UAE | Health
Antidepressants: Now very young children take them
When his nine-year-old daughter's unhappiness continued for weeks, Richard, a British expatriate, decided there was no option but to take her to see a psychiatrist.
- By Daniel Bardsley, Staff Reporter
- Published: 23:42 July 27, 2007
Dubai: When his nine-year-old daughter's unhappiness continued for weeks, Richard, a British expatriate, decided there was no option but to take her to see a psychiatrist.
The psychiatrist duly prescribed antidepressants, but Richard has not been able to bring himself to give them to his daughter.
"I really don't want to start her on antidepressants at this stage. My daughter's situation reminds me of when I was a child - I was definitely depressed, but in my case it was never diagnosed or recognised. It was just a case of: 'Stop moping around,'" he said.
It seems there are many children in a similar situation to Richard's little girl, and most of them are taking the drugs they are prescribed.
Figures from the United Kingdom show that four times as many under 16s there are now taking drugs for mental health problems compared to the mid 1990s.
Some people have voiced fears that family doctors are handing out drugs as a "quick fix" when counseling would be better.
Family break-up
However, Richard feels the figures represent an increase in the amount of depression and are not just caused by doctors being keen to prescribe. "There are a lot of unhappy children and I think much of it is due to family break-up," he said.
Dr Ziaul Akhter, a specialist paediatrician at Jebel Ali International Hospital, agrees that depression in youngsters has become more common.
"There is an increase because the parents are so busy. They have no time to spend with their kids. Psychologically the children are disturbed," he said. "The teachers should understand the problems of the children. Some teachers are not very good with students."
However, specialist psychiatrist Dr Naresh Dhar, a head of department at the Prime Medical Centre in Jumeirah, thinks that greater awareness of depression, coupled with better drugs, means that doctors are now more likely to give children medicines to improve their mental health.
"I personally don't think I have seen an influx [of depressed children]. Earlier, we were reluctant to prescribe antidepressants to young people because of the side effects, but now we have more confidence in the medicines," he said.
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