Antidepressants in Children: Indications, Benefits, and Limitations

The use of antidepressant medication as a treatment for a variety of childhood behavioral and emotional disorders has been the focus of an increasingly sophisticated body of research work over the past decade. This paper reviews some of the more common applications of antidepressant drug treatment and examines the advantages/limitations of such by highlighting Major Depressive Disorder as a prototypical “drug responsive” childhood syndrome. Counterproductive and reductionistic dichotomies regarding drug vs. non-drug treatment approaches are challenged as both untenable and unnecessary on the basis of existing research findings.