Persuasive Essay Example on Antidepressants in Children

“In what is the first study of its kind, scientists at University College London showed that 56 percent of people became depressed again within 12 months after they stopped taking antidepressants, following years of use” (Lovett, 2021). This study shows that antidepressants can heavily influence the improvement of one’s depression, and taking away that extra push from the medication can worsen one’s depression. Antidepressants are useful drugs that can help people with depression by affecting their emotions by working with the chemicals in your brain (Nazario, 2010). While children should be given therapy, children should be prescribed antidepressants because they can be really helpful, the side effects are temporary for most people, and if used with other treatments have been shown to help.

First of all, antidepressants are helpful, and they should be used as a treatment for children who have depression. “The long-term use of antidepressant drugs helps to reduce the risk of relapse for people who have suffered from recurrent depression” (Lovett, 2021). Using antidepressants long-term can help prevent depression and depression relapse as well. “Stopping your medication means you also risk the return of your depression symptoms. You may feel better now that you’re taking it, but this doesn’t mean you don’t need it anymore. You’ll need to keep taking your antidepressant to prevent a relapse” (Rausch, 2021). This shows that even if one decides to stop taking antidepressants, cutting them out gradually can still be helpful by reducing the risk of relapse.

Next, the side effects of antidepressants are temporary for most people. “Many of these side effects will go away as your body gets used to the medication. It takes 2 weeks on average, but most go away within a few days” (Rausch, 2021). Many side effects of antidepressants, such as headaches, nausea, insomnia, dizziness, etc. don’t last long, since the body affected by the drug will get used to the medication. “My dosage of 150mg seems to be working quite well for me. I am not suffering from weekly panic attacks as I once did” (Goodwin, 2020). This shows that the article by Rausch isn’t inaccurate, because this is a story from a real person who took and still takes antidepressants, and their symptoms don’t last. Even though it is different for some people, if a child is suffering from depression, medication should be considered, since the kid won’t know how the drug will affect them until they try.

Finally, Antidepressants are more effective if used with other treatments. “Lots of people use antidepressants as their only treatment for depression… When you’re depressed, Coulter says, there’s more than likely something that you need to talk about or work on in psychotherapy” (Rausch, 2021). Antidepressants themselves are often not enough to pull someone out of depression, they are most effective when used with other treatments, such as therapy. “I have been on them myself since childhood, and am not sure I would still be alive were it not for the 60mg of Fluoxetine I take daily. But antidepressants are not a cure-all for mental illness, any more than painkillers are a cure-all for broken limbs” (Gordon, 2021). This shows that antidepressants are often not something to completely rely on, but something that can enhance the effectiveness of therapy or other treatments.

One of the other side’s arguments is that children should receive therapy instead of relying on antidepressants. “This is what happens when you medicate children instead of giving them talking therapies, as was routinely the case back in 1997, when I was first prescribed antidepressants. The symptoms are vaguely dealt with, but the cause remains unsolved until the patient reaches crisis point – in my case, suicidal thoughts and addiction issues 20 years later. And I am one of the lucky ones”(Gordon, 2021). Antidepressants may partially ease symptoms of depression, but the depression will stay there for many people if not properly taken care of with therapy. This isn’t necessarily correct. Even though therapy is effective, studies have shown that therapy can be more effective with assistance from antidepressants. “In general, antidepressants are safe and effective to treat depression and anxiety in children and teenagers, especially when combined with psychotherapy” (Holmes, 2020).

The final argument from the other side is that antidepressants can be addicting. “And once you have been on antidepressants for some time, it is very hard to come off them”(Gordon, 2021). When people are used to antidepressants, it becomes very difficult for them to stop taking them. This is not a valid enough reason to not prescribe any children antidepressants, perhaps for individual children it’s a good reason, but it’s not the case for every child. “In what is the first study of its kind, scientists at University College London showed that 56 percent of people became depressed again within 12 months after they stopped taking antidepressants, following years of use. By comparison, only 39 percent of people who continued to take their medication during the same one-year period experienced a depressive relapse, the research found”(Lovett, 2021). This study shows that the effect of medication is very different for everyone, even though 39% of people on the antidepressants weren’t helped much, the other 61% were. Just because antidepressants cause addiction for some children doesn’t mean that they will cause addiction for other children, it might help a lot of children.

Although therapy can be helpful, it is even more effective when used with antidepressants. If used together, antidepressants and therapy can be even more effective than if one of them is used alone, and the symptoms of antidepressants are temporary for most people. Antidepressants are useful, they are used to ease depression and they can help prevent relapse, because of this, children should be allowed to use them. Even though they can be addicting to some people and they are not a treatment that should be used alone, they can be very helpful to many children struggling with depression, so this treatment should not be withheld from them. If this topic isn’t talked about more, it will just keep being ignored, mental health is already not very talked about, and the mental health of children is given even less attention. If nothing is done to help ease the depression of children, then children won’t learn any healthy ways to cope, and they won’t learn that taking action to better their health is nothing to be embarrassed about. To prevent this, children should be given antidepressants and other treatments. If antidepressants have been shown to have the potential to help so many people, then why should they be held back from children who truly need them?