http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/treatment-of-children-with-mental-disorders/summary.shtml

Treatment of Children with Mental Disorders

There has been public concern over reports that very young children are being prescribed psychotropic medications. The studies to date are incomplete, and much more needs to be learned about young children who are treated with medications for all kinds of illnesses. In the field of mental health, new studies are needed to tell us what the best treatments are for children with emotional and behavioral disturbances.

Children are in a state of rapid change and growth during their developmental years. Diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders must be viewed with these changes in mind. While some problems are short-lived and don’t need treatment, others are persistent and very serious, and parents should seek professional help for their children.

Not long ago, it was thought that many brain disorders such as anxiety disorders, depression, and bipolar disorder began only after childhood. We now know they can begin in early childhood. An estimated 1 in 10 children and adolescents in the United States suffers from mental illness severe enough to cause some level of impairment. Fewer than one in five of these ill children receives treatment. Perhaps the most studied, diagnosed, and treated childhood-onset mental disorder is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but even with this disorder there is a need for further research in very young children.

This booklet contains answers to frequently asked questions regarding the treatment of children with mental disorders

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/depression/depression-in-children-and-adolescents.shtml

Depression in Children and Adolescents

Only in the past two decades has depression in children been taken very seriously. The depressed child may pretend to be sick, refuse to go to school, cling to a parent, or worry that the parent may die. Older children may sulk, get into trouble at school, be negative, grouchy, and feel misunderstood.

http://www.nih.gov/news/health/feb2008/nimh-26.htm

Teens with Treatment-resistant Depression More Likely to Get Better with Switch to Combination Therapy

Teens with difficult-to-treat depression [http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/depression/depression-in-children-and-adolescents.shtml] who do not respond to a first antidepressant medication are more likely to get well if they switch to another antidepressant medication and add psychotherapy rather than just switching to another antidepressant, according to a large, multi-site trial funded by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The results of the Treatment of SSRI-resistant Depression in Adolescents (TORDIA) trial were published February 27, 2008, in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).