Combination of therapies best for depression in teens

AORN Journal, Nov, 2004

A clinical trial of 439 adolescents with major depression has found a combination of medication and psychotherapy to be the most effective treatment, according to an Aug 17, 2004, news release from the National Institutes of Health. The study compared results of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) with results of treatment with fluoxetine, currently the only antidepressant approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for use in children and adolescents.

The Treatment for Adolescents with Depression Study was conducted between the spring of 2000 and the summer of 2003 at 13 sites nationwide with adolescents between 3.2 and 17 years of age. Results of the first 12 weeks of the study show that 71% responded to the combination of fluoxetine and CBT. The other treatment groups also showed improvement, with a 60.6% response to fluoxetine-only treatment, and a 43.2% response to CBT only. The response rate for a group that received a placebo was 34.8%. The difference in response rates for the Latter two groups was not statistically significant. Clinically significant suicidal thinking, which was present in 29% of the participants at the beginning of the study, improved significantly in all four treatment groups, with those receiving medication and therapy showing the greatest improvement.

Combination Treatment Most Effective in Adolescents With Depression (news release, Bethesda, Md: National Institutes of Health, Aug 17, 2004) http://www.nih.gov /news/pr/aug2004/nimh-17.htm (accessed 19 Aug 2004).