Source: DGNews  |  Posted 9 years ago

By Bruce Sylvester
Special to DG News

BARCELONA, SPAIN -- October 11, 2002 -- Setraline therapy is effective and safe for paediatric major depression (MDD), researchers reported here at the 15th meeting of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP).

"Sertraline has been previously shown to be safe and effective in children and adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder, and effective in a pilot study of generalised anxiety disorder, but it has not, to date, been studied rigorously in paediatric MDD," noted lead author Karen Wagner, MD, professor of psychiatry at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas.

Researchers enrolled 376 subjects (177 children, ages 6-11, 199 adolescents, ages 12-17) and randomised them to receive either sertraline (189) or placebo (187).

The investigators conducted two identical 10-week multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled, flexible-dose studies of sertraline (50-200 mg/day) with outpatient children and adolescents diagnosed with MDD.

The primary end point was the Children