Adverse Effects on Mental Health in Younger Patients

Megan Maroney, PharmD, BCPP, clinical associate professor, Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey; clinical psychiatric pharmacist, Monmouth Medical Center, Long Branch, NJ, discusses the higher risk for potential adverse effects of suicidal ideation and behavior, and depression in younger patients. This video was filmed at the ASHP (American Society of Health-System Pharmacists) 54th Midyear Clinical Meeting & Exhibition in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Megan Maroney, PharmD, BCPP: We do see with several classes of medication that the risk is higher in younger patients. So with the antidepressants, the boxed warning applies to children, adolescents, and young adults up to age 24. And part of that, if you think about how the brain develops, our frontal lobe doesn’t continue developing until age 25 or so. So that probably has a lot to do with that, because that is the area that really is responsible for emotion regulation, decision making, things like that, impulse control. So it kind of makes sense that there would be a higher risk in younger patients. We know we see this also with corticosteroids, for example. In several studies there have been, you know, the data demonstrated that patients that are younger seem to have a higher risk for neuropsychiatric side effects in general, including depression and suicidality.