Official Ban by UK Authorities: Antidepressantls to be phased out

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atracyphd2

Wed, 28 Sep 2005 12:05:18 -0400

[drugawareness] Official Ban by UK Authorities:

Antidepressantls to be phased out for up to 40,000 children

 

 

 

 

 

The officials in the UK have taken appropriate steps to phase out

antidepressants given to the youth. How much longer will it be before

the US does the same? Clearly all countries have taken far too long to

issue such bans. These are drugs that have been prescribed to children

for years for conditions as simple as bed wetting. As a mother I would

far rather deal with a wet bed than a child suffering LSD effects from

his " medication " that is supposedly helping him not to wet his bed!

 

Dr. Ann Blake Tracy, Executive Director,

International Coalition For Drug Awareness

www.drugawareness.org & author of Prozac: Panacea

or Pandora? - Our Serotonin Nightmare (800-280-0730)

 

 

 

 

http://www.politics.co.uk/domestic-policy/call-ban-on-antidepressants-young-$150\

53641.htm

Updated, Wednesday, 28 Sep 2005 14:00 GMT+1 Political News - Domestic

Policy

Call for ban on antidepressants for the young

Wednesday, 28 Sep 2005 09:40

A new report claims that antidepressants should not be prescribed to

children and young people.

 

 

Guidance published by the NHS drug watchdog suggests that medication

should only be prescribed to young people when other forms of

treatment have proved ineffective, and then only in moderate or severe

cases.

 

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) also

found that about half of the estimated 40,000 children and adolescents

in the UK on antidepressants do not receive adequate counselling.

 

Nice is urging doctors to offer counselling, lasting at least three

months, as well as advice on diet, exercise and sleep, before

prescribing antidepressants to children. The organisation also warns

that many young people with depression are not being diagnosed with

the disease, placing them at risk.

 

Andrew Dillon, Nice chief executive, said: " It is important that

children and young people taking antidepressants do not stop taking

them abruptly, but we would advise people to talk to their GP at their

next regular review about whether a psychological treatment may be a

more effective treatment option. "

 

However, charities claim that there is a shortage of counsellors and

therapists in the UK. A study by mental health charity Sane found that

80 per cent of young people with depression receive medication and

just six per cent receive therapy.

 

Some forms of anti-depressants have been linked to an increased risk

of suicide and several have been banned from being prescribed to young

people.

 

Sophie Corlett, director of policy at mental health charity Mind,

added: " Mind welcomes these guidelines, while urging the government to

recognise that they must now give the NHS the support and resources to

ensure children and young people have access to these key

psychological treatments.

 

" This is the sixth guideline recommending such treatments as vital for

a mental health condition. All research on antidepressants has shown

most to be totally unsuitable for young people - they must be provided

with effective alternatives. "

 

 

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1579775,00.html

 

GPs to stop prescribing antidepressants blamed for suicidal feelings

in under-18s

 

· Pills to be phased out for up to 40,000 children

· New treatments to include exercise and counselling

 

Sarah Boseley, health editor

Wednesday September 28, 2005

The Guardian

 

 

Doctors were yesterday told to stop giving antidepressants to children

and people under 18, because of the risks that the pills will make

them feel suicidal.

The new NHS guidance marks a watershed in the treatment of children's

mental health. It shifts the focus sharply away from the psychiatric

drugs that around 40,000 children are thought to be taking for

depression, anxiety and other problems. Children with mild depression

should be given advice on diet and exercise, the guidance tells GPs.

Those with moderate and even severe depression should be offered a

three-month course of counselling.

The guidance is likely to cause consternation among GPs who do not

have enough counsellors and therapists available to treat all the

children who will need help. " The very significant shortage of

practitioners able to deliver these therapies is a cause for concern, "

said Dinah Morley, the deputy director of the charity Young Minds,

which applauds the new emphasis on therapy.

The government's National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice),

which has produced the guidance, says only one drug - Prozac - may

help children, and even that carries risks. Only if the " talking

therapies " do not work can children be prescribed antidepressants -

and even then, only in combination with other forms of counselling and

close monitoring for side- effects.

Until recently, most under-18s diagnosed with depression have been

treated by their GP and most will have been given a prescription. But

in response to growing concern at the potential of the modern

antidepressants to make young people feel suicidal - highlighted over

several years by the Guardian - Nice has said pills should never again

be the treatment of first resort.

In June 2003 the drug licensing body in the UK warned doctors of the

risks in prescribing any of the modern antidepressants known as the

SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) for anybody under 18,

with the exception of Prozac. All of them had a tendency to increase

suicidal thinking, but only Prozac showed any benefit in children to

counterbalance the dangerous side-effects.

A study in the Lancet in April last year, which looked not only at

trial results the drug companies had published but also those they had

not, confirmed the risks to children.

From the mid-90s until two years ago, more and more children who were

diagnosed with depression were given tablets by their doctors. The

SSRIs were much better tolerated than older antidepressants and were

thought very safe for GPs to prescribe. The annual number of

prescriptions to those under 18 soared from 13,227 in 1995 up to

27,658 in 2003.

But then the few clinical trials carried out in children had shown

that the drugs had serious risks. Some children felt suicidal. That

was the case with adults too, but significant numbers of adults

appeared to recover from their depression. In children, there was not

significant evidence, except for Prozac, that the SSRIs had any

benefit to set against the risk. This only came to light because

GlaxoSmithKline, British manufacturer of the bestselling SSRI,

Seroxat, applied for a licence for the drug to be used in depressed

children. It submitted the trial evidence it had to the Medicines and

Healthcare Regulatory Authority (MHRA), which regulates drugs.

The data showed that 3.4% of children experienced mood changes, tried

to harm themselves or thought of suicide, compared with 1.2% who took

a dummy pill in the trials. At the time, there were 8,000 children on

Seroxat. In June 2003 the MHRA put out a warning to doctors that they

should no longer prescribe it to under-18s. In September they issued a

similar warning for a second drug, Efexor. On December 11 the MHRA

told doctors all the drugs, except for Prozac, were unsuitable for

children, although it left it up to doctors to decide whether or not

to continue using them, and many are thought to have done so.

Tim Kendall, joint director of the National Collaborating Centre for

Mental Health, who was one of the authors of the Lancet study and also

led the formulation of the Nice guidelines, said they were even more

clear now about the risks. " No child, however severe the depression,

should have their firstline treatment with a drug, " he said.

He and his colleagues are concerned about the numbers of children with

depression, which is sometimes triggered by a sad event like a death,

but is often linked to poverty, deprivation, abuse and family

breakups. " Our view is that we should be targeting these children as

best we can, " he said. " Out of 1,200 kids in a comprehensive, at least

40 would be expected to suffer a diagnosis of depressive illness and

only 10 are getting any help. "

The new guidance for doctors says GPs should advise children with mild

to moderate depression on ways they can help themselves through

exercise and diet. " But then if there is any significant risk, we

should be offering individual cognitive behaviour therapy or family

therapy, depending on their needs, " he said. " We're really serious

that we don't think these drugs should be used lightly. "

Even when a young person is severely depressed, the first step should

be psychotherapy for around three months. Only if there has been no

improvement after four or five sessions should the doctor - and by

this stage it would be a psychiatrist - consider prescribing Prozac.

Andrew Dillon, chief executive of Nice, said the guideline " makes it

clear that psychological treatments are the most effective way to

treat depression in children and young people. " Children taking pills

should talk to their GP about phasing them out.

At present, there are not enough counsellors and therapists to help

all the children who may need it. Yesterday Louis Appleby, the

national director for mental health, said: " We know that not everyone

who needs treatment is able to access it easily or quickly and

expertise and services are not equally distributed around the

country. " He added that the government was " considering ways of

increasing numbers of staff " trained in cognitive behaviour therapy,

which is usually the preferred treatment for depression. More than

£300m had gone into child and adolescent mental health services.

Mind, the mental health association, urged the government to give the

NHS the support and resources it would need to ensure children have

proper access to psychological treatments. Research on antidepressants

" has shown many to be totally unsuitable for young people. They must

be provided with effective alternatives, " said a policy officer,

Alison Cobb.

" These guidelines are a welcome step in the right direction: the onus

is now on the government to provide the means to make them happen, "

said Liz Nightingale of the mental health charity Rethink.

Danger signs

 

In 2003, under-18s in England were given 27, 658 prescriptions for

antidepressants

40,000 children and young people are thought to be on psychiatric

drugs, including antidepressants

Doctors were warned in 2003 of the risks of using Seroxat, Efexor,

Lustral, Cipramil, Cipralex and Faverin in children and young people

A survey of GPs in March 2004 found 80% thought they were prescribing

SSRIs to too many adults and children