Healthy Skepticism Library item: 867

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Tell Truth About Antidepressants: On drug labels and in medical journals
Newsday.com 2004 Sep 16

Full text:

The recent controversy over antidepressants, children and suicide is really about trust. Sick people have to trust their doctor’s judgment about the drugs they take. Doctors have to trust the information they get from drug companies. The public has to trust government regulators to ensure that drugs on the market are safe and effective. Unfortunately, for depressed children, that critical trust has been squandered. Washington has to find a way to get it back.

The Food and Drug Administration acknowledged for the first time this week that widely prescribed antidepressants could cause some children and teenagers to become suicidal. An advisory panel recommended putting that caution in a “black box” on container labels, and adding a notice that most antidepressants don’t lift depression in children. The FDA should adopt the recommendation. Mandating the black box, the FDA’s most prominent warning, will fill the notification void for antidepressants. But that’s not enough.