Add one more piece of evidence to the long-running debate over antidepressants and kids: For kids between 7 and 17 with anxiety disorders, a combination of therapy and an antidepressant worked better than either treatment alone.
Researchers followed 388 children and teenagers who were randomly assigned to receive one of four treatments: an antidepressant, 14 sessions of cognitive behavioral therapy, a combination of an antidepressant and therapy, or a placebo.
The antidepressant was sertraline, which is available as a generic and sold by Pfizer under the brand-name Zoloft.
After 12 weeks, the kids who received sertraline and therapy improved by just over 80%, as measured on a standard scale. Those who had therapy alone improved by 60%; those who had sertraline alone improved by 55%; and those who had placebo improved by 24%.
A child psychiatrist not involved with the study told the WSJ that the effectiveness of the drug-therapy combination was “incredible.”
The rate of side effects (including suicidal thoughts, a big concern when kids are taking antidepressants) was the same in the groups that received sertraline and placebo.
The study, published yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine, was funded by the NIH. It was conducted by researchers at med schools around the country. One of the study’s 13 authors has received consulting fees from Pfizer; other authors reported ties to other drug makers.