OCD Medication for Children

By Mark Berman, Thu, July 21, 2011

If your child suffers from moderate to severe symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder, you might want to consider putting him or her on medication.

If your doctor decides that is the best course of treatment, an antidepressant will likely be prescribed. According to the International OCD Foundation, here are the brand names of the drugs doctors most commonly use:

-- Celexa
-- Laxapro
-- Luvox
-- Prozac
-- Paxil
-- Zoloft
-- Anafranil

Anafranil is slightly different than the others -- it is a tricyclic antidepressant (TCA), while the others are Selective Serotonin-Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI).

All are effective in treating OCD, but the OCD Foundation said doctors would likely not try Anafranil first on a child because of its side effects.

Only four of the medicines have been approved for children -- Luvox, Prozac, Zoloft and Anafranil. But doctors can prescribe the others if they think they could be better.

It is also important to note that these medications will not "cure" your child of OCD -- it will only help them control the symptoms, which would return once the medication is stopped.

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