Korean J Psychopharmacol.  2000 Sep;11(3):216-231.

Treatment Straegies for the Child & Adolescent Patient with Depressive Disorder

• Kim BN
• Cho SC

Abstract

Depression in children and adolescents have been increasingly recognized in clinical practice and have become the focus of extensive systematic studies. Recently diverse psychosocial and pharmacological approaches are actively applied to this disorder. In general, psychotherapy is the initial approach to depression in children and adolescents, with medication use reserved for more severe (suicidal or psychotic) cases or those not responding to psychotherapy alone. Given that only two types of psychotherapy (cognitive behavioral therapy and interpersonal therapy), and two SSRIs (fluoxetine and paroxetine) have adequate controlled short-term efficacy, clinician must judge all but the initial step based on individualized riskbenefit analysis. As depression in children and adolescents lead to many psychosocial complications, primary preventive approach must be planned and executed.

Keyword

Child and Adolescent depression; Treatment strategy

MeSH Terms

Adolescent*
Child*
Depression
Depressive Disorder*
Humans
Psychotherapy