For some depressed kids, therapy may rival pills

Cognitive-behavioral therapy may be just as effective as antidepressants for depressed teenagers in more affluent families, a government scientist reported Thursday.

But children with severe depression, regardless of family income, appear to need the medication to recover, said Benedetto Vitiello, chief of the child and adolescent psychiatry branch at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
The issue of pills vs. therapy has taken on added urgency since the Food and Drug Administration ordered “black box labels” — the strongest warning possible — put on antidepressants last October. Those labels say the pills can increase suicidal behavior in children.

Vitiello released a new, more detailed breakout on an NIMH-funded study of 439 depressed adolescents published last year. For the first time, researchers had tested the effectiveness of Prozac compared with cognitive-behavioral therapy, a combination of pills and counseling, or placebos.

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 29 May 2005
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.