COMMON DRUGS ADMINISTERED FOR DEPRESSION IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS: A CLINIC - BASED STUDY IN NOOR HOSPITAL (1996-98)

Abstract

Introduction. There are increasing interests about pharmacotherapy in depressed children and adolescents. Althought TCAs (such as imipramine) are approved for use in enuresis and ADHD, but controlled studies have failed to demonstrate efficacy of them over placebo in the treatment of depressive disorders in both children or adolescents. On the other hand, a relatively more amount of studies address SSRls (such as fluoxetine), as the drug of choice for treatment of depressed children and adolescents, because of theire effectiveness and safety.
Methods. In this retrospective study, 306 depressed child and adolescent (7-18 year old) who admitted to a psychiatric out patient clinic were studied (196 male and 110 female). Imipramine and fluoxetin were administered for 47 percent and 43 percent of cases, respectively.
Results. In imipramin geoup and fluoxetine group the symptoms of 126 (87 percent) and 102 (77 percent) patient was improved, respectively. The frequency of side effects was 21 percent for imipramin (specialy sedation, dizziness and palpitation) and 22 percent for fluoxatine (specially headache, insomnia and agitation).
Discussion. This study suggests that both imipramin and fluoxetine are efficient for tratment of children and adolescents depression. However, because of high theraputic index of fluoxetine, this drug may be a better choice.