Prescription for Controversy
Medications for depressed kids spark scientific dispute
By Bruce Bower
Among medications, antidepressants take the prize for inciting public and media mood swings. Whether celebrated as depression-busting happy pills or dismissed as overrated and apt to cause dangerous side effects, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) have taken pharmaceutical firms on a financial joy ride. Since their U.S. introduction in 1989, they’ve become the best-selling medication of any kind, reaping an estimated $10 billion annually in worldwide sales. Roughly one adult in eight has tried an SSRI in the past decade.
The seven currently marketed SSRIs are frequently prescribed to people diagnosed with major depression or with anxiety ailments such as obsessive-compulsive disorder or social phobia. Increasing numbers of depressed children and teenagers take SSRIs. Use of antidepressants among youngsters ages 5 to 17 increased from about 2 percent of that population in 1994 to almost 6 percent in 2002. This rapid expansion has served up a heavy dose of scientific debate mixed with regulatory scrutiny.