Antidepressants and suicide-related risks for children
A UCSD study released February 9, 2006, is fueling concerns about the effects
of certain antidepressant drugs on pregnant women, saying that their use late
in pregnancy can significantly increase the chance of deadly lung problems in
newborns.
Dr. Christina Chambers of UCSD urged the FDA and drug companies to develop "better
information about this group of antidepressants, and as it is developed it needs to
be disseminated."
Normally, the lung disorder is rare, with one to two per 1,000 births. But when
pregnant women took the drugs in question after the 20th week of pregnancy, the
incidence rose to six to twelve per 1,000 births, a report by Dr. Christina Chambers
and colleagues at UC San Diego found.
The antidepressants that increased that risk are in a class called SSRIs or
selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. They include citalopram, fluoxetine,
paroxetine and sertraline sold under 19 brand names, including Celexa, Prozac,
Paxil and Zoloft.
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September 11, 2004
Contact: Vera Sharav, President, AHRP
Telephone (212) 595-8974
Cell: (917) 375-5083
AHRP Press Briefing
- September 14, 2004 - 12:00 P.M.
- Holiday Inn, Bethesda, site of FDA's Advisory Committee Meeting
- Washington Room opposite FDA's
Antidepressants Information
The FDA bears responsibility for a credibility crisis in medicine. The FDA has
allied itself with the pharmaceutical industry, adopted that industry's culture
of arrogance and concealment of evidence-even as children's life-safety were put
on the line. The hazardous side-effects of SSRI antidepressants were concealed
for 25 years with FDA's tacit approval-lest the truth impede industry's mega-profit
goals. Indeed, FDA's limited review of selective evidence, its reliance on
information supplied by psychiatrists with financial conflicts of interest, and
the invited presentations by Pfizer and Eli Lilly, are calculated to minimize the
scope of the problem.
The Alliance for Human Research Protection will convene a press briefing at which
five independent experts will review scientific and clinical evidence, shedding
light on what was known 20 years ago, what is known and not known today about the
safety and efficacy of antidepressant drugs.
The issues to be addressed at the press briefing, and the documented evidence
presented, will not be explored by the FDA advisory committee meeting-inasmuch as
independent analysts were excluded from the discussion. All critical analyses and
reports from outside independent experts have been excluded from the committee
deliberations-much as Dr. Mosholder's report and recommendations were suppressed
for six months-until it was made public by The Alliance for Human Protection who
posted it on its website in July.
The five independent expert presenters are:
- Peter Mansfield, MD, University of Adelaide (Australia), Director of Healthy
Skepticism will discuss the illusion of potency in light of the meta-analyses
in the British Medical Journal (which he co-authored).
- The Lancet, Peter Breggin, MD, a child psychiatrist, with a sub-specialty in
clinical psychopharmacology, who was among the first to recognize adverse
antidepressant drug reactions.
- Lawrence Diller, MD, a pediatrician and family therapist who has evaluated
and treated more than 2,500 children.
- Stefan Kreuszewski, MD, a clinical and academic psychiatrist, and Associate
Medical Director of Physicians' Health Programs, Pennsylvania Medical Society,
who will discuss the impact of over-prescribing SSRIs for children in state
custody.
- David Healy, MD, Director of the North Wales Department of Psychological
Medicine and Visiting Professor, University of Toronto, who in large measure
has brought pressure to bear on the FDA to examine the pediatric data. Dr.
Healy will shed light on FDA's asymmetric standards for evaluating efficacy
and safety, and will present newly uncovered documents.
Children's lives have been been put on the line by concealed hazardous side-effects
of SSRI antidepressants. The FDA lent its support to the least forthcoming drug
manufacturers--even exerting pressure on companies that were willing to disclose
suicide-related risks on their antidepressant drugs labels. FDA officials forced
Wyeth and Forest to toe the line.
Following the independent experts' presentations, questions from members of the
press will be answered. Families will also share experiences that show the chilling
reality of the life-threatening consequences of SSRI antidepressant drug use in
children and adolescents.
Alliance For Human Research Protection (AHRP)
142 West End Ave. Suite 28; New York, NY 10023
veracare@ahrp.org
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