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Although selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and selective serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) have been shown to be effective in paediatric anxiety disorders, responses are variable.
To better understand the effect of antidepressant class on outcomes, researchers carried out a meta-analysis of data from five trials of SSRIs and four trials of SNRIs in 1,673 young people with anxiety disorders[1]
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They found that both SSRIs and SNRIs resulted in clinically significant improvement in symptom severity. However, SSRIs resulted in significantly greater improvements than SNRIs and this difference appeared from week 2 onwards.
The researchers, reporting in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (online, 7 February 2018), said the findings indicate that SSRIs may result in quicker and greater improvement in symptom severity in paediatric anxiety disorders than SNRIs.
References
[1] Strawn J, Mills J, Sauley B et al. The impact of antidepressant dose and class on treatment response in pediatric anxiety disorders: a meta-analysis. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psych 2018;57:235–244. doi: 10.1016/j.jaac.2018.01.015
