Gary Poster, with essential assists from Galyn Norwood, Phiroon Phihakendr, Jose Quijada, Pavandeep Kalra. But just as more and more children are taking Ritalin to calm their hyperactivity storms, a growing number of kids are turning to Prozac and other antidepressants to treat their blues.
Childhood depression is a disturbingly common phenomenon.
In North America, up to 800,000 antidepressant prescriptions were written last year for children, some only five years old. For many psychiatrists, this kind of freewheeling pharmacology makes sense. There can be problems with this approach, however. For one thing, the Food and Drug Administration has approved antidepressants for only adult use. When a drug is tested and a dosage is set for an adult body, the same medication given to a person half the size can have unexpected effects.