Antidepressants are not effective in children and young people

Medications targeted to treat mental disorders have proven very useful in clinical practice, but they also have their drawbacks. Although in many cases they allow to mitigate certain symptoms that negatively affect the quality of life of those who suffer them, it is also true that in all cases they have collateral effects on the body of the patients.

The side effects, as well as the dependence that certain psychoactive drugs can generate, make it worth exploring alternatives.

Drugs to treat mental problems in children: a good idea?

When the potential clients of these substances are younger people, such as children and adolescents, the possibility of using invasive methods to alter the dynamics biological disorders that occur in their nervous system is even more dangerous, considering that the changes produced at such an early age can be decisive in their increase.

That is why an ambitious meta-analysis of several investigations has recently been carried out in which the efficacy of antidepressants was evaluated in children and young people of both sexes

. The results, published in the scientific journal The Lancet, show that these drugs are much less effective than previously thought, or at least in terms of their effects on the very young. In fact, they could increase the risk of suicidal thoughts (and behaviors).

How was the meta-analysis performed?

The meta-analysis has been carried out by a team of researchers headed by Dr. Andrea Cipriani, from the University of Oxford. It includes a review and statistical analysis based on 34 trials based on the efficacy of 14 antidepressants in young people. In total, the children and adolescents studied among all the investigations from which the meta-analysis started formed a total of 5,260 individuals.

Among the factors that were taken into account in the meta-analysis is, of course, the efficacy of antidepressants, but also their adverse effects, neglect and tolerance to their side effects.

Results: some antidepressants don't work

The most effective antidepressant found was, judging by the results of the meta-analysis, fluoxetine. However, the most important discovery made from this study is that the rest of the antidepressants showed an efficacy that at most could be considered as very low. In fact, they were not shown to be more effective than placebo. In addition, imipramine, duloxetine and venlafaxine generated such strong adverse effects that they caused treatment to be interrupted, something that does not happen with placebo. In the case of the latter (venlafaxine), an important correlation was detected between taking this antidepressant and the appearance of suicidal thoughts.

It is clear that the efficacy of these types of drugs need not be taken for granted simply by the fact that taking these substances appear to have an obvious effect on mental processes **: these effects do not have to be what was intended generate**. In addition, psychopharmacological treatments that are effective in adults do not have to be as beneficial in younger people, since both your body and the biological processes that occur in your neuroendocrine system are different from those of humans mature.

It is not advisable to venture conclusions

However, it is worth noting the fact that, although the findings of a meta-analysis may be more important than a single investigation based on a small group of people studied, this study has limitations that mean that we cannot take its findings as the absolute truth.

In the first place, because being such a massive meta-analysis and based on a large amount of information, the team that carried it out could not access the microdata used in the studies on which they were based, so in part they had to rely on the good work of the scientists who preceded.

In addition, the fact of working from research carried out independently of each other meant that, in part, the data that were crossed in the statistical analysis were not completely comparable, referring to slightly different situations and somewhat different methods. different.

That is why This meta-analysis should be considered as a base from which to continue investigating, and not as a compelling reason to have antidepressant treatments stopped immediately.