A LEADING expert in suicide prevention has warned a popular new drug may not be effective for depressed children and could instead increase violence and aggressive behaviour.Speaking at the 11th Annual Suicide Prevention Australia National Conference in Sydney today, director of the Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention Professor Diego De Leo warned SSRIs may not be a cure-all for depressed kids.
SSRIs, or Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors, are the new popular group of drugs which present fewer side-effects than previous Tricyclic drugs.
Prof De Leo said prescriptions for the drugs were on the rise across the board, with some given to children presenting signs of suicidality as young as 10 or 11 years old.
The drugs had the specific indication for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), he said.

"The problem with SSRIs and children is that we have very limited evidence that these drugs really may counteract effectively depression in this age group," he said after his speech to the conference.
"Prescribing these drugs to children hasn't provided evidence for improvement in depression, and has provided evidence that cannot be neglected today on possible suicidality, increasing aggression and violent behaviour.
"I believe that the prescription of this medication in this age group must be proceeded only with extreme care and only when a monitoring of the case is really provided."
His warning comes only days after NSW deputy state coroner Dorelle Pinch said the acne treatment Roaccutane, and the anti-depressant Zoloft, may have aggravated 15-year-old Vivian Crane's depression, which caused her to commit suicide.
She was found dead by her mother in their Gordon home in Sydney's north on June 8, 2000.
Ms Pinch told the court Zoloft had never been indicated for children or adolescents, and Roaccutane had documented adverse side effects including depression.
Prof De Leo said SSRIs also had to be prescribed with caution to under-18s.
"My message with regard to this point is that the use of these drugs is not a panacea, so we are not going to resolve a lot as we hope," he said.
Sudden interruption to the drug program in the early weeks may also present problems, he said.
"In addition, we have discovered that these drugs need much more care than what we supposed before because clearly there is an activation syndrome in the first two or three weeks of the treatment and there are also dangers, particularly in terms of violent behaviour, aggression and suicidality, which are (linked) with sudden interruption or irregular consumption of those drugs," Prof De Leo said.

Look, we need to get to the root of the problem not just give bandaid treatments. Why are the kids depressed, why are they suicidal........lets do our homework and treat it at base level before the kids get like this........i just find it mindblowing to have young kid on these kind of drugs and you know, they are on and off these types of drugs for their whole life if they don't find out why they are suffering in the first place.