Rense: Anti-Depressants May Increase Teen/Child Suicides

[Guest guest]

Comments? If our children weren't shot full of toxins they wouldn't

end up on things like ritalin and antidepressants to start with.

Been there. And the last thing I would want would be the FDA having

access to individual medical records.

 

 

 

, " Misty L. Trepke "

<mistytrepke> wrote:

> Comments?

> Misty L. Trepke

> http://www..com

>

> Anti-Depressants May

> Increase Teen/Child Suicides

> 10-28-3

>

> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration

alerted

> doctors on Monday about reports that antidepressants might raise

the

> risk of suicide in children and teen-agers with major depression.

>

> While there is no evidence to show most antidepressants could cause

> young patients to commit suicide, doctors need to carefully watch

> them, the FDA said.

>

> Only one drug, fluoxetine, sold by Eli Lilly and Co. under the name

> Prozac, is approved for treating pediatric depression. But doctors

> are free to prescribe any approved drug and several are being

tested

> in younger patients.

>

> " The data do not clearly establish an association between the use

of

> these drugs and increased suicidal thoughts or actions by pediatric

> patients, " the FDA said in a statement.

>

> " Nevertheless, it is not possible at this point to rule out an

> increased risk of these adverse events for any of these drugs,

> including Paxil (paroxetine). " Paxil is made by GlaxoSmithKline

> Plc .

>

> FDA Commissioner Dr. Mark McClellan said the situation showed

better

> systems are needed for reporting drug side effects. Doctors

> voluntarily report side effects to the FDA or a drug manufacturer

if

> and when time permits.

>

> " We need a more efficient and effective program to uncover problems

> early, " McClellan told a meeting of the Institute of Medicine, an

> independent group that advises the federal government on health

> matters. " We are working to do this at FDA. We are working to

> complete active reporting. "

>

> Electronic medical records linked directly to an FDA database would

> help do this, he said, allowing computers to automatically collect

> data as it is noted in a patient's record.

>

> The FDA said there was not enough information to tell whether

> patients taking antidepressants were more likely to try to take

> their own lives.

>

> " The labeling of antidepressant drugs already carries precautionary

> language that the possibility of a suicide attempt is inherent in

> major depressive disorder and may persist until significant

> remission occurs. Close supervision of high-risk patients should

> accompany initial drug therapy, " the FDA advised.

>

> It said no one should stop taking the drugs abruptly, and not

> without consulting a doctor.

>

> The FDA said it had reviewed reports about eight antidepressants --

> Paxil; Prozac; citalopram, sold by Forest Laboratories under the

> brand name Celexa; fluvoxamine, sold by Belgian drugmaker Solvay

> under the name Luvox; mirtazapine, sold by Akzo Nobel's

> pharmaceutical unit Organon as Remeron; nefazodone, sold by Bristol-

> Myers Squibb as Serzone; sertraline, sold by Pfizer under the name

> Zoloft; and venlafaxine, sold by Wyeth under the name Effexor.

>

> " FDA is aware of press and medical journal reports of suicide

> attempts and completed suicides in pediatric patients receiving

> antidepressants, and many such reports have also been submitted to

> FDA as spontaneous reports, " the agency said.

>

> But it said it is hard to tell whether the drugs caused the

> suicides, because depression is the leading cause of suicide.

>

> The FDA has scheduled a meeting on Feb. 2, 2004, of the

> Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee and the Pediatric

> Subcommittee of the Anti-Infective Drugs Advisory Committee.

>

> Experts say an estimated 750,000 U.S. adolescents suffer from

> depression and 500,000 attempt suicide every year. About 1,700

> succeed.

>

>

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