Antidepressants and adolescents

In 2003 the U.S. Food and Drugs Administration issued a warning that some antidepressants could increase the risk of suicidal behaviour in children and adolescents. Since then the prescription of the drugs has gone down but a new study, by researchers at Ohio State University, has found that the drugs could have a beneficial effect on the whole. The study, of 318 adolescents, looked at readmission rates to psychiatric hospitals. It found that those teenagers treated with antidepressants were less likely to be re-hospitalised. However, hospitalised children who were prescribed three or more drugs, from different classes, were 2.6x more likely to be readmitted to hospital than other children and these children made up a quarter of the sample.

You can find out more about this research at

http://psychcentral.com/news/2009/12/18/antidepressants-help-suicidal-youth/10283.html