Psychotherapy helps for Depressed Teens

Reuters HealthDay reported on February 26, 2008 on a study published in the February 27, 2008 issue of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, that if adolescent depression doesn't lift after treatment with an antidepressant, guess what, psychotherapy helps and/or maybe another antidepressant.

While the Reuters article headline is "New Hope for depressed teens", this is old news and mental health professionals, I hope, have known this for years. Most careful research has found that psychotherapy is the treatment of choice especially for adolescent depression, and sometimes, medication can help. Of course, it is much easier for Primary Care Physicians to write out a prescription or give the teen pharmaceutical samples than it is to actually listen to the kid's troubles.

At any rate, it is validating to see some research which finds what I and most of my collegaues already know and that is, psychotherapy is helpful.

Link: MedlinePlus: New Hope for Depressed Teens.