Youth Depression: Over-Medicated? Antidepressant prescriptions for children and teenagers are slowly rising after a sharp decline. The number of youths prescribed antidepressants more than doubled between 1995 and 2002. But in February 2004, when the FDA advised it would strengthen warning labels on antidepressants to indicate increased suicide risk, prescriptions dropped drastically; yet recent statistics show that youth suicides actually climbed by 18 percent that year! Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, SSRI, a class of drugs that includes Prozac, Paxil, and Zoloft, are the most commonly prescribed antidepressants for children, though the practice remains controversial. Many doctors recommend counseling as a first line of treatment, and counseling combined with medication if the depression proves severe.