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Do anti-depressants cause suicide in children? After simmering for over a year, the question boiled over this summer. A few weeks ago the makers of Paxil, one of a class of drugs called SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), agreed to settle with the attorney general of New York who had charged them with "concealing" evidence of harm. Last Thursday, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce held an oversight hearing on the safety of SSRIs. And now the Food and Drug Administration is considering bolstering warning labels on the drugs. The safety debate was stoked by a long-awaited FDA report....

Christopher Pittman said he remembered everything about that night in late 2001 when he killed his grandparents: the blood, the shotgun blasts, the voices urging him on, even the smoke detectors that screamed as he drove away from their rural South Carolina home after setting it on fire. "Something kept telling me to do it," he later told a forensic psychiatrist. Now, Christopher, who was 12 years old at the time of the killings, faces charges of first-degree murder. The decision by a local prosecutor to try him as an adult could send him to prison for life. While prosecutors...

A top government scientist who concluded last year that most antidepressants are too dangerous for children because of a suicide risk wrote in a memo this week that a new study confirms his findings. The official, Dr. Andrew D. Mosholder, a senior epidemiologist at the Food and Drug Administration who assesses the safety of medicines, found last year that 22 studies showed that children given antidepressants were nearly twice as likely to become suicidal as those given placebos. His bosses, however, strongly disagreed with his findings, kept his recommendations secret and initiated a new analysis. In his memo, dated Monday,...

Perhaps you recall the line from "Dr. Strangelove," Stanley Kubrick's film - now 40 years old - about nuclear war and fluoridation. "As human beings," Gen. Jack D. Ripper says to Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake, "you and I need fresh pure water to replenish our precious bodily fluids." Hard to imagine what General Ripper would have thought of the recent announcement by Britain's Environment Agency that it had found traces of the antidepressant drug Prozac in rivers and groundwater. The idea of someone dumping mood-altering pharmaceuticals into the water supply sounds suitably Strangelovian. But the source in this case is...

DENVER - Tammy Quist, principal of Fairview High School in Boulder, was not surprised when she learned in April that a student was in a coma after overdosing on an over-the-counter cold medicine. "It's out there, and you know kids do it," Ms. Quist said. "It's cheap, accessible and it's not illegal if kids get caught. And it usually goes unnoticed until a kid takes too much or combines it with something to get a horrible reaction and overdoses." Cough and cold medications containing dextromethorphan, or DXM, are becoming increasingly popular among teenagers and young adults looking for a cheap...

THE CONSUMER Now that the Food and Drug Administration has warned Americans taking antidepressants to be on the lookout for potentially harmful side effects, including severe restlessness and suicidal thinking, some people may end up stopping the drugs. But going off antidepressants can bring its own problems. Stopping cold turkey can cause an array of troublesome symptoms, the most common being dizziness, which can last for days on end. Flu-like feelings, including nausea, headache and fatigue, are also common, as are intense feelings of anxiety, irritability or sadness. Some patients experience alarming sensations of tingling or burning in various parts...

Spending on drugs to treat children and adolescents for behavior-related disorders rose 77 percent from 2000 to the end of 2003, according to a study of prescription purchases by Medco Health Solutions, a pharmacy benefits management company. The increase, to $536 a patient a year on average, reflected rising prices as growing numbers of young people used newer and more expensive drugs, said Robert S. Epstein, chief medical officer of Medco. The report is to be released today. Sales of the behavioral drugs are growing faster than any other type of medicine taken by children, pulling ahead of the previous...

For most people taking antidepressants, the risk of a diminished sex drive may seem like a worthwhile sacrifice for the benefits from the drugs. Up to 70 percent of patients on antidepressants report sexual side effects, yet the number of Americans who take the drugs has ballooned since Prozac was introduced in the late 1980's. Last year, studies show, doctors in the United States wrote 213 million prescriptions for antidepressants. But what if the sexual side effects of the drugs, often considered little more than a nuisance, had more serious consequences, impairing not only sexual desire in some people, but...

For many people it is difficult to comprehend how children younger than 5 could be prescribed mind-altering drugs and be taking them on a regular basis, but according to a recent survey by Express Scripts Inc., a private pharmacy benefit manager that researches drug trends, not only are children from birth to age 5 being given antidepressants, it is this age group that has shown the largest proportional increase in the use of antidepressants. The Express Scripts survey, titled Trends in the Use of Antidepressants in a National Sample of Commercially Insured Pediatric Patients, 1998 to 2002, presented prescription-claims data...

Check your local listings for airtimes. (Current show is updated every weekday at 5pm EST.) HEALTH Health Experts Warn of Antidepressant Dangers for Children, Teens By Darla SittonCBN News Producer In America, Prozac is the only drug the FDA has "approved" for pediatric depression. CBN.com – (CBN News) - As many as one in eight adolescents suffers from clinical depression. And these kids are often treated with anti-depressant drugs that have been tested and approved for adult use. But the drugs may not be safe for children. Corey Baadsgaard doesn't remember storming into his honors English class with a...

Pediatricians and family physicians should not prescribe antidepressants for depressed children and adolescents because the drugs barely work and their side effects are often significant, Australian researchers have concluded. The researchers analyzed data from five published trials of three antidepressants, Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil, in depressed patients under age 18. They found that the drugs offered only a "very modest" benefit over placebos. At the same time, the drugs carry significant risks, the researchers said in their report, published in today's issue of the British medical journal BMJ. "If the drugs were highly advantageous over placebo, then you'd live with...

<p>MESA - A 16-year-old charter school student was arrested this week after telling a classmate he was keeping a list of fellow students he wanted to kill, according to a police report released Thursday.</p> <p>He was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of one count of interfering with an educational institution. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office did not file charges but sent the case back to Mesa police for further investigation.</p>

WASHINGTON -- Ten months ago, when concerns arose about a possible link between children taking antidepressant drugs and suicide attempts, senior officials at the Food and Drug Administration ordered their leading expert to head up an examination of the evidence. EMAIL THIS PRINT THIS MOST POPULAR When the government scientist filed his report last winter, however, his bosses decided to keep it secret — even though it found that children who took the drugs were twice as likely to be involved in serious suicide-related behavior as those who did not. Instead of revealing the findings, senior FDA officials ordered more...

March 30, 2004 A New Era in Treating Imaginary Ills By MARY DUENWALD very doctor recognizes them. The man who discovers a bruise on his thigh and becomes convinced that it is leukemia. The woman who examines her breasts so frequently that she makes them tender, then decides that the soreness means she has cancer. The man who has suffered from heartburn all his life but after reading about esophageal cancer has no question that he has it. They make frequent doctors' appointments, demand unnecessary tests and can drive their friends and relatives — not to mention their physicians —...

The pediatrician Lawrence Diller, writing in The Washington Post, says the Food and Drug Administration has issued "an official warning . . . on the increased risks of suicidal tendencies when taking antidepressants such as Prozac." This is probably how most Americans interpreted the FDA's recent public health advisory covering 10 antidepressants. Yet the FDA emphasizes it "has not concluded that these drugs cause worsening depression or suicide." Despite more than a decade of publicity about the alleged suicide-triggering properties of Prozac and its cousins, the FDA says, "a causal role for antidepressants in inducing such behaviors has not been...

Possible Suicide, Severe Depression, Anxiety, Panic Attacks in Children and Adults The FDA is issuing a warning about the possibility of worsening depression or suicidal thoughts in people, particularly children, who take any of 10 popular antidepressants, especially at the beginning of treatment or when the doses are increased or decreased. The FDA has sent a letter to drug manufacturers requesting labeling changes on these antidepressants -- warning of possible suicide, worsening depression, anxiety, and panic attacks in adults and children. Antidepressants involved in this warning label request are: Prozac (also sold generically as fluoxetine) Zoloft Paxil Luvox Celexa Lexapro...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Patients on some popular antidepressants should be closely monitored for warning signs of suicide, the government warned Monday in asking the makers of 10 drugs to add the caution to their labels. Although the Food and Drug Administration's investigation into the possible suicide connection initially focused on children given the drugs, its warning is aimed at both adult and pediatric use of the pills to alleviate depression. It isn't clear yet that the drugs actually do lead to suicide, the FDA stressed. After all, depression itself can lead to suicide. But until that is settled, advisers to...

Suicide Caution Sought for Antidepressants 47 minutes ago Add Health - AP to My Yahoo! By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical WriterWASHINGTON - Patients on some popular antidepressants should be closely monitored for warning signs of suicide, the government warned Monday in asking the makers of 10 drugs to add the caution to their labels. Reuters Photo Related Links • Antidepressants Health Advisory (FDA) Yahoo! Health Have questions about your health?Find answers here.   Although the Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites)'s investigation into the possible suicide connection initially focused on children given the drugs, its warning is...

FDA Issues Warning About Popular Antidepressants Drugmakers Asked To Add Suicide Warning Labels POSTED: 11:04 a.m. EST March 22, 2004 WASHINGTON -- Federal health regulators warned Monday of a possible link between some popular antidepressants and suicide. The Food and Drug Administration issued a public health advisory for doctors, patients, families and other caregivers, telling them to watch carefully for signs of worsening depression or suicidal thoughts at the beginning of antidepressant therapy or whenever the dose is changed. The agency also asked the makers of 10 drugs to add the caution to their labels. The drugs of concern...

Kids Face Risks Taking Antidepressants  Feb 2, 9:21 PM (ET) By LAURAN NEERGAARD (AP) The graphic details possible signs of depression among adolescents and possible cures. Depression...Full Image   WASHINGTON (AP) - 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...