I had depression as a child. It went undiagnosed, since I grew up in the seventies and no one knew that children could be clinically depressed. I finally was diagnosed and successfully treated at age 27, but by then my childhood, adolescence and young adulthood had been profoundly affected.
I fervently wish that it had been otherwise. My depression made me a detached, shy and lonely child. I had no interest in anything other than reading and participated in very few activities. All in all, not a great childhood.
Fortunately, things have changed for children with depression to a great extent. However, while we now know that children can be depressed and understand more about how it differs from adult depression, we are unfortunately still not quite where we need to be in terms of diagnosis and treatment.
A lot of this has to do with the fact that physically, children are not just smaller versions of adults. Their bodies absorb, metabolize and eliminate drugs differently than adult bodies. In addition, their bodies are still developing, and their brains continue to develop into their early twenties. We don't know at this point what effect psychotropic drugs have on children's development.
If our knowledge of children and psychiatric drugs were Columbus's discovery of America, we're about where he was when he was getting the money together for the trip. Seriously. It's just in the past few years that the medical community started to realize that children react to these drugs differently.
So here I am emphasizing how little we don't know about treating depression in children. Why is that helpful? Because many parents don't realize that this is the case. They put their trust in doctors who may or may not be appropriately cautious about giving children antidepressants. We all want to believe that doctors know what they're doing, especially when our child is in pain.
On the other hand, I don't want to scare you away from antidepressant treatment if that's what your child needs. You may have heard about the FDA's decision in 2004 to require drug manufacturers to put a "black box" warning on antidepressant medication. This was the result of an analysis of pediatric antidepressant trials that showed a higher rate in subjects taking antidepressants than those taking a placebo.
But here's the problem: all the publicity surrounding the trials and the FDA's decision caused the number of pediatric antidepressant prescriptions to decline. Sounds like a good thing, right? Maybe not. At the same time, the rate of adolescent suicides, which had been in decline for a decade, increased by 18%. So it's possible that, tragically, the FDA's decision had the exact opposite effect of what was intended.
So there are no easy answers and no one-size-fits-all solutions. That's why it is vitally important that you educate yourself as much as possible about depression treatment for children. It's true that we have more questions than answers at this point. But being knowledgeable about the questions as well as the answers will help you make the best decision regarding your child's treatment.
I fervently wish that it had been otherwise. My depression made me a detached, shy and lonely child. I had no interest in anything other than reading and participated in very few activities. All in all, not a great childhood.
Fortunately, things have changed for children with depression to a great extent. However, while we now know that children can be depressed and understand more about how it differs from adult depression, we are unfortunately still not quite where we need to be in terms of diagnosis and treatment.
A lot of this has to do with the fact that physically, children are not just smaller versions of adults. Their bodies absorb, metabolize and eliminate drugs differently than adult bodies. In addition, their bodies are still developing, and their brains continue to develop into their early twenties. We don't know at this point what effect psychotropic drugs have on children's development.
If our knowledge of children and psychiatric drugs were Columbus's discovery of America, we're about where he was when he was getting the money together for the trip. Seriously. It's just in the past few years that the medical community started to realize that children react to these drugs differently.
So here I am emphasizing how little we don't know about treating depression in children. Why is that helpful? Because many parents don't realize that this is the case. They put their trust in doctors who may or may not be appropriately cautious about giving children antidepressants. We all want to believe that doctors know what they're doing, especially when our child is in pain.
On the other hand, I don't want to scare you away from antidepressant treatment if that's what your child needs. You may have heard about the FDA's decision in 2004 to require drug manufacturers to put a "black box" warning on antidepressant medication. This was the result of an analysis of pediatric antidepressant trials that showed a higher rate in subjects taking antidepressants than those taking a placebo.
But here's the problem: all the publicity surrounding the trials and the FDA's decision caused the number of pediatric antidepressant prescriptions to decline. Sounds like a good thing, right? Maybe not. At the same time, the rate of adolescent suicides, which had been in decline for a decade, increased by 18%. So it's possible that, tragically, the FDA's decision had the exact opposite effect of what was intended.
So there are no easy answers and no one-size-fits-all solutions. That's why it is vitally important that you educate yourself as much as possible about depression treatment for children. It's true that we have more questions than answers at this point. But being knowledgeable about the questions as well as the answers will help you make the best decision regarding your child's treatment.
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Living with Depression-Will it improve??
Posted 02/08 Comments (1)
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