Posted by bleauberry on March 29, 2009, at 8:12:34
In reply to celexa for 12 year old?, posted by nellie7 on March 29, 2009, at 7:29:13
> Hi,
> My 12 year old niece suffers from chronic dysthymia and has occasional suicidal thoughts. It has been recommended that she start taking celexa 20 mg.
> Any thoughts about the effect of SSRIs on developing brains?
> Thanks,
> Nellie.I believe Prozac is the only one FDA approved for youngsters? But I'm sure there are many adolescents on all sorts of antidepressants.
Clinical studies show a general trend that younger folks respond more favorably to serotonin meds while older folks respond more favorably to norepinephrine meds. Celexa is a serotonin med.
20mg is a lot for a 12 year old, assuming the body size is small.
Long term damage on a developing brain? Well, who knows. Nobody. It hasn't been studied. And probably won't be, because if the results were not favorable then a whole lot of billion dollar companies and executives and the FDA would be in big trouble.
Anecdotal evidence here at this board suggests that longterm changes do occur regardless of age, varying from person to person.
It has to be considered that depression itself causes negative disruptions and changes in the brain, hormones, nervous system, and immune system. So it is a balancing act, meds versus no meds, risk versus benefit. I think the decision has to be made with the best clinical intuition at the time on a case by case basis.
If Celexa is started, I would suggest cutting the pills in half for a 10mg dose instead of 20mg. Or even better, quarters for a 5mg dose. My personal theory is that the suicide warnings on all antidepressants are partially due to traumatic things being done and felt when biochemistry is changed too much too fast. Regardless of the med in question, for a youngster I would be on the conservative side, starting at a quarter of the normal starting dose and staying there for at least 6 weeks before considering adding another quarter.
My general opinion is that while all of these meds are like shooting darts at a target while blindfolded, Zoloft has better odds of hitting a bullseye than Celexa does, when speaking of dysthymia. But, any of them might work, and any of them might not.
A final note, and this is very important. Many doctors will scoff at it, but I am serious as a heart attack. OK? This is not just my own experience, but that of my expert doctor who has had a lot of very tough cases. Here it is. Insist on brand medication. Refuse generic. If the child does well, you can always try a switch to generic months later. But if the trend that is often seen holds true, the child will deteriorate on the generic after being stable on the brand. If you get nothing else from this post, just remember, brand only. No generics. Pay the extra money. It is worth it for your child.
I'm not trying to be discouraging or encouraging, but just trying to paint a realistic picture of the way it is.
poster:bleauberry
thread:887551
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090322/msgs/887553.html