New Findings from TORDIA, CAMS and the Adolescent

Mood and anxiety disorders occur frequently in children and adolescents. Major depression can affect up to 2 % of children and 4-8 % of adolescents. The cumula-tive incidence by age 18 is 20 % and has important impacts on academic, social and occupational functioning (Angold, Messer, Stangl, Farmer, Costello, & Burns, 1998; Essau, & Dobson, 1999). Anxiety disorders are common in both children and adolescents with prevalence rates of up to 10-20 % with impairments in school, peer, and family functioning (Bejamin, Costello, & Warren, 1990; Birmaher, Yelovich, & Renaud, 1998; Gurley, Cohen, Pine, & Brook, 1996). At the time of the FDA black box warning for all antidepressants in children under 18 years old in early 2004, two large NIMH funded studies were partially completed in their enrollment. Treatment of SSRI-Resistant Depression In Adolescents (TORDIA) examined the treatment of adolescents who had failed one trial of a SSRI in 4 dif-ferent treatment groups (Brent, Emslie, Clarke, Wagner, Asarnow, Keller, et al., 2008). A second large federally funded trial examined treatments for the three most common pediatric anxiety disorders in the Child/Adolescent Anxiety Multimoda