According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) the use of antidepressant medications may induce suicidal behavior in youths.

In fact, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has required anti-depressant medications formulated for children and teens to carry a black box warning which states that these pharmaceutical products were found to increase the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in children and adolescents with major depressive disorders.

The reports have sent many physicians and parents to turn to alternative traditions to help kids cope with mental and emotional distress. A number of medical doctors are mixing alternative techniques into their approaches in order to help these children.

Some practitioners have not ruled out the use of psychiatric medication in some cases, but reserve them only as a last resort. Those who do use medications in combination with other alternative strategies say dosages can be kept low and get patients off the drugs more quickly.

Michael Cantwell, a pediatrician at the Institute for Health and Healing at the California Pacific Medical Center says understanding what's going on in both the patients' bodies and their lives - what they eat, relationships and events in their families - is the key to working effectively with depressed or anxious children.


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