| A combination
of medication and psychotherapy appears to be the most effective treatment
for adolescents with major depression A combination of medication and psychotherapy appears to be the most effective treatment for adolescents with major depression, according to an article in the August 18th issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. A clinical trial of 439 adolescents with major depression that was sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (USA) compared cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) with fluoxetine, currently the only antidepressant approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in children and adolescents. The results of the first 12 weeks of the Treatment for Adolescents with Depression Study (TADS), conducted at 13 sites nationwide, show that 71 percent responded to the combination of fluoxetine and CBT. The other three treatment groups, of participants between the ages of 12 and 17 years, also showed improvement, with a 60.6 percent response to fluoxetine-only treatment, and 43.2 percent response from those receiving only CBT. In contrast, the response rate was 34.8 percent for participants who received a placebo. The difference in response rates for the latter two treatment groups was not statistically significant. The study is the first large, federally funded study on use of antidepressant medication to treat adolescents suffering with moderate to severe depression. The current trial was conducted between spring 2000 and summer 2003. Clinically significant suicidal thinking, which was present in 29 percent of volunteers at the beginning of the study, improved significantly in all four treatment groups, with those receiving medication and therapy showing the greatest reduction. For more English-language information on TADS, visit
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