Continuation Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Prevents Relapse in Kids
At a symposium on early-onset depression at the 2013 meeting of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Graham Emslie of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center discussed the role of cognitive behavioral therapy in the long-term treatment of child-and adolescent-onset unipolar depression.
In Emslie’s research, the combination of the antidepressant fluoxetine and cognitive behavioral therapy reduced depressive relapses in children. Using the two treatments together did not speed onset of antidepressant response compared to fluoxetine alone, but once children responded to the medication, the addition of cognitive behavioral therapy reduced relapses over the next year compared to fluoxetine alone (even though the cognitive behavioral therapy ended after the first six months).
Emslie likened the use of cognitive behavioral therapy to the course of rehabilitation that often follows a major surgery and is meant to sustain or enhance the good effects of surgery. Getting patients to full remission (well and with no residual symptoms) was the key to staying well.
