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Take Control of your Teenager | No Thanks |
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| Depressed teens respond greatly to medication with therapy |
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Researchers in the United States are offering a new model of combination therapy for the treatment of depressed teens. This combination therapy puts together medication and therapy as a more effective answer to teenage depression. After observing the response of teenagers to the antidepressant Prozac while also taking therapy for 36 weeks, researchers noted that 86 percent of the teens responded positively. Notably, a study which can be found in the Archives of General Psychiatry observed the rise in suicidal thoughts and actions in those teenagers who received medication only. But by simultaneously including cognitive behavioral therapy in the plan of treatment, along with the antidepressant Prozac, the risk of suicidal tendencies lowered while a speedier recovery was also observed. Cognitive behavioral therapy is a kind of therapy which does not have its focus on the past but on a patient’s present emotions.
Dr. Mark Reinecke, who was part of the study in Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, said "The combination is more effective and works more quickly that either cognitive behavioral therapy or fluoxetine alone, and there is the enhanced safety when you have the CBT incorporated into it." In an interview on the telephone, Reinecke said "Fluoxetine accelerates the improvement process, and CBT safeguards against the risk of suicide. We now know what works for at least 80 percent of our patients." |
