Varför har förskrivningen av antidepressiva läkemedel ökat till barn och ungdomar?

Sammanfattning: Depression is one of Sweden's most common diseases. In recent years, more and more children and adolescents are diagnosed with depression and the disease continues to increase in numbers. Most common causes of depression are any kind of stress, trauma, surrounding impacts and inherited symptoms. Due to this, prescriptions of antidepressants have increased and the most commonly used drugs for children and adolescents are SSRI-drugs. The purpose of this study is to examine the underlying reasons for increased prescription of antidepressants. I will also investigate how many children there is who currently takes antidepressants in Sweden and how many children there is suffering from depression. The study will be conducted through two different methods, a registry study and through interviews. For the interview study, five respondents were chosen all with different task assignments like counselors, psychologists, and child psychiatrists. The result for this study all showed that the prevalence of depression continues to increase. In 2015 6 % of children in Sweden aged 0-19 were diagnosed with depression. Although the number of prescriptions on SSRI-drugs almost doubled during the last ten year period, this group of drugs constitutes the treatment option for only one fifth of the patients. The treatment of choice is cognitive behavior treatment for mild and moderate depression. Factors that are contributing to a diminished mental health among young people according to the interviews among healthcare professionals are both a changed society but also changed lifestyles that are major causes. Children feel more stress and demands in today's society that has been a contributing factor. They will nowadays make more decisions and plan their time and schooling, something that younger children cannot handle. Factors that might explain the increased use of SSRI-drugs is the rapidly increasing demand of drugs. Today there are more doctors available in the society. The doctor’s knowledge has increased as well as for parents and teachers when it comes to depression and the drugs that work well against it. As a conclusion to epitomize this report, the prescription of antidepressants has increased due to an overall factor like lifestyle changes and increased knowledge.