The most commonly used antidepressants for young people don’

The most commonly available antidepressants are not only ineffective in young people, they can actually be dangerous, with a major review finding children and teens with depression are better off taking nothing at all.

The findings have "disturbing implications" for treating major depression in children, an Australian psychiatrist has warned, with one drug being linked to an increased risk of suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts compared to a placebo.

The study, led by Oxford University psychiatrist Andrea Cipriani, analysed the results of 34 clinical trials involving 5,260 participants (average age 9 to 18 years) who had moderate to severe symptoms and had been diagnosed with major depression. 

The kids had been randomly assigned a particular antidepressant or a placebo to take for eight weeks straight, on average. The antidepressants tested were amitriptyline, citalopram, clomipramine, desipramine, duloxetine, escitalopram, fluoxetine, imipramine, mirtazapine, nefazodone, nortriptyline, paroxetine, sertraline, and venlafaxine.

The drugs were ranked in terms of efficiency (change in depressive symptoms and response to treatment), tolerability (discontinuation due to unwanted side effects), acceptability (discontinuation due to any cause), and associated serious harms (suicidal thoughts and attempts). 

The review found that only one of the 14 drugs was actually effective at relieving symptoms of depression - fluoxetine, better known as Prozac, which is the most widely prescribed antidepressant for young people in the UK.

Venlafaxine, on the other hand, (marketed as Effexor), appeared to actually increase the risks of young people experiencing suicidal thoughts and attempts, compared to the placebo and five other antidepressants. The researchers have cautioned that due to the lack of reliable data, they were not able to comprehensively assess the risk of suicidality for all 14 drugs.

"The elevated risk of suicide has already been recognised before," Alyssa Navarro reports for Tech Times. "In 2004, the FDA placed several antidepressants under a black box warning for patients under 24 years old after finding evidence that suggested a suicide link."