Drug Treatments

Some practitioners believe there's some evidence indicating that antidepressants such as fluoxetine may be effective in treating children with selective mutism. Though many in the medical community believe that psychiatric medications decrease the anxiety levels enough to allow communication to take place in cases of selective mutism, other practitioners and activists (see articles on Peter Breggin and David Healy (psychiatrist) ) stringently decry any use of psychiatric medications on children and note the lack of medical proof of genetic links to behavioral disorders. The denunciation of psychotropic intervention on children with behavioral anxiety disorders has intensified particularly since lawsuits against several drug companies- current to 2005- have exposed previously unseen internal research documents linking fluoxetine and other SSRI antidepressants with increased risk of suicide, psychosis and- ironically enough- damage to areas of the brain which could effect language production and normal social development.