Question: I would appreciate your expert opinion regarding whether a 6-year-old child should take an antidepressant. That’s how old my grandson is and it’s hard for us to believe that he has depression and that he should be given remedies for it. (Arnaldo Pizzinio, from La Rioja)
When the term depression is mentioned, most people tend to think of an adult with this health problem. However, childhood depression also exists, although it is difficult to think about its existence in childreneven in children under 1 year of age.
One of the first researchers on the subject was the Viennese psychoanalyst Rene Spitz (1887-1974), who published the book in 1945 Anaclitic Depressionwhat was about the effects of abandonment and the lack of affection in children in their first 18 months of life, as a result of the Second World War and despite having their food and material needs covered in various institutions dedicated to caring for them.
Currently, the World Health Organization states that Approximately 3% of the child population suffers from depression and that, frequently, they go unnoticed and live with it in silence, without adequate early detection or adequate treatment.
Current statistics indicate that the older the age, the numbers get worse: approximately 5% – that is, one in every 20 children and adolescents – will suffer a depressive episode before turning 19 and What aggravates the situation is that adults (parents, teachers or others) usually do not detect it or do not value its importance.despite the serious consequences it may entail.
In children, it is advisable to be attentive to the presence of a bad mood, easy irritability, less interest in their usual activities -especially in play-, withdrawal from colleagues and friends, complaints about physical discomfort such as headaches, dizziness, nausea without any detected medical cause, changes in eating or sleeping habits at night, substance use, among other possible symptoms.
That is, without having the typical manifestations of sadness or crying as in adults.
The importance of psychotherapy
In the case of children and adolescents who present symptoms of depression, always The first option that is recommended is psychological consultation of the child and his parents.
Psychotherapy proves to be very effective as a treatment resource and only in severe cases should the use of medications be evaluated antidepressants. Even more so at a time when almost everything tends to be medicalized.
A few years ago, the World Health Organization reflected that between 2005 and 2012, The habit of prescribing antidepressants in children increased alarmingly: In those seven years, its consumption increased by 54% in the United Kingdom, 26% in the United States, 60% in Denmark, 49% in Germany and 17% in the Netherlands.
The WHO, in general, does not recommend treatment with antidepressants from the outset and states that “The use of antidepressants in children and young people is of concern for two reasons: the fact that they may be being prescribed without sufficient reasons, and that they may cause significant harm.”
Which does not mean that they are prohibited, but that Its use should always be accompanied by psychotherapybe it individual (of the child) and the family group, and its indication and supervision are fully justified, in the hands of competent specialists.
We must be suspicious when the indication to take an antidepressant results from a brief and hurried consultation lasting a few minutes.
