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Antidepressant, including TCA, prescribing up in Canadian children and adolescents
Author(s) -
Knopf Alison
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
the brown university child and adolescent psychopharmacology update
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1556-7567
pISSN - 1527-8395
DOI - 10.1002/cpu.30473
Subject(s) - antidepressant , fluoxetine , psychiatry , medicine , tricyclic antidepressant , depression (economics) , serotonin reuptake inhibitor , suicidal ideation , sertraline , psychopharmacology , population , poison control , suicide prevention , serotonin , medical emergency , anxiety , receptor , macroeconomics , environmental health , economics
Antidepressant prescribing for Canadian children is increasing, with fluoxetine, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), the most frequently prescribed medication, which was not surprising. However, there is also an increase in prescribing of tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs), which, for a pediatric population, is unexpected. And most often, the TCAs — which are toxic at high doses — are being prescribed for a condition other than depression. According to a study published in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology , one of the only ones looking at antidepressant prescribing in Canada for children following the 2004 warning of suicidal ideation, which was followed by a decrease in prescribing and a subsequent increase in suicides, antidepressant prescribing is on the increase.