The headlines for a recent study supports the effectives of SSRIs for anxious children. Great, just what we need in our already overmedicated kids:
A child psychiatrist not involved with the study told the WSJ that the effectiveness of the drug-therapy combination was “incredible.”
Therapy by itself worked well too, but that’s not what the take-home message was. Given that most will want the quick-fix, expect more pediatricians to be fielding requests for Zoloft.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Kevin: I want the quick fix of going to Ohio by train, car or plane. Sure, the natural way would be to walk the 1000 miles through bear country, but I prefer the quick fix for my travel needs. And Zoloft does not kill 30,000 people as cars do.
How are meds different from any other tool?
Hm… Maybe because medicines have side effects and the incidence of those are much higher than the risk of being in a crash? Or maybe because being anxious is normal for many kids? Oh maybe in some cases being anxious is actually good as it makes you to do stuff like study harder so that you are less anxious before exams?
And Zoloft does not kill 30,000 people as cars do.
Are as many people taking Zoloft as using cars? Shouldn’t you compare percentages? Also, are all potential side effects of long-term use of Zoloft in kids known?
Zoloft was very helpful to my teen aged son.
He wasn’t anxious, he was angry.
It cheered him up for a few months while we attempted to drag him off to therapy, which he did his best to avoid.
It’s hard to say if it was the drug or the threat of therapy, or maybe just getting to 15 from 14, but he got better.