US suicide warnings for Prozac

[soaky]

Two US Food and Drug Administration advisory committees have recommended that packages of antidepressants carry warnings, outlined in a black box, that the drugs can increase suicidal tendencies among children and adolescents.

The recommendation comes as use of the medications has soared despite growing evidence of their risks. Many committee members blamed pharmaceutical industry marketing for prompting clinicians to prescribe the drugs.

Short of an outright ban, a "black box" warning is the most serious caution the FDA can require.

Prozac is the only antidepressant approved for use in children, because it meets the FDA's standard for showing effectiveness in clinical trials. But doctors routinely prescribe other antidepressants for their young patients.


US suicide warnings for Prozac

[Maat]

1. I warned everybody!

As you guys know, I was a social worker from '93 to '00. Saw this happening. I could at least warn the clients to work closely with their M.D.s, and warn family members to contact the M.D. if they observed any changes in mood. But the Powers-that-be were convinced that the Stuff was the greatest invention since sliced bread.

[shrike]

2. Prozac worked wonders for me

But I'm an adult.

It's also a psychotropic drug that shouldn't be passed out like candy. I've heard of MDs prescribing it for weight-loss (!)

[latebloomer]

3. Weight loss?

That's bizarre. Most people I know on SSRIs complain about weight GAIN!

[Nikia]

5. I think that it can go either way

I had no desire to eat for the 2 weeks that I tried Paxil. I read that it can effect appetite either way about equally. As many people want to eat everything in sight as do people on who don't want to eat.

[Nikia]

4. Is part of the problem, naturual chemical changes?

A child and adolescent's brains are not yet mature. A young person going through puberty is flucuating chemically often. Except in cases of severe chemical imbalances, is it healthy to even try to change a child's ever changing brain chemistry?

[short bus president]

6. Nobody ever asked that question

In the 90s, the only question was "how can pharmaceuticals make my child easier to deal with?" A generation or more of psychiatrists has been taught by drug company whores posing as university professors. People whose primary source of income is the clinical trials industry, and who are retained at their "institutions of higher learning" because the phony publication credits that come with whoring for the drug industry yield publicity and funding for the school. It's been a gigantic mess for decades, but the consequences have only been noticed in clinical practice recently (past 10 years or so). Whorish fucking "medical schools" out there fronting for the pimpish fucking evil pharma industry have yielded MDs who are no more than a thinly-disguised salesforce.

My advice is to find out whether or not your physicians conduct clinical trials on the side, and if they do, seek out those who don't. Allow exceptions (for the time being) for oncologists and HIV specialists, since federal sponsorship of research in these fields has resulted in the standard of care essentially being late-phase experimental. But if your cardiologist, or your psychiatrist, or your endocrinologist is seeing "study patients" alongside people seeking actual health care, move right along.

My $.02 on an EVIL fucking industry.

[Eye and Monkey]

7. Your 2 cents is some valuable advice.

I'll second that emotion, 100%.