Thisstudy indicates that antidepressants are bad for the developing brain. Does anyone think antidepressants should be limited to adults?
The brain is still developing until age 25, so I wonder if brain-altering drugs are a good idea. I’m 21 myself and have been prescribed an SSRI. But I, perhaps stubbornly, refuse to take it.
For that study, the researchers gave rats citalopram (one of the more common SSRI-type antidepressants, same family as Prozac) during their stage of life that roughly correlates to human fetuses from the sixth month of pregnancy through early infancy, and noticed a higher than average rate of autism-like behaviors when the rats reached maturity. It’s an interesting indication that more research is needed to see if there’s possibly a link between mothers using SSRIs during pregnancy and autism, but nothing more. I certainly wouldn’t draw any conclusions about the effect of antidepressants on older children and adolescents from that.
To answer your question more generally, I think antidepressants and other psychoactive medications (Ritalin included) should be used with extra caution among children and other avenues of treatment should be exhausted first. There are still plenty of cases where the benefits of medication outweighs the risk of harm, though.
Such as when the choice is “remote possibility of brain damage” and “suicide” or perhaps a less extreme example would be chronic maladjustment caused by untreated depression.
Aargh, ran out of time on the edit window.
I took an SSRI at your age, and while I can’t say for certain what effect it’s had on my cognitive development, I can say that it’s made me a far better person. And honestly, once my depression/anxiety was treated I could think a whole lot more effectively. The seratonin imbalance did me lots of obvious harm, the SSRI doesn’t appear to have done any. Avoiding treatment for a very real medical problem over concerns of probably-not-real long term harm from the medication is a losing bet.
Have you talked to your doctor and/or therapist about your concerns? There are lots of reasons why doctors hand out SSRIs and then people don’t want to take them, I understand that. Medication is not the right answer for everyone. But if you’re struggling with mental issues, I’d encourage you to stay engaged with the people who can help you. It can get better, really.
My depression started around puberty. I consider myself lucky to have gotten through adolescence without killing myself. I’m on meds for the depression now, and my only regret is that I didn’t get them sooner.
I “tried” to kill myself in 6th grade because I was in a deep depression (I’m bipolar II). Admittedly, stepping out into traffic was a lame way to do it and I probably didn’t actually want to die. I mean, I remember it as actually wanting to die, and I thought I was actually trying to kill myself, but looking back it was probably more of a subconscious cry for help. I was already in therapy and had been since age 4. Even given some risk, I think my life would have been better, and I’d be a better adjusted adult, and would have adjusted earlier, had I been on medication from a younger age.
On the one hand, as others have noted, suicide is a lot more harmful to the developing brain than antidepressants could be. The harm that can be done by serious depression is severe enough that, in many cases, I think it’s obviously worth the risk.
On the other hand, I think it’s better, where possible, to let the brain learn to “self-medicate.” I’ve read enough about how some drugs that produce a high (and I’m thinking more of illegal drugs, like cocaine) inhibit the brain’s ability to produce its own high without the drugs, that I’d be leery of admistering drugs as a “first resort,” before trying other things like CBT that might help youngsters learn how to raise their mood themselves.
But others are far better informed, and/or have more personal experience, than I, and I would defer to their more expert opinion on the subject.
Since the OP is asking for opinions, this is better suited to IMHO than GQ.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Interesting. I’ve been on citalopram before, age 19. While they did help me, I couldn’t concentrate while I was on them. In fact I can’t remember much about the time I was on them. They definitely had the “blank” effect on me.
This is why I worry I was failing to use my brain at a time when it was still developing. Then again I was depressed before I was on them, which is also bad for the brain.
Ooh, not fun. I wouldn’t take citalopram either if it wiped me out that badly. I was damn lucky - the first SSRI I tried worked and had minimal side effects. Most people have to try more than one before finding something that works with their body chemistry.
I wouldn’t worry about possible brain damage unless there’s actual signs of it. The brain is remarkably plastic, and it’s well past the critical development stages by age 19.
Questioning whether kids are allowed medicine for depression?
Do you trust their Doctor? Why wouldn’t anyone give their kids prescribed medication? If in doubt get a second opinion from another doctor.
The OP is the “kid” (21).
To the OP: the study in question was done on rats. Animal testing is useful for exploring different ideas in research, but I wouldn’t immediately generalize it to humans.
The choice isn’t really suicide vs. antidepressants, though, it’s a range of effects of depression (with suicide at the extreme end) vs. a range of treatments (one of which is antidepressants). And I think there’s a lot we don’t know about what antidepressants do to developing brains.
I say yes, because they might have saved my life. I started taking them at 15 (about a year after I got my period), stopped when I was 18. I think I needed drugs to survive that time - I felt so much better after starting them.
I do believe my memory was affected specifically, as I have many fewer memories of those years than at any other time of my life back until I was 4 or 5. Of course my anxiety, avoidant behaviors and eating terribly/not enough probably didn’t help that.
No, it’s not ideal. But a lot of minors, like me, have severe anxiety and depression and are at risk of suicide, etc. And meds can help.
I read the thread title as “Should children and adolescents be allowed antiperspirants?”
Sure, why not?:smack:
Yup. I still got issues, but without my meds? I don’t want to think about it. I started Paxil when I was 11. I never had suicidal thoughts, but I needed meds to deal with my extreme social anxiety. High school is bad enough when you’re normal, but when you have crippling panic attacks in social situations? Yeah.
I was the same kushiel. I just didn’t turn up, despite being an able student, and failed all my subjects 
I was too proud to admit my social anxiety, until it was too late and my studies were screwed. Once I received help, I realised there was a good support network available to me. I still needed to go on meds eventually though.
Just voicing my mistakes, so others don’t repeat them.
To answer the OP’s question, no, I don’t think AD’s should be limited to adults only.
That said, I don’t think 4 year olds should be on Risperdal, either (and yes I’ve seen that).
It’s easy to be either anti- or pro-meds if you have not been helped or harmed by them, or seen the effects on a loved one.
If I had a kid who was acting a little lethargic and apathetic, but otherwise they were doing fine, then yeah, drugs might not be called for. But if I have a kid who’s taking hours to get ready for school because of crippling OCD, or they go into rages that put them and other people at harm, or their psychological issues are seriously stunting their social and academic development, then drugs would be in order.
The OP really could be about adults too, you know. There is evidence that hardcore psychotropic drugs like Haldol can cause structural brain damage over time, resulting in lower IQ and memory. Anyone who’s ever taken a neuroleptic–both old school and new school–is familiar with the term tardive dyskinesia–frequently an irreversible fixture that can be very embarrassing (for the victim and their loves ones). The chances of developing TD, especially with the newer drugs, is low, but it ain’t slim. Especially if you’re taking them forever. Would you recommend to someone who’s battling hallucinations, delusions, and/or mania to not take their medication because of this? If you were the sufferer, would you refrain from taking these drugs because you don’t want to damage your brain? If you go this route, what’s the plan then, man? Talk therapy will not make you less deluded or paranoid. It will not organize your thoughts. And no one wants to take care of a person who refuses meds on principal.
Parkinson’s Disease has the same sadness associated with it. Take levadopa and you walk better and lose that nasty tremor. That is, until a couple of years when the levadopa poops out, and now guess what! Now you’ve got levadopa-induced dyskinesia and you cannot sit or stand still. (See Michael J. Fox). So when you get diagnosed with PD, you have to make a tough decision. Forgo the levadopa as long as you can and try to cope with the problems associated with PD. Or take the levadopa, be happy for awhile, and then wait for the inevitable.
So the answer to the OP is yes. Kids should be allowed to take anti-depressants. People should just be aware of what they are getting into and not pop pills willy-nilly. This goes for EVERYONE, for every type of medication.