Perspectives on the Efficacy of Antidepressants for Child and Adolescent Depression

PLoS Medicine: Perspectives on the Efficacy of Antidepressants for Child and Adolescent Depression: "Practitioners of pediatric medicine may still be undecided as to whether the newer generation of antidepressant drugs is effective for child and adolescent depression (CAD) [1]. Since 1989, when selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) were introduced in the United States, they have become the top-selling drug category; as many as one in eight adult Americans having tried at least one SSRI in the past ten years. Despite their popularity in treating adult depression, the efficacy of SSRIs for CAD remains in dispute. In this article, I examine some of the core problems in medical research that have led to this disagreement."