FDA may restrict anti-depressant uses

Most of us (even in the holistic medicine field) know at least one person on anti-depressants. The FDA is exploring the option to limit the use of SSRI's on children:

Depression occurs in about 10 percent of youth and can lead to suicide, especially if untreated. Some 1,883 10- to 19-year-olds killed themselves in 2001, and specialists say there are 10 to 20 attempts for every suicide.

For adults, antidepressants clearly alleviate major depression, the FDA stresses.

But medicines can work differently in children.

No kidding. The article lists some very specific and horrific examples of just how differnetly. Life-ending examples, if you care to learn more. From the same article:

Preliminary data, however, suggest that suicidal behavior and attempts, while infrequent, might be at least twice as frequent among some antidepressant users.

Avena and Hypericum... much better options. But if that isn't enough to make you break out in hives:

... no one flinched when a child psychiatrist told a conference of parents and counselors last month that she had prescribed antidepressants to children as young as 3-1/2. Audience members at the San Diego conference, after all, were quite familiar with the concept of preschoolers on Prozac. Many of the parents in the audience have children who suffer from a debilitating form of shyness called selective mutism, one of a handful of mental disorders thought to strike children younger than 6. And several had put their kids on the drugs despite their misgivings and well-publicized concerns about the effects of antidepressants upon teenagers.

Keep reading if you like. I'm going to take a hot shower and try to block this for the rest of the day.

Thanks (again) to Bernie for the info!

Posted by Evo Terra at February 08, 2004 10:17 AM | TrackBack (0)