Research news: Therapy plus zoloft helps kids with anxiety

The News:
Therapy plus Zoloft helps kids with anxiety
By LINDSEY TANNER AP Medical Writer
Article Last Updated: 10/30/2008 12:38:51 PM MDT
CHICAGO—A popular antidepressant plus three months of psychotherapy dramatically helped children with anxiety disorders, the most common psychiatric illnesses in kids, the biggest study of its kind found.
The research also offers comfort to parents worried about putting their child on powerful drugs—therapy alone did a lot of good, too.
Combining the drug sertraline, available as a generic and under the brand name Zoloft, with therapy worked best. But each method alone also had big benefits, said Dr. John Walkup, lead author of the government-funded research. It's estimated that anxiety disorders affect as many as 20 percent of U.S. children and teens.
In many cases, symptoms almost disappeared in children previously so anxious that they wouldn't leave home, sleep alone, or hang out with friends, said Walkup, a Johns Hopkins Hospital psychiatrist.
"What we're saying is we've got three good treatments," he said.
Sertraline is among antidepressants linked with suicidal thoughts and behavior in children with depression. Read on...


The Research:
Read the research behind this story in The New England Journal of Medicine.