Parents Blame Medicines for Suicides

ALL RIGHT ALREADY. We see that you area against antidepressants being
prescribed to children. But this is a PREGNANCY newsgroup and you are off
topic. Just stop already.




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Parents Blame Medicines for Suicides



http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...,5140867.story



By Elizabeth Shogren, Times Staff Writer








BETHESDA, Md. - Dozens of relatives of children who either committed or
attempted suicide told a panel convened Monday by the Food and Drug
Administration that the youngsters' actions were prompted by the
antidepressant
drugs that were supposed to help them.

The FDA is assessing whether there is a link between suicide in children
and
drugs such as Zoloft and Paxil, which are in a class of pharmaceuticals
known as
selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs.

The British government announced in December that the drugs should not be
taken
by children because of the possible increased risk of suicide.

The FDA has taken a milder approach, alerting doctors in October about the
reports of suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts among children in
clinical
tests of the antidepressants. The agency plans to analyze the data from 15
clinical studies of the drugs before deciding whether to prohibit doctors
from
prescribing them for children or to require that drug companies warn
doctors of
possible links to increased suicide.

"To err in either direction has significant consequences," said Thomas
Laughren,
leader of the FDA's psychiatric drug products team.

The FDA has approved only one SSRI for treating children and adolescents -
Prozac, which came on the market in the United States in 1988. Despite
that,
many doctors prescribe other SSRIs for their young patients. About 2.7
million
children younger than 12 and 8.1 million adolescents between 12 and 17
took
antidepressants in 2002, according to the FDA.

Banning the drugs, if they do not present extra suicide risks, could rob
children of medications that could help them. However, failing to
ascertain that
the drugs increase the risk of suicide could give parents false comfort
that
these drugs were safe.

But many of the parents and patients who testified Monday said that the
FDA
already had made a significant error by failing to warn parents that
suicide was
a risk.

"We are 100% convinced that Zoloft killed our daughter," said Tom Woodward
of
North Wales, Pa. Woodward said his teenage daughter had hanged herself in
July,
seven days after starting the drug. She had never shown any violent or
suicidal
tendencies before taking the drug and had just scored 1,300 on the SAT,
her
father said.

"Instead of picking out colleges with our daughter, my wife and I were
picking
out a cemetery," Woodward said.

"The FDA should be a zealous advocate of the public," he said. But
instead, it
protects drug companies, he added.

Lorraine Slater said her 14-year-old daughter, Dominique, went from being
a
sightly depressed honor student to a suicidal young woman after their
family
doctor prescribed one of these drugs. Dominique was taking the
antidepressant
Effexor when she drowned herself last February in the Delta Mendota Canal
near
Patterson, in California's Central Valley. Slater said she was unaware of
the
possible link between the drug and suicide until after her daughter's
death.

"Dominique's life was taken from her as a result of a drug-induced
psychosis,"
said Slater, 38. "If we had known" about the reported risks, Slater said,
"I
don't believe we would have let her be on Effexor. It's too late for us;
we hope
it's not too late for other families."

But some parents urged the panel not to ban these drugs for children,
saying
that the medications have been very helpful.

Suzanne Vogel-Scibilia, a psychiatrist, has two children who take
antidepressants.

"I shudder to think of their plight if these medications were not
available,"
said Vogel-Scibilia, who was speaking for the National Alliance for the
Mentally
Ill.

Some doctors who testified at the daylong meeting Monday stressed that the
benefits to children who take the drugs do not outweigh the risks, because
clinical tests have not shown them to be much more effective than
placebos.

"The meager benefits don't justify putting a child at risk," said David
Antonuccio, a professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral
sciences
at the University of Nevada School of Medicine.

But Russell Katz, director of FDA's division of neuropharmacological drug
products, stressed that while tests have not shown clear benefits of the
drugs
over placebos, that is "not the same thing as showing them to be
ineffective."

The FDA has contracted with Columbia University to analyze the data on the
suicidal behavior from the drug companies' clinical trials. The agency
plans to
convene another meeting in August to address the issue, but Katz said that
even
then, the FDA still may not have a definitive answer about the risks of
the
antidepressants for children and teenagers.

It has been part of medical lore for decades that taking antidepressants
may
give a person the energy to follow through on suicidal impulses before
there is
a chance for the drugs to improve the patient's mood. But both patients
and
parents on Monday told the FDA that, months after starting the drugs,
children
had become extremely hostile and experienced other forms of severely
altered
behavior.

In some cases, that behavior led to suicide or suicide attempts. In others
it
led to violent outbursts toward others, including homicidal tendencies.

Wyeth, the manufacturer of Effexor, warned doctors in September that tests
showed its antidepressant caused an increased risk of suicidal behavior in
children. Other companies have not sent out warnings.

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Most of us have this person killfiled. If everyone killfiles her or stops
responding to her posts maybe she will go away and we will never have to
look at her posts again.

Nadene