Fluvoxamine For the Treatment of Child and Adolescent Depression: An Open Label Trial

Objective: major depressive disorder is a severe disorder that has a significant impact on the psychological and social functioning of children and adolescents.considering current limitations in the treatment of this disorder, the presentstudy was performed to evaluate the efficacy of fluvoxamine in the treatment ofchildren and adolescents with major depressive disorder.method: in an open trial, the efficacy of fluvoxamine (50-200 mg/d) on childrenand adolescents with major depressive disorder or dysthymic disorder wasevaluated using the “children’s depression inventory”, the “hamilton anxietyrating scale”, the “children – global assessment scale”, the “clinical globalimpression scale”, and the “drug side effect questionnaire” at the beginningand 2, 4, and 8 weeks after the beginning of the treatment. the frequency ofsuicidal ideas was evaluated as well.results: treatment with fluvoxamine caused statistically significantimprovement in all of the above scales. the frequency of suicidal ideasdecreased from 88.9 percent to zero after 8 weeks. no significant side effectswere observed.conclusion: fluvoxamine can be used as a safe and effective drug in thetreatment of major depressive disorder and dysthymic disorder of children andadolescents.