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Previous Volume 344:1279-1285 April 26, 2001 Number 17 Next

	Full Text PDF Editorial by Guerrant, R. L. Add to Personal Archive Add to Citation Manager Notify a Friend E-mail When Cited PubMed Citation

ABSTRACT

Background Drugs that selectively inhibit serotonin reuptake are effective treatments for adults with mood and anxiety disorders, but limited data are available on the safety and efficacy of serotonin-reuptake inhibitors in children with anxiety disorders.

Methods We studied 128 children who were 6 to 17 years of age; who met the criteria for social phobia, separation anxiety disorder, or generalized anxiety disorder; and who had received psychological treatment for three weeks without improvement. The children were randomly assigned to receive fluvoxamine (at a maximum of 300 mg per day) or placebo for eight weeks and were evaluated with rating scales designed to assess the degree of anxiety and impairment.

Results Children in the fluvoxamine group had a mean (±SD) decrease of 9.7±6.9 points in symptoms of anxiety on the Pediatric Anxiety Rating Scale (range of possible scores, 0 to 25, with higher scores indicating greater anxiety), as compared with a decrease of 3.1±4.8 points among children in the placebo group (P<0.001). On the Clinical Global Impressions–Improvement scale, 48 of 63 children in the fluvoxamine group (76 percent) had a response to the treatment, as indicated by a score of less than 4, as compared with 19 of 65 children in the placebo group (29 percent, P<0.001). Five children in the fluvoxamine group (8 percent) discontinued treatment because of adverse events, as compared with one child in the placebo group (2 percent).

Conclusions Fluvoxamine is an effective treatment for children and adolescents with social phobia, separation anxiety disorder, or generalized anxiety disorder.

Source Information

Dr. Pine accepts responsibility for the overall content and integrity of the manuscript.

Address reprint requests to Dr. Daniel S. Pine at the Program on Mood and Anxiety Disorders, National Institute of Mental Health–Intramural Research Program, Bldg. 10, Rm. 4N-222 (MSC-1381), Bethesda, MD 20892-1381, or at daniel.pine{at}nih.gov.

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