A clinical trial of 439 adolescents with major depression
has found a combination of medication and psychotherapy to
be the most effective treatment.
Funded by the NIH’s
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the study
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. John March, M.D., Duke University, and
colleagues, report on findings of the multi-site trial in
the August 18, 2004, “Journal of the American Medical
Association” (JAMA).
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, also showed improvement, with a 60.6 percent
response to fluoxetine-only treatment, and 43.2 percent
response from those receiving only CBT. The response rate
was 34.8 percent for a group that received a placebo. The
difference in response rates for the latter two treatment
groups was not statistically significant.
The $17 million study is the first large, federally funded
study using an antidepressant medication to treat
adolescents suffering with moderate to severe depression.