February 13th 04, 12:24 PM
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Antidepressant warning: Adult drugs may lead to increased risk of suicide in children
Do you have some kind of agenda? I think the majority of people who NEED
antidepressents do their research and work out what is best for themselves.
Why do you feel the need to post all these posts on antidepressants?
--
Sue (mom to three girls)
I'm Just a Raggedy Ann in a Barbie Doll World...
wrote in message
...
Antidepressant warning: Adult drugs may lead to increased risk of suicide
in
children
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index...2004/02/03/bui
ld/health/30-antidepressantwarning.inc
Associated Press
Parents need warnings that popular adult antidepressants may sometimes
spur
suicide when taken by children and teenagers, government advisers said
Monday
after hearing emotional testimony from families who lost loved ones.
It isn't clear yet that the drugs lead to suicide, but until that is
settled,
parents and doctors need to know they may cause agitation, anxiety and
hostility
in a subset of young patients who may be unusually prone to rare side
effects,
advisers to the Food and Drug Administration concluded.
"We want to put a speed bump in the road," said panel chair Dr. Matthew
Rudorfer
of the National Institute of Mental Health. "The warnings as they exist in
the
current labeling are not adequate or are not being taken seriously."
British health authorities sounded the alarm last year, saying
long-suppressed
research suggests certain antidepressants might sometimes increase the
risk of
suicidal behavior in children and teenagers. Because only one drug,
Prozac, has
been proven to alleviate pediatric depression, Britain declared others -
drugs
called SSRIs and their close relatives - unsuitable for depressed youth.
Now, the FDA is wrestling with whether the suicide risk is real, and if
so, what
to do. It's difficult, because depression itself can cause suicide.
Among 25 studies of the suspect medications involving 4,000 children and
teens,
there were no completed suicides. But 109 patients experienced one or more
possibly suicide-related behaviors or attempts, FDA medical reviewer Dr.
Thomas
Laughren revealed Monday.
The problem, he said, is that studies varied dramatically in what was
considered
suicidal behavior. Among 19 patients classified as cutting themselves, for
instance, almost all were superficial, with little bleeding. So FDA has
hired
Columbia University to help determine exactly how much true suicidal
behavior
occurred, before it proposes next steps at a second public hearing in late
summer.
Meanwhile, FDA has warned doctors to use great caution in prescribing any
antidepressant other than Prozac to people under 18.
That's not enough, said anguished parents who want warnings of the
possible
suicide risk on the drugs' labels.
"You have an obligation today . from preventing this tragic story from
being
repeated over and over again," said Mark Miller of Kansas City, Mo., whose
13-year-old son Matt hanged himself in his bedroom closet after taking his
seventh Zoloft pill.
Parents described youths becoming extremely agitated or anxious shortly
after
starting the pills - symptoms known medically as akathisia - and seemingly
sudden impulses that turned deadly.
FDA's scientific advisers warned that the youths most likely to commit
suicide
weren't allowed into the SSRI studies, so existing data likely won't
settle the
issue.
But the panel urged FDA to heed parents' reports about akathisia - and to
run
some sort of education campaign about those symptoms, so young patients
can be
better monitored.
A few parents, despite boos from the crowd, credited the drugs with saving
their
children.
"I ask that you appreciate the enormous benefit these medicines have had,"
said
Sherri Walton of Arizona, whose 14-year-old daughter Jordan has used SSRIs
in a
years-long battle with obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression. "Her
medicines were sometimes the only things she could depend on to help her."
"I shudder to think of their plight if these medicines were not
available,"
added Suzanne Vogel-Scibilia of the patient group National Alliance for
the
Mentally Ill, who say the drugs dramatically improved depression in two of
her
teen sons, including one who had attempted suicide.
FDA officials fear warnings before the issue is settled could dissuade
patients
from potentially helpful treatment. "To err in either direction has
significant
consequences," Laughren said.
Depression occurs in up to 10 percent of youth, and 1,883 10- to
19-year-olds
killed themselves in 2001. Some 1.8 million teenagers attempted suicide
that
year, a quarter of them requiring medical attention, said Dr. David
Schaffer of
Columbia University.
In 2002, almost 11 million prescriptions were dispensed to patients under
18 for
SSRIs and other newer antidepressants, to treat depression and a host of
other
conditions, FDA said.
Copyright © 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may
not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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