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American Morning

The Big Question: Are Too Many Kids Being Given Antidepressants?

Aired May 06, 2002 - 08:40   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: The big question this hour, are too many kids being given antidepressants? According to a new study released just this morning, the numbers are staggering, and they're getting larger every year.

CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now from Atlanta with more on what some consider a disturbing trend.

Good morning, Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Jack.

Jack, when I saw the numbers, I thought that they were very dramatic. Let's take a look at them. This is a study that looked at prescriptions of antidepressants to kids and teenagers from 1988 to 1994. There was a three-five fold increase during those years.

The biggest increase was seen in boys, 10 to 14-year-olds. And girls, 15-19 years old. Now, the 10-14 year-old boys are worth noting, because a lot of this increase is because boys with attention deficit disorder, which is in that age range often, that they often are diagnosed with depression, or anxiety or other things.

So a lot of this increase in antidepressants is really because of ADHD.

Something that's very interesting is that most of these kids actually were prescribed these drugs by their primary care physicians, by their regular pediatricians, not by any kind of a mental health counselor, so that most of these kids never even saw a mental health counselor during the time of this study. They were just given the drugs and weren't given any therapy.

CAFFERTY: Is there any indication in the study whether they work or not? And if they work, why not prescribe them?

COHEN: Well, in this study, there wasn't an indication. There have been other studies that show these drugs do work. The concern among some mental health professionals who I talked to, is that you don't really know what effect these drugs have on the developing brain, and you might not know for many decades.

Now some of the health professionals I talked to said this study is good news. It shows that doctors are recognizing depression. At first, doctors used to sort of ignore it. Now they are recognizing it in kids. So some people see this as very scary, while others often see this as actually being good news.

CAFFERTY: The other thing that I suppose is at work here, is there have been quantum leaps forward in medical science, and the development of drugs that do what -- in a matter of a few weeks, what literally years of psychotherapy used to be involved in. Is there a financial reason to perhaps prescribe medication that would be cheaper and perhaps even more effective than the long and expensive psychotherapy rituals, which can be drawn out over an extended period time?

COHEN: Well, you bring up some interesting points. I mean, let's look at it this way. There's no question pretty much that it's cheaper. I mean, when you give this to children, these antidepressants, it is cheaper than giving them actual therapy. However, actual therapy doesn't have to be the sort of kind of Dr. Freud lying on the couch for 30 years to figure out why you hate your mother so much. Some therapists are able to do much more short-term stuff, where they sit down with a family and figure out why this kid is depressed in the first place, rather than, or in addition to, giving them the drug.

And those are the concerns I heard from some mental health therapists when they talked about this, is they said, you know, we're just a little worried that HMOs or Medicaid, which is the population the study was done on, will say, you know what, just take the drug, it's cheaper, it's easier, and it's important to recognize that in boys, depression often results in a boy acting out and getting very antisocial. Some of the folks I talked to said, you know, I'm a little worried boys get depressed, they get antisocial and agitated, and they're saying, in addition to the riddle, let's give them some antidepressants, too.

CAFFERTY: Probably a story that's worth following as we move down the road.

Elizabeth, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Elizabeth Cohen, CNN medical correspondent, joining us this morning from Atlanta.

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