NUCCA News - US okays Prozac use for kids

S Rajagopalan

Washington, January 5

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_132486,00050001.htm

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved Prozac, the well-known antidepressant drug, to treat depression and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) among children and adolescents (in the 7-17 age group).

Depression is said to affect up to 25 per cent of children and about eight per cent of adolescents in the US, while OCD affects 2 per cent of the population and typically begins during adolescence or early childhood.

"This is the first approval of one of the newer types of antidepressants (selective se-rotonin reuptake inhibit-ors) for treating depression in th-is population," the FDA said.

The new approval of Prozac (fluoxetine) for children follows the two placebo controlled clinical trials in depressed outpatients. "The studies of Prozac for depression produced a statistically significant effect for the drug compared to placebo on the Childhood Depression Rating Scale R (revised)," the FDA said.

As for side effects, it said these were similar to those observed among adults using Prozac: nausea, tiredness, nervousness, dizziness and difficulty concentrating.

One clinical trial of Prozac detected a slightly slower growth among children and adolescents.