GPS GIVE PROZAC TO TEENAGERS FOR EXAM NERVES

FAMILY doctors are increasingly prescribing antidepressants such as Prozac
to teenagers to help them to cope with anxiety during school examinations,
according to psychiatrists and mental health groups.

Helen Kay of the Mental Health Foundation said: "There is a great increase
in anxiety among young people generally, and exam time is a particularly
stressful period. We are aware that doctors are now prescribing
antidepressants like Prozac to teenagers to help them to cope.

"There is a much greater amount of pressure on young people nowadays to
succeed at school and in their careers. They are very aware that the job
market is now extremely competitive. But instead of drugs we would prefer
to see more schools providing proper counselling and pastoral care for
teenagers who suffer from this."

Cosmo Hallstrom, medical director of the Charter Clinic in Chelsea, West
London, said: "It is becoming more widely accepted that anti-depressants
like Prozac are suitable for under-18s.

"Anxiety and depression do not suddenly begin when you become an adult, but
for various reasons in the past there has been a tradition against using
medication in under-18s. If the symptoms are severe and persistent then,
providing it is used carefully and appropriately, it is probably a good
thing. There is a myth that depression is a minor condition that will go
away with a few sessions of counselling."

According to a recent survey of nearly 17,000 young people, published by
the Samaritans, anxiety problems are on the increase. Some 17 per cent of
girls and 8 per cent of boys aged between 13 and 25 said that they had made
a suicide attempt. Just under half had once felt that there was no point in
living.

Suicide is Britain's second biggest killer of young people after road
accidents. In 1995, 19 per cent of deaths in the 15-to-24 age group were
suicides, with 738 young people killing themselves.

Jackie Lang, head of Walthamstow Hall, an independent girls' school in
Sevenoaks, Kent, and vice-president of the Girls' Schools Association,
said: "It's a great pity that a personality altering drug is being given to
a young person before a personality is formed properly. Youngsters should
be given the chance to find out if they can cope with anxiety on their own.

"However, I do realise that there is more pressure on young people to
succeed in examinations because employment prospects are less secure than
they have ever been and competition to get into good universities is
increasing. It is not only A-level pupils who suffer, it now extends to
GCSE, because more universities are saying that GCSEs are crucial in the
selection of those they give offers to. Some medical schools will not look
at pupils unless they have straight As at GCSE.

"I am not aware of pupils being prescribed Prozac, but I am sure it is
usually something that is kept quiet." Her school does not provide specific
exam stress counselling, but gives general advice on how to cope and
support through tutors and school nurses.

A spokesman for Dista Products, the British company which makes Prozac,
said: "The drug is licensed for prescription to over-18s, but GPs are
allowed to prescribe it off-licence to under-18s if they wish. We do not
have any figures on how many teenagers are using it, but it is becoming
increasingly popular as a treatment for anxiety and depression."

As well as depression, Prozac is also used to treat eating disorders,
particularly bulimia, which is most common in teenage girls.

Peter Wilson, child psychotherapist and director of the mental health
charity Young Minds, said: "The problem about giving medication like Prozac
to children is that drug trials have only been conducted on adults. We
don't know what it is doing to a still-growing brain, so we must be
cautious and make sure that it is closely monitored by experienced medical
professionals.

"We are living in a drug age, so it is really an issue of our times. Stress
such as that caused by exams is part of growing up and being able to
overcome it is part of a personality's development."