Inika Dumir

What are non-pharmaceutical treatment options for adolescents with anxiety and depression?

Started June 22, 2023

Abstract or project description

Nearly 6.2% of adolescents across the world experience depression, in addition, anxiety affects 6.5% of adolescents worldwide.1 Anxiety and depression are both typically treated with a combination of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and pharmaceutical treatments. However, medications usually used to treat these mental disorders can have many side effects such as new or worsened suicidal thoughts, feeling irritated or anxious, indigestion, stomach aches, diarrhea, constipation, loss of appetite, dizziness, insomnia, fatigue and headache.2 It is also possible to develop a dependency to these medications. Therefore it is important to identify alternatives to pharmaceutical treatment options for adolescents with depression and anxiety. Here a literature review was conducted to identify recent research papers assessing the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical treatment options. The result of this review suggests numerous alternative treatment options including, cognitive behavioral therapy, proper diet and exercise, good sleep hygiene, and herbal supplements. This work can be used to inform therapists and physicians treating adolescents with anxiety and depression on effective alternative treatment options and allow them to prescribe these alternates before therapeutics or as supplement to traditional treatment options.