat respiratory infections, asthma, or mental health disorders.

This practice is not illegal and in some cases is backed up by scientific evidence, but many drugs have not been thoroughly tested in children and therefore may not be effective or may cause harmful side effects.