Black Box Backfire (Psychotropic Drugs, Arrianna Huffington, Cho Seung-Hui And All Of That)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117712206710677682.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries ^ | 21 April 2007 | GILBERT ROSS

[shrinkermd]

On her popular blog, Arianna Huffington stopped just short of blaming antidepressant medications for Cho Seung-Hui's lethal rampage...

...The analysis found that the risks of these medicines are much lower -- by a factor of two or more -- than the FDA previously thought. It had concluded from a previous study that young people had a 2% risk of having aberrant thoughts if they took antidepressants. The rate is only 0.7%.

Further, the study found that these drugs are effective in treating depression and other mental illnesses found in children and teens. The new study, by the way, was undertaken by the National Institutes of Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation...

This isn't the what the FDA led us to believe in 2004, when it [said there was a 2% chance of increased suicidal thoughts...Anti-pharmaceutical activists and some politicians immediately called for major restrictions...simply ignoring that since the introduction of modern SSRI-type medications in the late 1980s, teen suicide rates had steadily fallen...

...The result was a "Black Box" warning -- the strongest possible warning short of an outright ban -- slapped onto the antidepressants. Remember, this was provoked by an alleged increase in thoughts, not deeds. There were no actual suicides...

[Usuage fell] ...Many family doctors, spooked by the prospect of lawsuits, suddenly found other, less effective treatment options more appealing. Primary-care physicians are the ones who prescribe most treatments for depression, not psychiatrists.

Since this warning label was introduced, usage of SSRI medications declined by more than 14% from 2004 to 2006 among patients under 19 years old. And, no surprise, actual suicides, not hypothetical ones, increased 18% among youngsters during the first year of the Black Box warnings -- the first such increase in many years.

[shrinkermd]

I had trouble excerpting but this is the gist of the article.

[shrinkermd]

The article was in today’s WSJ. Sorry I forgot to enter WSJ.

[kinoxi]

I would like to hear the statistics on homicidal behavior after consuming some of these medications.

[GSlob]

"It had concluded from a previous study that young people had a 2% risk of having aberrant thoughts if they took antidepressants. The rate is only 0.7%." I love the expression. It gives me more than a whiff of nostalgia for bad old USSR. One could argue that if the young people do not have aberrant thoughts -then they are either not young, or not even people.

[cripplecreek]

I don’t have any feelings on whether these drugs are causing homicidal behavior but I do think they’re overused.

Whatever happened to coping with life?

[wildcatf4f3]

typical—leftist hysterics try to make themselves feel betterand the result is real harm to real people....Leftists are a plague on mankind.

[Chickenhawk Warmonger]

What amazes me is the fact that people overlook the reason for the drugs being used is depression and depression can lead to suicide. Speaking from experience, if the meds are used appropriately and actually taken by the patient, the risk of suicide decreases as the depression gets under control.

[cripplecreek]

if the meds are used appropriately and actually taken by the patient, the risk of suicide decreases as the depression gets under control.

I don't doubt that a bit but I think doctors are too quick to prescribe them. They should be seen as a last resort and not a means of getting control of an unruly child.

[Chickenhawk Warmonger]

absolutely - I don’t agree with slapping these meds on kids. I was speaking more about the adult side of it - like the murderer in Virginia.

[theFIRMbss]

>It had concluded from a previous study that young people had a 2% risk of having aberrant thoughts if they took antidepressants. The rate is only 0.7%.

So "aberrant thoughts"
will hit around one percent.
But thousands of kids

take these kinds of things.
The percentage is small, but
that's a lot of kids.

We're saying we'll take
dozens of kids freaking out
as acceptable?

[the808bass]

We're saying we'll take dozens of kids freaking out as acceptable?

You do realize that many of them are already "freaking out." That's why they got a prescription in the first place.

[theFIRMbss]

>You do realize that many of them are already "freaking out." That's why they got a prescription in the first place


Of course. Question is,
without psychoactive drugs
would they escalate

to the same level
of passion, desperation,
they do with the drugs . . .