Antidepressant use among children nearly doubles in five years

Nearly twice as many children are receiving antidepressant medication as five years ago, according to DR. The number of children aged 0 to 17 taking SSRI medicines rose by more than 90 percent between 2020 and 2025, from 3,694 to 7,050.

The figures come from the Danish Health Data Authority database and were reported in a story by Sjællandske Nyheder. SSRIs can be used to treat depression, anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder.

Children aged 13 to 17 account for the largest share of those receiving the medication, but the figures also include children as young as five or six.

“First and foremost, the figures reflect a large number of children who are struggling, and it is a sad development to see,” said Anders Sørensen, a psychologist and PhD in psychiatry who has researched what happens when people stop taking antidepressants.

“It is especially sad if the medication is given instead of examining what the children are reacting to,” he said.

Nina Tejs Jørring, a senior doctor and chair of the Danish Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, said it was positive that children with psychiatric illnesses are now recognised as needing treatment.

“When it comes to medication, I think it is very good that they receive it when they need it,” she said. “It is very, very sad that we do not have the resources to provide the psychotherapy and support for parents and educators that should be given at the same time.”

One child who received antidepressants was Marie Frandsen’s son, who was six at the time and is now 10. He has autism and obsessive compulsive disorder and began taking the medication in connection with his OCD.

Frandsen said the family felt they were left without therapy or an understanding of what was affecting their son. When the medication was prescribed, she said, he was so unwell that he was “incapacitated by it”.

“At that point, we had spent a year sitting on a sofa wearing headphones, with a boy who was afraid of the sound of a baseball bat hitting a ball. It was really bad,” she said.

The medication helped with the anxiety connected to his OCD, but the family felt they received no other help or guidance on dealing with the obsessive thoughts that the medication did not remove. They later began private therapy as a supplement.

Frandsen’s son is still taking antidepressants. For the past two and a half years, he has attended what she describes as a very good specialised school. She hopes he will not need the medication for the rest of his life.

Sørensen said that if medication is being used on such a large scale, knowledge about how to stop taking it must also keep pace.

Health Minister Ida Auken said on the P1 Orientering programme that it was “incredibly unfortunate” that so many children were struggling so severely that they had to start taking antidepressants.

She said children and young people should receive help as quickly as possible when they show signs of poor mental health, and referred to an emergency package for psychiatry that is soon to be implemented. “We must make sure we help as many of the children on the waiting list for psychiatric care as we can,” she said.