Antidepressant Treatment of Caregivers of Children With Asthma

BackgroundDepression is common in caregivers of children with asthma and is associated with increased emergency service utilization for the child’s asthma.ObjectiveThis pilot study examined the impact of antidepressant treatment of depressed caregivers on the caregiver’s depression and the child’s asthma.MethodEight depressed caregivers of children with asthma were given up to 6 months of algorithm-based antidepressant therapy.ResultsCaregiver depressive symptoms and the child’s asthma symptoms improved significantly.ConclusionUnscheduled clinic visits showed a trend toward significant decrease. Larger trials are needed to confirm these findings and identify mechanisms linking improvement in caregiver depression with improvement in their child’s asthma.