Psychotropic medications are increasingly used to treat children and adolescents with mental health conditions. Between the years 1994 and 2001, there was a 191.7% increase in number of office visits resulting in a psychotropic medication prescription among children and adolescents. Many drugs are prescribed to children "off-label", whereby they…

The past two decades have seen a rapid increase in the number and types of psychopharmacological medications that are available for the treatment of depression in children and adolescents. Parents and adolescents often raise questions as to the potential increase in suicidal ideation associated with the use of primarily selective serotonin…

A 15-year-old male presents with moderately severe depression, and fluoxetine 20 mg is initiated. When he returns 14 days later, he describes suicidal ideations for the first time. He has recurrent thoughts of wishing he were dead, a plan, but no intent to act. How would this affect medication management? This article presents the opinions of five…

Assesses the generality and strength of nonclinical youths' (N=569) perceptions of the harmfulness and lethality of acetaminophen in overdose. Findings indicate that adolescents have ready access to acetaminophen and use it in suicide attempts but underestimate its potential for toxicity, lacking knowledge regarding side effects of overdose. (RJM)

Funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the Treatment for Adolescents With Depression Study (TADS) is intended to evaluate the short-term (12 weeks) and longer-term (36 weeks) effectiveness of four treatments for adolescents with DSM-IV major depressive disorder: clinical management with fluoxetine (FLX), cognitive-behavioral therapy…

Objective: To compare the rates of physical, psychiatric, and suicide-related events in adolescents with MDD treated with fluoxetine alone (FLX), cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), combination treatment (COMB), or placebo (PBO). Method: Safety assessments included adverse events (AEs) collected by spontaneous report, as well as systematic…

The incidence of teenage depression has increased all over the world. In some populations it is has been accompanied by suicide, but suicide remains rare. Clinical depression, which entails many debilitating physical and psychological symptoms, is a serious disease that can do terrible and even permanent damage to a teenager's developmental…