Primary Care Practitioners Hesitate to Prescribe Antidepressants for Depressed Teens

A recent study published in the January issue of Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics reported that Pediatric primary care practitioners (PCPs) are reluctant to prescribe antidepressant medications to adolescent patients — even  those with severe depression. However, the study also found that the rate at which physicians prescribe antidepressants is correlated to their level of depression knowledge. Providers who scored higher on a test of depression knowledge were about 70 percent more likely to recommend antidepressants. In contrast, those who felt a higher sense of burden when seeing patients with a mental health-related problem were less likely to say they would prescribe antidepressants. To read more about the findings in this study, click here.