ANTI-DEPRESSANTS Kids, teens improve with Zoloft

In a recent study, 69 percent of depressed children responded well to the drug.
By SHARI ROAN
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Use of anti-depressants in children and adolescents surged in the last decade despite a dearth of information on the drugs' safety and effectiveness in kids.
That pool of knowledge is now beginning to grow. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that 69 percent of depressed children taking the drug sertraline, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor sold under the name Zoloft, responded well to the drug and without major side effects.
The study of 376 kids -- the largest randomized, controlled trial comparing an SSRI in kids with a placebo -- could lead to formal labeling describing Zoloft as safe for children and teens.
The manufacturer, Pfizer Inc., undertook the study at the request of the Food and Drug Administration, part of the FDA's drive to test drugs approved for adults but widely used for children.
Depressive disorder
An estimated 3 percent of children and 8 percent of teens have major depressive disorder. Although cognitive and family therapy can be helpful in treating the condition, doctors have increasingly turned to SSRIs for their young patients. A government study last year found that use of the drugs had increased 62 percent in people under age 20 from 1995 to 1999.
"It's usually the case that medications are first studied in adults. It can be years before they are studied in children," said Dr. Karen Dineen Wagner, lead author of the JAMA study and director of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. "Yet children are suffering from these same disorders and need treatment."
Zoloft is the second SSRI to be closely examined in children and adolescents.
Rapid results
Results of the Zoloft study, which took place at 53 clinics in the United States and elsewhere, are noteworthy because of how rapidly children and teens responded, Wagner said. Many showed a decrease in symptoms -- such as irritability, excessive crying and low self-esteem -- after three weeks.
"These children had been depressed for a very long period of time, nearly two years on average," Wagner said. "Within three weeks, a large percentage started to have a significant reduction of their symptoms."
In the placebo group, 59 percent of the patients improved, also an impressive response. Wagner said they may have responded to the increased medical attention while participating in the study.