A study paid for by the National Institute of Mental Health found that the perscription medicine, Zoloft, along with three months of therapy dramatically helped children with anxiety disorders. Anxiety is the most common psychiatric illness in children. The study also found that therapy alone helped a lot as well.
Since therapy alone works pretty well, I would not suggest even putting kids on Zoloft. Here’s why…the study indicated that only a “handful” of the more than 200 kids using Zoloft had suicide-related thoughts. Zoloft is mostly used to treat adult depression and anxiety, but sometimes what helps an adult can have the opposite affect on children. I was a child when I was put on Zoloft for anxiety disorder. For the three months I took it, I became very depressed. I didn’t even want to leave my house. I have never felt more depressed in my entire life than when I was on that medicine. My mother told my doctor how I was feeling and took me off the medication. A child doesn’t have to have suicide-related thoughts to be depressed. Unfortunately, this study does not mention how many children felt depressed after taking the medication.
I believe in the long run, children can manage their anxiety much more affectively with therapy. For adults 25 and older, Zoloft may work. The only time I would ever give a child Zoloft or other anxiety medication would be in extreme cases where the child cannot function daily because their anxiety is so extreme. Most children do not fall into this category.