[obelus]

Considering this is from Yahoo and they didn't bother posting any sources, I'd say "big pharma" conspiracy theorists are at work with this article. Which conspiracy theorists and pseudoscience believers tend to take residence on Yahoo anyway. Yahoo doesn't produce many factual articles these days or ever, really.

Regardless, antidepressants are still in the works of. In my opinion, the reason they say antidepressants don't work for teens are because there are so few approved for teens and children. Most of the ones that help adults are not approved for anyone under 18. There's only 5 or 6 approved for children. Compared to possibly 30+ for adults. I was too lazy to count, honestly.

The antidepressants (SSRIs) that are tried first to treat a person's depression have only been in development for not even 30 years, so they do have a ways to go in perfecting the medications to work more and for longer. Older antidepressants work much better, but are usually only used in severe depression and when the newer ones don't work (which they don't always, they are newer and therefore have less research backing them).

Still, these medications can make a huge difference in a persons life. It's just the fact that there are not many approved for teens so when a teen is depressed they tend not to find a medication that works until they are 18 when they can try a larger variety of medications. And one medication that did or did not work for a teenager may have different effects on them as an adult due the the development of the brain. So, yes, some antidepressants may be less effective on teens than others because of the immaturity of the brain because doctors are trying to treat teen depression with medications developed for adults. It could still take many years to develop an antidepressant specifically for teen brains.

Also just saying that the majority of teens expect a medication to be a cure all and take all their problems away, when you have to use other tools along with the antidepressant (also a tool) to feel better.

All in all, I would take this article with a grain of salt unless they magically produce legitimate scientific studies.