Anti-depressants: FDA owns up about suicide rates

[Guest guest]

America's drug regulator, the Food and Drug Administration, has

finally admitted that antidepressants double the suicide rate in

children – a fact it's suppressed for nearly two years.

 

The discovery was made by one of its experts, Andrew Mosholder, and

his findings were leaked to the press in August 2004. Despite this,

the FDA barred him from publishing his findings.

 

Mosholder's study has finally seen the light of day, and it makes for

extremely worrying reading. Mosholder had analysed 24 studies that

involved 4,582 patients taking one of nine different

antidepressants. Even after the research excluded 260 of 427

suicides or attempted suicides, it still found that the drugs nearly

doubled the risk of suicide among children and adolescents.

 

But if the FDA's principal role is guardian of public safety, why has

it suppressed this damning evidence for so long – and how many

children during that time took their lives? It's something their

parents have a right to know.

Archives of General Psychiatry, 2006; 63: 332-9.

[Guest guest]

It always surprised me when I check side effects in Mims how many drugs have side effects the same as the symptoms they are intended to treat or resolve!

 

It is all there for anyone who wishes to check. We have e-Mims at work & if someone has sudden symptoms which have no apparent cause I always assume that they are related to one of the many drugs most of the patients are prescribed and usually this is so.

 

Jane

 

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Shirish Bhate

Monday, March 27, 2006 5:27 PM

Anti-depressants: FDA owns up about suicide rates

America's drug regulator, the Food and Drug Administration, has finally admitted that antidepressants double the suicide rate in children – a fact it's suppressed for nearly two years.The discovery was made by one of its experts, Andrew Mosholder, and his findings were leaked to the press in August 2004. Despite this, the FDA barred him from publishing his findings.