NCJ Number
216589
Journal
Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Volume: 45 Issue: 12 Dated: December 2006 Pages: 1393-1403
Date Published
December 2006
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This article provides an overview of the methods and findings of the Treatment for Adolescents With Depression Study (TADS) after 12 weeks of treatment; the treatment involved clinical management with fluoxetine (FLX), cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), FLX and CBT combined (COMB), and clinical management with a placebo (PBO).
Abstract
Taking benefit and risk into account, researchers concluded that the combination of FLX and CBT was superior to either alone as a treatment for moderate to severe major depressive disorder in adolescents over a period of 12 weeks. Combined treatment apparently accelerates recovery compared to CBT alone and, for some outcomes, FLX alone, while minimizing the risk of suicide compared to FLX alone. Despite the fact that suicidal tendencies improved significantly across all of the treatment conditions, suicidal events were twice as common in patients treated with FLX alone than with COMB or CBT alone, perhaps indicating that CBT protects against suicidal events. Patients were eligible for the TADS if they were 12 to 17 years old, had mild to severe major depressive disorder (MDD), and had impairment from depression in at least two settings for at least 6 weeks before entering the study. Patients could not be taking antidepressants at study entry. The selected TADS sample is representative of depressed adolescent seen in clinical practice. Patients were enrolled in the TADS between the spring of 2000 and the summer of 2003. Patients were randomly assigned to FLX (n=109), CBT (n=111), COMB (n=107), or PBO (n=112). 1 table and 59 references