Antidepressant Use in Children Soars Despite Efficacy Doubts
My problem with the article is that it gives too much credence to clinical studies done to try to get the extra 6 months' patent protection that comes from the drug being approved for children. These do not necessarily try to answer any scientifically important question.
One psychiatrist has told me that children often come to her already on excessive doses of ritilin. In the process of radically reducing their ritilin dose, she might try to keep them on a steady keel with a little anti-depressant, assuming that the child also has some depression symptoms. This is kind of real world prescribing situation that these studies never get into.
It does sound strange to have a five year old diagnosed with depression and prescribed Prozac. However, I am not sure that this is what is really happenning. As always, if you read the article carefully, you see that even the reasonable doctors who say the drugs are overused do use them sometimes. As always, my big problem is when they try to tell my doctor what he or she is allowed to prescribe to my family. Drug companies in the US do a good job of producing drugs that have the chemicals in them they are labeled to have, but the studies they fund, and the FDA bureaucrats which evaluate them, are far less worthwhile than people think.
I always wondered about that myself. Turns out the Feds require that if the commercial tells you what the drug does, then they also have to list the vast array of side effects that are possible.
"I especially like the ads that give you no clue as to what the drug is actually supposed to do for you."