GALVESTON, Texas - Dr. Karen Dineen Wagner, vice chairwoman of the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and director of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, is a co-author of a study to appear in the Feb. 27 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The study found that for adolescents with depression who haven't responded to initial treatment with a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, a class of antidepressant drugs, switching medications and adding cognitive behavioral therapy resulted in an improvement in symptoms compared to just changing medications.
"The findings from this study are important to clinicians, parents and depressed teenagers because it shows that trying another antidepressant and adding cognitive behavioral therapy can help to treat a teenager whose depression did not improve with the first antidepressant," Wagner said.
"In this study of adolescents with moderately severe and chronic depression who had not responded to an adequate course of treatment with an SSRI antidepressant, switching to a combination of cognitive behavioral therapy and another antidepressant resulted in a higher rate of clinical response, 54.8 percent, than switching to another medication without CBT, 40.5 percent," the authors wrote.
Local clinical studies were conducted at UTMB's Mood and Anxiety Center for Children and Adolescents in the Clear Lake area. The center specializes in the study and treatment of depression, bipolar and anxiety disorders. Additional information is available at the center, (281) 335-1062.