F.D.A. Links Drugs to Being Suicidal

NY Times ^ | September 14, 2004 | GARDINER HARRIS

[neverdem]

ping

[Who dat?]

Don’t know anything about it… a guy I knew long ago took some sort of drug for acne. I read the insert that listed all the potential side-effects. It was a list that you unfolded until it was about five feet long. For some reason I remember the possible side-effects including heart attack, nosebleeds, dizziness, convulsions, and included death. Literally a list four or five inches wide by about five feet long that included pretty much anything you could think of. I distinctly remember thinking that I’d rather just have the acne.

I sort of find it hard to believe that similar lists aren’t included with these medicines.

[joesnuffy]

The most popular pills are Zoloft, made by Pfizer; Paxil, made by GlaxoSmithKline; and Prozac, made by Eli Lilly & Company. In 2002, nearly 11 million children and teenagers were prescribed antidepressants.

And why then is our current adminstration pushing mandatory mental health screening and pushing more pills on our kids...

Of course mandatory mental health screening is also on the docet for all adult US citizens as well...

Soma time...and the living is easy....

[killmn2004]

They have been running a story about this for the last two mornings on NPR. My 14 yr old daughter is getting ready to go on them, along with a heavy program of talk therapy. The percentage rate of suicide attempts for teens is somewhere around 1.79%......still enough to be cautious.

[taxed2death]

.....not to mention when you take these drugs you are forbidden to ever get a firearms license. Pretty cool way to prohibit hundreds of thousands of citizens from ever owning firearms, wouldn't you say?

Give your kid Ritilin, and he'll never legally own a firearm.

[neverdem]

I sort of find it hard to believe that similar lists aren’t included with these medicines.

They are product information slips included with all meds given as free samples to docs. It's the same info that you will find in a Physician's Desk Reference.

[neverdem]

Soma time...and the living is easy....

LOL!

[Dont Mention the War]

.....not to mention when you take these drugs you are forbidden to ever get a firearms license.

Huh?

[neverdem]

They have been running a story about this for the last two mornings on NPR. My 14 yr old daughter is getting ready to go on them, along with a heavy program of talk therapy.

I've been following this story for a while. IIRC, the first month or so of taking these meds is the danger zone for suicide attempts. If she is switched to another serotonin selective re-uptake inhibitor(SSRI) from Prozac(fluoxetine), and there later is a decision to stop SSRIs completely, there can a withdrawal reaction that's discussed in the literature. It's best to get weaned off Prozac because of its long half-life.

[twigs]

We had a 17-year-old who hung herself this summer in our area a week after she began taking zoloft. I found out several weeks ago that a woman I've known at my church for some time is a nurse at the mental health clinic where she was placed. We discussed it--this is a woman whose judgment I respect very much--and she does not believe that the drugs had anything to do with the suicide. It seems more than coincidental to me, but she assured me that the young woman had had a lot of problems, a fact that was obvious from media accounts. This nurse believes that parents get so vocal because they want to blame someone else in their grief. I don't know enough to have an informed opinion.

[thoughtomator]

Gives 'em just enough presence of mind to do the deed, eh?

[Indie]

And why then is our current adminstration pushing mandatory mental health screening and pushing more pills on our kids... Of course mandatory mental health screening is also on the docet for all adult US citizens as well...

More links...links...in the chain...

Say goodbye to all privacy..what little there is left.

"VE VILL KNOW EVERYTINK ABOUT YOU PROLETARIAT SVINE..your Blood pressure, your disposition, your allergies, your sexual problems...ve vant to know and you have no right to keep it from us!! It is for the good of all that we know this! Resist and you will be labeled a traitor!!"

[neverdem]

".....not to mention when you take these drugs you are forbidden to ever get a firearms license."

"Huh?"

BATF Form 4473 is what you fill out when you buy a firearm from a licensed dealer, IIRC. I went to BATF's website. You can't download it. It asks a series of questions, e.g. "Are you addicted to taking drugs or alcohol?" which if answered in the affirmative, will forbid the transaction.

[neverdem]

Gives 'em just enough presence of mind to do the deed, eh?

The prevailing notion is that they then have energy to do the deed. Prior to taking the SSRI, they were so depressed that about all they could do was breath.

[Moleman]

Hard to say, the drugs do affect people differntly.
Had a bad time with a bit of depression in the past, very light dosage of Effexor XR worked wonders for my life.

[Doctor Stochastic]

That seems to be the way it works. You get to feeling well enough to die.

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

But Dr. Temple speculated that some people taking the pills become suicidal because they are actually getting better. As their depression improves, he said, they gain the energy to act on suicidal thoughts that their illness had suppressed.

Huh....

[jammer]

What are you talking about?

[neverdem]

See comment# 15.