Conventional drug treatments don't really help teenage depression

Thursday, November 04, 2010 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: teenage depression, drugs, health news

(NaturalNews) Teenagers who take drugs like Prozac for depression may not experience any long-term improvement, says a new study published in the journal Archives of Adolescent Psychiatry. According to the study, roughly 50 percent of youth who experience some short-term relief end up relapsing with five years, and the drug works no better than placebo at relieving depression symptoms.

John Curry and his colleagues from Duke University in North Carolina observed 196 young men and women between the ages of 12 and 17 who had depression symptoms. The team administered either Eli Lilly's Prozac (fluoxetine), cognitive behavioral therapy, both, or a placebo, as treatment. After five years, 46.6 percent of all participants, including those in the placebo group, relapsed back into depression.

Even though just over 88 percent of participants experienced some type of recovery within two years, a significant number of them reverted back to their previous depressions, regardless of their treatment protocol. And females were more prone than males to have such a relapse.

"We need to learn why females in this age range have higher chances of descending into another major depression after they have made serious recovery," explained Curry in a statement. "Further research needs to be done to confirm our findings and to sort out the variables that may be associated with recurrent major depression in young women."

But more alarming is the fact that drugs like Prozac work no better than placebo at treating depression. And since Prozac is linked to a whole host of serious side effects, including death (https://www.naturalnews.com/Prozac.html), it is imperative that the public take this into consideration before opting for depression drugs.

Sources for this story include:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6A059M...