Posted on 08/17/2004 10:50:05 PM PDT by neverdem
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHICAGO, Aug. 17 (AP) - Combining drugs with talk therapy works best in treating depressed adolescents, the first large study of its kind has found. The results reflect what studies of adults have found: that treating the disease requires more than relying on pills for a quick fix.
Although the study found that psychotherapy combined with Prozac works better than either method alone in treating adolescent depression, including reducing suicidal thoughts, it did not resolve questions about potential links between some antidepressants and suicidal thoughts and behavior in children.
A co-author of the study, John Curry of Duke University, said the number of patients who exhibited suicidal tendencies - 24 out of 439 - was too small to determine whether there were truly differences among the treatments studied.
Over all, 71 percent of patients on the combined treatment had scores showing substantial improvement on a depression rating scale. The combined treatment involved Prozac along with a form of psychotherapy called cognitive behavioral therapy, which teaches problem-solving skills and ways to refocus negative thoughts and behaviors.
By contrast, significant improvement was seen in 61 percent of those taking Prozac alone, 43 percent of those who only received behavior therapy, and 35 percent of patients on dummy pills.
The study, led by Dr. John March of Duke, is reported in Wednesday's issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.
ping
Prozac, smozak. When I got depressed as a teenager, I just skipped school and went to the beach. That always cheered me up.
They are giving anti-depressants, now, even to young children. Where will it end? They want us all on medication.
I used to be depressed for years, and suicidal as a teenager. Then I found that God exists.
There's a new form of AIDS that caused some teens to get depressed?
What do they mean by this headline and why didn't an editor fix it?
The US Department of Health is conducting a meta-analysis of several dozen research efforts that suggest a) a consistent, daily administration of sever ass-kickings combined with a monthly regimen of inserting "depressed" middle-class US adolescent into envrionments in which they experience the conditions of their peers in Kosovo, Darfur, my house, and other slices of the real world that are much worse than their own, have shown to be efficacious anodynes for being a pissy little twit.
LOL
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