When a child suffers from anxiety, what is the best course of treatment? Some parents may opt for therapy, medication or a combination of both. But when therapy alone doesn’t seem to be helping, do parents and their children opt for medication, and how do they choose whether or not to take this approach?
A study out of the University of Cincinnati examined what drives the decision to seek further treatment options when cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) did not lead to improvement. Dr. Jeffrey Strawn and Jeffrey Mills found that only about 10% of patients who didn’t get fully better with CBT elected to begin taking medication. Further, the researchers found that minorities and younger patients were significantly less likely to opt for medication.
On Cincinnati Edition, we explore the questions parents and young people face around medication as a treatment option and what leads to this hesitancy.
Guests:
- Jeffrey Strawn, MD, professor, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, child and adolescent psychiatrist, UC Health
- Jeffrey Mills, Ph.d., professor of economics, University of Cincinnati Lindner College of Business
- Angela Scott, Ph.d., staff psychologist, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
Listen to Cincinnati Edition live at noon M-F. Audio for this segment will be uploaded after 4 p.m. ET.
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