U.S. Youth Antidepressant Use Drops in 2004 - Report

U.S. Youth Antidepressant Use Drops in 2004 - Report

Tue Feb 1,12:11 PM ET


CHICAGO (Reuters) - Antidepressant use among children declined 10 percent in
2004, after U.S. regulators warned the drugs may be linked with increased
suicide risk, pharmacy benefits firm Medco Health Solutions said on Tuesday.

Use of drugs including Eli Lilly and Co.'s Prozac and GlaxoSmithKline Plc's
Paxil fell 16 percent in the final quarter of the year, a time when use of
the medications typically peaks, according to Medco.

The drop began when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites)
in October 2003 cited reports of suicidal attempts among kids on certain
anti-depressants.

A year later, after intense public debate and high-profile government
meetings, regulators ordered makers of all the drugs to slap tough warnings
in bold letters -- so-called black box warnings -- on the drugs as a
precaution.

Medco acts as a middleman between health plans and employers trying to curb
prescription drug costs, and pharmaceutical companies. It processes
prescriptions for 60 million people in the United States.

The overall 10 percent drop last year contrasts to a 9 percent rise in 2003,
which reversed several years of upward use of the drugs in children.

After the FDA (news - web sites)'s initial decision on the new warnings,
Medco did a big public campaign to patients, doctors and pharmacists.