FDA kept suicide findings secret

ajc.com ^ | 04/06/04 | ELIZABETH SHOGREN

[Nov3]

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.

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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 studies, which are not expected to be completed until summer. They also squelched plans to have the author, Dr. Andrew Mosholder, present his conclusions to an FDA advisory committee when it took up the issue in February.

Mosholder's report still has not been made public, but news of his conclusions first surfaced in a CBS News report last week. His findings were detailed in an internal FDA document obtained by The Los Angeles Times and authenticated by government officials.

In March, when the agency issued a warning about the possibility of problems for young patients taking the drugs, FDA officials said no conclusive scientific evidence existed on the link between antidepressants and potentially suicidal behavior by children. Officials said they based their action on anecdotal complaints from physicians and families that had been presented to the advisory committee.

They gave no hint that their own chief expert on the subject had examined the results of more than two dozen clinical trials conducted by antidepressant manufacturers and had found an unusually high correlation between their use by young patients and potentially suicidal behavior.

[Nov3]

This says it all. These people are completely bought out. They want their cushy consulting jobs when they "retire" and will turn a blind eye even if it means your childrens lives. Scum.

These are powerful useful drugs that have been abused - by their manufacturers greed. They wanted to market them to everyone. Prosac for Kids - Serafem, Prosac for PMS, Prosac for anxiety etc. Every discomfort became a prosac deficiency.

The case where the parents testified to the FDA that their child stabbed himself repeatedly in the chest with a butcher knife and DID NOT MAKE A SOUND while the parents where in the next room says it all for me. That is not a depression lifted enough to commit suicide. That is a drug induced psychotic state.

People deserve to be jailed here.

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[Nov3]

They gave no hint that their own chief expert on the subject had examined the results of more than two dozen clinical trials conducted by antidepressant manufacturers

I am sure those results were accurately reported by the paid researchers.

[MHGinTN]

You have no idea! ... Unless you're familiar with the past twenty-five years of FDA chicanery. Ever heard of a diuretic (water pill) called Aldactizide? That's going back nearly thirty years to a scandalous hoodwink done for Smith-Kline, to insure a cushy job at SK when leaving the FDA.

[Nov3]

You have no idea!

Trust me - I do - but not about that particular drug!

[MarkL]

I'm not a Dr, nor a pharmacist, nor someone who's done any sort of studies on the topic... This is simply my own observation from my own experience...

I was placed on prozac and lithium about 18 years ago for depression, and about 3 months into it, I had a very odd reaction. For not apparent reason, I became violently angry and raged at a very close friend, who I really scared the heck out of... Although she knew I was not one who loses his temper, or EVER violent, she was convinced that I was going to beat her to death. I didn't touch her, but managed to get out of the house before anything happened, although I said some really hateful things. It was like I was outside of my own body, watching someone else acting crazy, and there was nothing that I could do about it. So I stopped taking the drugs, and let me tell you, they ARE addictive... Well, maybe that's not the right word, but you DO NOT want to just stop taking them! There's no doubt in my mind that I was going through severe withdrawal symptoms! I talked to the Dr, and I went back on them, but over the next month, tapered off of the drugs. I swore I would never take drugs like that, ever again!

Mark

[Shmokey]

Wow, this is so depressing I could kill myself......not

[eno_]

Please clue us in. Even the mighty Google can't find anything on that.

It seems to be a veterinary medicine these days.

[Cicero]

Ten to one the guilty bureaucrats were appointed by clinton, but if this story spreads Bush will get the blame.

In a way, Bush deserves the blame. He never took the trouble to clean the clintonoids out of his administration. It's all very well to be "nice," but that was a huge mistake, and it keeps coming back to bite him--and us.

[amom]

Whow. Thanks for the first hand account. I've been hearing quite a bit about the 'side effects' lately. Your comments back these up. Thanks again.

[MHGinTN]

An excellent diuretic that had a 'potassium sparing' component (aldactone, a hormone blocking agent that reduced potassium excretion via adrenal gland function). Sk had a new drug they were trying to position for direct competition with Aldactizide; SK 'found' a willing FDA person to place into public record dubious findings of the potassium sparing component causing cancer in Charles River Rats when given at doses 1000 times daily dosing. The SK drug shot to the top of the sales charts immediately and Aldactizide bottomed out. (Nice pill, with a peppermint scent, Aldactizide; excellent diuretic effect to lower BP without potassium wasting side effects) The FDA hitman received a nice position with SK a year later, when he left the FDA.

[Nov3]

Ten to one the guilty bureaucrats were appointed by clinton, but if this story spreads Bush will get the blame.

Unfortunately they weren't. They were just whores waiting to be bought.

[Nov3]

Mark you are lucky. I have seen worse happen. A former friend of mine was placed on prosac, zoloft and cylert. He is trying to appeal to get a not guilty by reason of insanity. After two murders and an attempted murder I hope they keep him locked up.

[Nov3]

Thanks for the info. Sounds like the cyclamate story.

[MHGinTN]

What was the sweetener in Tab?

[nmh]

It's horrendous how kids and adults are treated.

A couple we socialize with has two teenage girls ( 13,14). The older one became "depressed". They first gave her ELECTRIC SHOCK treatments and then insisted she be put on Prozac even though they are NOT sure how this drug affects a young girls brain at this age! Doctors literally scared the parents into the shock treatments by saying the odds are high that she will commit suicide if they do NOT act immediately and have this done. I am not surprised that Prozac would help push her over TO commit suicide. She is supposedly "better" but just by looking at her you know something is VERY wrong. She is VERY withdrawn, wears VERY LARGE CLOTHES and never without her sketch pad where she draws very strange pictures - pictures where a face is divided in half where one half is grotesquely distorted and the other half is more normal looking. She loves to draw crowds of people with this kind of face. Her psychiatrist thinks she is rapidly normalizing. We really thought we KNEW her parents. We were horrified at what they allowed others to do to their daughter. Their daughter is considered a "success story" in medical circles - rescued from the brink of suicide.

[Nov3]

Yes, it was good stuff and you could cook with it. You can order it over the internet from Canada. The sugar industry pulled that one off. Thank God Splenda is good. I have a feeling that Monsanto would have nuked Splenda if there was still an exclusivity for nutrasweet!

The RC cola with Nutrasweet ROCKS! It is available here in Memphis. Now they just need some Splenda Moon pies!

[Nov3]

Their daughter is considered a "success story" in medical circles - rescued from the brink of suicide.

It makes you want to scream.

[amom]

Found this site of interest.

http://www.prozactruth.com/

[MHGinTN]

Was cyclamate the sweetener in Tab?