Researchers Jun Ma and Randall Stafford at the School of Medicine’s Stanford Prevention Research Center studied two large national databases that tracked visits by young people to physicians and hospitals between 1995 and 2002, the most recent years for which data is available.

During that period, the use of medication in depressed kids rose to 52 percent of all visits from 47 percent previously, while the use of psychotherapy dropped to 68 percent from 83 percent previously.

The trend runs counter to guidelines issued by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, which urges doctors to first use psychotherapy as a way to teach problem-solving skills and correct destructive thought patterns.

The group advises that medication should only be used for the most serious forms of mental illness, and even then in combination with a psychotherapy regimen.

“There is the assumption that the medications are so good, it obviates the need for counseling,” Stafford said.

The study’s authors cautioned that the findings may be dated. An analysis conducted for the Food and Drug Administration found the number of antidepressant prescriptions for children and adolescents peaked in 2002 and fell 20 percent over the next three years.

In 2004, the agency determined that certain antidepressants were linked to an increase of adolescent suicide, and use declined.

The Stanford study also found that the number of adolescent visits to doctors for depression increased to 3.2 million in 2002, compared to 1.4 million in 1995.