Antidepressant drugs are often an effective way to treat depression and anxiety in children and teenagers. However, antidepressant use in children and teens must be monitored carefully, as rarely there can be severe side effects.
What age can you be prescribed antidepressants?
If you are under 18 and your doctor prescribes you an antidepressant, they should be very careful about the dose. This includes accounting for your physical size. Not all antidepressants are licensed for use by people aged under 18 in the UK.
Can antidepressants affect puberty?
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors have been associated with endocrinologic adverse effects in several reports in adults, but there is no information on their effect on growth and puberty in children.
Is Prozac safe for 13 year old?
Prozac (fluoxetine) is an approved antidepressant for children ages 8 and older. 1 It is a commonly prescribed medication for children and teens with major depressive disorder (MDD) and sometimes bipolar disorder.
Can 12 year olds take depression pills?
A Word From Verywell. In general, antidepressants are safe and effective to treat depression and anxiety in children and teenagers, especially when combined with psychotherapy. 7 Also, keep in mind that antidepressant use is often temporary and may just be needed for a short time.
Can a 13 year old take Lexapro?
It is indicated for the acute and maintenance treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD) and the acute treatment of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). The only approved pediatric indication is for MDD in adolescents 12 to 17 years old. Escitalopram is available as delayed release capsules in 5mg, 1 Omg, and 20mg.
Can 14 year olds get antidepressants?
The use of antidepressants is not usually recommended in children and young people under the age of 18. This is because there is some evidence that, in rare cases, they can trigger thoughts about suicide and acts of self-harm in this age group.
Do antidepressants affect height?
As predicted, SSRI use was associated with reduced growth in height, particularly in boys in Tanner stages 3 and 4. This effect is of a moderate magnitude of about 1 cm for every one year of treatment with SSRIs during adolescence.
Do antidepressants affect brain?
Antidepressants Impact the Brain
Furthermore, antidepressants create dramatic changes in the brain immediately. Specifically, changes in the functional structure of the brain have been observed after a single dose of SSRI medication. Therefore, this is significant because the teenage brain is still developing.
Is sertraline an antidepressant?
Sertraline is an SSRI antidepressant. It is also known by the trade name Lustral.
Is Zoloft safe for a 13 year old?
Of all the antidepressants, only fluoxetine (Prozac™) has been FDA approved to treat pediatric depression. For obsessive compulsive disorder in children and teenagers, FDA has approved only fluoxetine (Prozac™), sertraline (Zoloft™), fluvoxamine, and clomipramine (Anafranil™) .
What can you give a child for anxiety?
The best anxiety medications for children are antidepressants called SSRIs. Antidepressants work very well for most children. And they work pretty quickly — most kids start to feel better after the first week or two. Usually, antidepressants can give kids long-term relief with barely any side effects.
What can a teenager take for anxiety?
The most common type of medication prescribed for teen anxiety is selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). 5 Other anxiety medication options for teens include benzodiazepines, non-SSRI antidepressants, hydroxyzine, and atypical antipsychotics.
Can a 14 year old take Zoloft?
Do not give sertraline to anyone younger than 18 years old without the advice of a doctor. Sertraline is FDA-approved for children with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). It is not approved for treating depression in children.
Does your brain go back to normal after antidepressants?
The process of healing the brain takes quite a bit longer than recovery from the acute symptoms. In fact, our best estimates are that it takes 6 to 9 months after you are no longer symptomatically depressed for your brain to entirely recover cognitive function and resilience.
Do antidepressants side effects?
Common side effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin-noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) can include:
- feeling agitated, shaky or anxious.
- feeling and being sick.
- indigestion and stomach aches.
- diarrhoea or constipation.
- loss of appetite.
- dizziness.
Is Lexapro approved for children under 12?
Lexapro is not approved us use in pediatric patients less than 12 years of age (5.1). Adverse events were collected in 576 pediatric patients (286 Lexapro, 290 placebo) with major depressive disorder in double-blind placebo-controlled studies.
Will antidepressants stunt growth?
Conclusions: A decrease in growth rate, possibly secondary to suppression of growth hormone secretion, may occur during SSRI therapy. As the use of this group of drugs is expected to increase in the young age groups, larger studies are warranted to investigate their effect on growth and growth hormone secretion.
Did Zoloft help your child?
24% of the kids in the placebo group were “very much” or “much” improved. 55% of the kids in the Zoloft group were “very much” or “much” improved. 60% of the kids in the CBT group were “very much” or “much” improved. 81% of the kids in the CBT/Zoloft combination group were “very much” or “much” improved.
Does Prozac stunt children’s growth?
11, 2004 (HealthDayNews) — The success of Prozac in easing depression in children may come at the price of impaired bone growth, suggests a study in mice. Researchers say cellular mechanisms important to bone growth may shut down in the presence of the drug, hindering healthy skeletal development.
Is there life after antidepressants?
Stopping different antidepressants will result in different symptoms, depending, to some extent, on the half-life. Antidepressants with a short half-life can cause more side effects and be harder to stop taking. However, people may still experience symptoms when they stop taking a drug with a longer half-life.
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