Treating teenage depression
In four out of 10 teenage depression cases, the first drug treatment given doesn't work.
According to a recent study, docs and their teenaged patients struggling to alleviate depression through drug therapy should just keep plugging away until they trip across the right pill. What has been underplayed in the study is that talk therapy really helps.
The study included 334 patients between the ages of 12 and 18 who were diagnosed with major depression. What each had in common was a non- response to a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI). Between 2000 and 2008, teens were treated as follows:
Switched to a different SSRI than what they were originally taking
Prescribed a different SSRI plus given cognitive behavioral therapy
Given a serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI)
Prescribed an SNRI plus the cognitive behavioral therapy
When the results were analyzed, researchers reported that 55 percent of those who switched to another prescription along with the cognitive behavioral therapy improved. But only 41 percent of those who just switched medications without adding therapy saw an improvement.
According to this research team, doctors have no solid guidelines to follow when it comes to treating depression. And for mainstream medicine, it's quite the quandary when the one-size-fits-all pills that they rely on don't work. Meanwhile, even when the facts are staring them in the face—such as here, where talk therapy was a benefit—they pretend they don't really see it.
But look closely at the results of this study: the teenagers who were given talk therapy showed improvement. Sure, it shows that the therapy was given with a pill. My question is why they didn't use talk therapy by itself as a control. I can only imagine they were worried that the results wouldn't support their drug-world model.
It seems a lot of mainstream docs are challenged when it comes to the not-so- radical concept of taking a stepped approach. Before they resort to a pill with anyone—including these young people whose brains and nervous systems are aren't even fully developed yet—they should exhaust all other avenues first and foremost.
