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Antidepressant Medications in Children and Adolescents

Therapeutics Initiative (University of British Columbia)

Therapeutics Letter 52 reviews the use of antidepressant medications in children and adolescents. Conclusions: the prescription of an antidepressant to a child or adolescent is like an open trial with up to 80% of patients expected to improve. When improvement occurs, it is most likely due to a placebo group response, which includes spontaneous remission, response to supportive care, and other components. Because of the unfavorable harm to benefit balance for antidepressants in this age group, first-line therapy is multiple supportive interventions: sleep hygiene, exercise, regular dietary patterns, consistent parenting, and practical problem-solving regarding schooling and life stressors. For those who do not respond, individual or group cognitive behavioral therapy or interpersonal psychotherapy should be arranged, if possible. Medications are reserved for add-on therapy when the first two approaches are not working. When an antidepressant is prescribed, the patient must be monitored for signs of deterioration: behavioral and psychiatric changes, including increases in suicidal thinking, as emphasized by the new Health Canada labeling.

Other

eng

2023-06-20

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/85041

Reviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/