Researchers headed by Dr. Graham Emslie, chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at Children's Medical Center in Dallas drew their findings from an experiment that involved 334 patients from 12 to 18 years old. All the subjects have been suffering from major depressive order, and had shown a lack of response to two months of prescription treatment.
After 12 weeks of observation, the experts concluded that the depressed teenagers showed most progress when given an alternative prescription, coupled with behavior therapy. The experiment showed that 54.8 percent of the subjects responded positively to the switch in medication, plus therapy, while only 40.5 percent responded to merely a change in medication.
"Out results should encourage clinicians to not let and adolescent stay in the same medication and still suffer," said Dr. Emslie, as quoted by Newswise.
He also insisted on the importance of the role of the teenager in the treatment.
"This is a group that has been suffering from a serious medical condition for a long time," he said. "It's important that the adolescent not give up."
According to HealthDay News, Dr. Jane Ripperger-Suhler, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine, pointed out a problem, which was that there is a limited number of good therapists available.
"To do cognitive behavioral therapy effectively you really need someone who is well-trained," she said, "and there aren't very many."
The study's findings are in the February 27 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
