Study cautions on antidepressants for children

LONDON - Doctors are prescribing more antidepressants for children and adolescents although there is little evidence about their safety or efficacy in youngsters, researchers said yesterday.

Prescription rates for patients under 18 rose in nine countries between 2000 and 2002.

Britain had the highest rate of increase with 68 per cent while Germany, on 13 per cent, had the lowest.

"The number of prescriptions in different countries for children with mental illness is increasing," said Dr Ian Wong, of the Centre for Paediatric Pharmacy Research at the University of London.

Dr Wong and his team compared prescribing trends in Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Canada, the United States, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico by using information from an international database that contains a representative sample of medical practitioners in each country.

The findings are reported in the Archives of Disease in Childhood. Although Britain had the highest rate of increase, it had a lower baseline than many other countries in the study.

"In England, the number of prescriptions per child for that kind of illness is actually 10 times lower than in America. When you have a very low baseline the increase is much quicker," Dr Wong said.

The results of the study showed a growing awareness of depression and mental illness in young people. But he added that if the trend continued it could be worrying because there were so few clinical trials of drugs in children.

Drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline was accused in a lawsuit by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer earlier this year of fraudulently suppressing information about its antidepressant Paxil (sold as Seroxat in Europe) that showed the drug was broadly ineffective in youngsters and could increase the risk of suicidal behaviour.

The company denied the allegation and responded by publishing the results of nine paediatric trials on its website.

Dr Wong and his colleagues said the use of such drugs was a global issue that required further study.


- REUTERS