Fwd: [SSRI-Research] NYU Students Drugged-NY Post / Antidepressant Use in Children Soars Despite Effi

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Wed, 21 Apr 2004 02:09:16 -0000

[sSRI-Research] NYU Students Drugged-NY Post / Antidepressant Use in

Children Soars Despite Effi

 

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Promoting openness and full disclosure

http://www.ahrp.org

 

FYI

 

Following three suicides by students at New York University (in Sept-

October 2003), the University conducted an investigation of the NYU

Student Counseling Services. The New York Post reports that an

internal 116-page report (December 2003) reveals that whereas drugs

were " once a peripheral aspect of college mental health, " drugs

have " moved front and center. " NYU psychiatrists are prescribing

psychotropic drugs to record number of students. According to the NYU

report, one in five students who used NYU's Counseling Services was

prescribed a psychotropic drug--including antidepressants, anti-

anxiety drugs, and antipsychotics.

 

The Post reports that NYU's report states: " prescriptions for anti-

anxiety drugs -such as Xanax and BuSpar-tripled over the past five

years. " A fourth NYU student plunged to her death in March 2004.

 

The NYU report indicates that: " At the same time, prescriptions for

antipsychotic drugs such as Clozapine jumped 173 percent. "

 

Antipsychotic drugs such as clozapine (Clozaril) are even more

dangerous than antidepressants. They were approved for the most

severe, chronic, mental illness--schizophrenia. The FDA- approved

Clozapine label states: " Clozaril is reserved for use in the

treatment of severely ill schizophrenic patients who fail to show an

acceptable response to an adequate course of standard antipsychotic

medication. "

 

Among the severe non-psychiatric adverse effects produced by

antipsychotic drugs, some resulting in fatalities, are: diabetes,

myocarditis and other cardiac and respiratory abnormalities,

seizures, stroke, and agranulocytosis and neuroleptic malignant

syndrome (NMS).

 

According to The Post: " The report also found that NYU freshmen

appear to be more depressed than students at other universities. "

Could it be that NYU attracts more depressed students than other

universities, or could it be that NYU's counseling services and

psychiatry department are predisposed to diagnose mental illness and

to medicate?

 

The psychiatry department at NYU offers online " screening tests " for

depression, anxiety, sexual disorders, personality disorders.

See: http://www.med.nyu.edu/Psych/public.html

 

The Post did not investigate the funding sources for NYU's student

counseling services or its psychiatric outreach services. A companion

Infomail deals with a front page report in The Washington Post

dealing with the soaring increase of antidepressant use in children.

 

See also today's companion Infomail:

Antidepressant Use in Children Soars Despite Efficacy Doubts__

Washington Post

 

 

Contact: Vera Hassner Sharav

Tel: 212-595-8974

e-mail: veracare

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http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/22863.htm

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY NOW A 'MEDS' SCHOOL:

Doling out antidepressants

By AL GUART

 

April 18, 2004 -- A growing number of students at the troubled New

York University - where four students have plunged to their deaths in

recent months - are getting antidepressant drugs from school

psychiatrists, an alarming internal report reveals.

 

Prescriptions written by the school's mental-health unit for anti-

anxiety drugs - such as Xanax and BuSpar - tripled over the past five

years, the 116-page report stated.

 

" Medication therapy, once a peripheral aspect of college mental

health, has moved front and center, " a December 2003 report by NYU on

undergraduate programs stated.

 

At the same time, prescriptions at NYU for anti-psychotic drugs such

as Clozapine jumped 173 percent, the study showed. During the 2002-

2003 academic year, the school doled out meds to 750 students - or

one in five who used NYU's University Counseling Service.

 

University spokesman John Beckman said the jump in medicated students

was a reflection of a nationwide problem, as more than half of those

who got prescriptions were already on the medications when they

arrived from high school.

 

" We're seeing more students who might not have graduated high school

without the medication. "

 

In the wake of the report, the university has turned for help from

the citywide, 24-hour crisis hot line, LifeNet. Under a new

partnership with the university, LifeNet hired a full-time counselor

to handle calls from troubled NYU students last month and has

developed a formal protocol for handling them. NYU students who call

LifeNet will be referred to the counselor, who will work closely with

the university's mental health, alcohol and substance-abuse programs.

 

The internal report, completed last December, comes as the

prestigious school struggles to lift student morale in the wake of

the four deaths between September and March.

The report also found that NYU freshmen appear to be more depressed

than students at other universities. At NYU, 16 percent of its

freshmen " seriously considered suicide " at least once last year -

three percentage points higher than the national average.

 

 

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