According to our friends over at PubMed, a review study was done to examine the efficacy of antidepressants in teens and children suffering from depression. The results of this review are fairly astounding:
In general, nine depressed youth must be treated with an antidepressant to obtain one clinical response above that achieved with placebo. To date, fluoxetine has showed the most consistent positive treatment effects. Depressed youth had also acutely responded to other antidepressants, but the response to placebo has also been high. Overall, the antidepressants are well tolerated, but 1 to 3 children and adolescents of 100 taking antidepressants showed onset or worsening of suicidal ideation and, more rarely, suicide attempts.
That’s a nine-in-one ratio. So for every teen prescribed an antidepressant, only one out of nine will actually benefit from it versus giving them a sugar pill. That’s not exactly a great ratio.
Sometimes, one wonders if there wouldn’t be a market for fake psychiatric drugs with similar sounding names to brand name drugs that are nothing more than sugar pills.
However, the researchers conclude:
There is a positive risk-benefit ratio for the use of antidepressants in the acute treatment of depressed youth.
and
First-line antidepressant treatment with-or without-specific types of psychotherapy is indicated for youth with MDD of at least moderate severity.
So antidepressants are still worth trying, but so is psychotherapy.
Reference: Boylan, K., Romero, S. , & Birmaher, B. (2007). Psychopharmacologic treatment of pediatric major depressive disorder. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2007 Mar;191(1):27-38.
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5 Comments to
“How Effective Are Antidepressants for Teens and Children?”
You haven’t lived until you’ve been a doctor’s secretary and had a patient call up and ask for a refill of his placebo.
With the nine-in-one ratio, I think there is a very small chance regarding it’s effectiveness to children. But without any serious or long term effects, it’s still better to try than give up.
I agree. There’s no harm in trying, unless the drug itself has some long term effect. But if there are alternatives, I think it’s necessary to try those alternatives before sticking on a treatment.
This just shows how much disinformation there is about these drugs. I would bet the the general public, including those that take these, would have no idea how much the placebo is reproduced in the treatment effect. Would they guess a 1/9 benefit, or more like at least a 5/10 benefit? Furthermore, if you were to ask classes of graduating psychology seniors, I don’t think they would say 1/9, but more like 2/3.
This is more indicative of the overconfidence in the progress made in the field and the way drugs are advertised to be very effective (and not necessarily pharma companies advertising but instead the people who take them and believe in them). It seems like practitioners, students, and academics in this type of research are overly optimistic about the state of the field because they want to believe it is better than it really is, even when all evidence points to it not being so. This makes me wonder if Tom Cruise could be proven correct - that exercise & vitamins may actually be clinically more effective than prescription drugs. I think vitamins would not beat a placebo, but exercise could possibly do it.
Don’t let the wool pe pulled over your eyes ya ok the placebo worked better than the actual drug, but here is where this particular reserch gives you the wrong info; the studies that show these results have only used one or two dofferent meds against the placebo. Do you even have a clue how many different antidepressants there are on the market? The reson for this is that everyon’s bodies are not the same and they all react different to different things. For instance My forst time ever going out for a drink I went with my best friend who turned 21 a month and a half befor I did, she got drunk off of one beer and it took me more than a 6 pack, even though we are about the same height and weight… I have been fighting depression back and forth my whole life and have been put on more than 10 different meds for it and now I am 30 years old and finally found an antidepressant that is really working for me. I have been changing meds for more than half my life and finally found the right one for me. Its all trial and error and not giving up the right meds are out there but you may have to go through a few before you find the right one. I’m glad to here that 1/9 of those in that study found the right med for them but the others need to try a different one and not just say well they really dont work after all, cause noone should ever have to goive up on the hope for happiness in their life there is help just try a different one.
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 26 May 2007
