By Joene Hendry
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Children and adolescents with depression show statistically significant improvements in mood when treated with the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor citalopram compared with placebo.
In this patient population, "there is very little data on effective treatments," Dr. Karen D. Wagner of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston told Reuters Health. With these findings, "we now have citalopram added to the safe and effective medications for depression in children and adolescents," she said.
Dr. Wagner and colleagues studied 174 patients, 7 to 17 years of age, who had been diagnosed with depression and treated with citalopram or placebo for eight weeks. She presented the results of the multicenter study during the annual meeting of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology in Waikoloa, Hawaii.
The investigators measured depressive symptoms including depressed mood, withdrawal from activities, changes in appetite, sleep and energy levels, self-esteem, and suicidal ideation using the children's depression rating scale at baseline and weekly during the study.
About half of the patients were randomized to citalopram, 20 to 40 mg daily. The remaining patients received placebo. Dr. Wagner reported a significant reduction in depressive symptoms between baseline and 8 weeks of treatment in the citalopram group (23 mg mean dose) compared with the placebo group.
She noted that side effects, including headache, nausea, and runny nose, were "very mild and transient," and added that dropout rates were about equal between treatment groups.
Citalopram is approved for the treatment of depression in adult patients and is marketed as Celexa by Forest Pharmaceuticals, Inc. who funded this study.
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