- "The group acknowledged, however, that it did not
have access to 'a substantial amount of data' available to regulators and
pharmaceutical companies."
-
- WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Antidepressants
such as Prozac and Paxil do not raise the risk of suicide in children and
teenagers, a group of pharmacologists said on Wednesday in a preliminary
report released amid a review by U.S. regulators.
-
- Health officials in the United States and Britain are
probing a possible link between antidepressants and suicide. A U.S. Food
and Drug Administration advisory panel is scheduled to discuss the topic
at a public meeting Feb. 2.
-
- British drug safety experts said in December that most
selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor, or SSRI, antidepressants should
not be used by children or adolescents.
-
- In response to the concerns, the American College of
Neuropsychopharmacology, or ACNP, said it evaluated all published clinical
trials on treatment of children with SSRIs. The group acknowledged, however,
that it did not have access to "a substantial amount of data"
available to regulators and pharmaceutical companies.
-
- The pharmacologists' group said research it reviewed
showed evidence of a connection was "weak."
-
- "We don't see this as a compelling problem"
based on current data, Dr. J. John Mann, chief of neuroscience at New York
State Psychiatric Institute and co-chair of the ACNP task force that studied
the issue, said at a news conference.
-
- "The evidence, if anything, favors of positive effect,"
Mann said, noting that those treated with the antidepressants were less
likely to voice suicidal thoughts or exhibit suicidal behavior.
-
- Drug makers say millions of patients have taken SSRIs
without problems and that any suicidal thoughts are the result of depression
rather than treatment.
-
- The task force reviewed clinical trials involving more
than 2,000 youth and found no significant increases in suicide attempts
or suicidal thinking related to the antidepressants. No deaths by suicide
were reported in the trials.
-
- One shortcoming, however, was that people most likely
to commit suicide generally were not included in the studies, Mann said.
-
- Only Eli Lilly and Co.'s Prozac, also sold generically
under the name fluoxetine, is approved by U.S. regulators for use in treating
children with depression. But doctors may prescribe any approved drug for
youth depression.
-
- Other SSRIs include GlaxoSmithKline's Paxil and Pfizer
Inc.'s Zoloft.
-
- ACNP is a nonprofit group that receives some unrestricted
grants from pharmaceutical companies, but no industry funding was used
to pay for the report, said Dr. Joseph Coyle, ACNP's past president.
-
- Thee UK's Committee on Safety of Medicines last year
advised that GlaxoSmithKline Plc's Seroxat/Paxil and Wyeth's Efexor/Effexor
should not be prescribed to under-18s, after a review found they were associated
with an increased rate of self-harm and suicidal thoughts.
-
- Only fluoxetine, or Prozac, had been shown in clinical
trials to have a favorable balance of risks and benefits for the treatment
of major depressive disorder in under-18s, the UK committee said in a statement.
-
- Copyright © 2004 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited
without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable
for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance
thereon.
-
-
- Comment
- From Mary Sparrowdancer
- sparrowdancer1@earthlink.net
- 1-23-4
-
- Perhaps the key sentence here should be: "One shortcoming,
however, was that people most likely to commit suicide generally were not
included in the studies, Mann said."
-
- In looking back a few years - Feb, 2000, Dr. John Mann
testified before a Senate Committee presenting a "comprehensive plan
for the research, education, and treatment needed to prevent suicide."
-
- He notes (as to why the suicide is the eighth leading
cause of death in the US, but in CHILDREN it ranks "second or third")
-
-
- "One reason is that there are no controlled clinical
trials that have been conducted in the United States which have evaluated
the efficacy of antidepressants, antipsychotics and antianxiety types of
medication in highly suicidal patients."
-
- "The pharmaceutical industry has avoided such studies
and such patients because of a desire to minimize the chances of suicides
during controlled trials that are designed to demonstrate the efficacy
of these agents in general. The NIMH has recently begun to invest significant
funds in treatment research involving randomized controlled clinical medication
trials. Thus far, these studies have not focused on suicidal patients.
Clinicians lack treatment tools proven by scientific methods to be effective
for the suicidal patient."
-
- "The Soros Foundation has now partnered with the
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in the conduct of an antisuicidal
treatment intervention study in Hungary, where the suicide rate is approximately
three times higher than in the United States."
-
- http://www.afsp.org/research/congress.htm
- Comment
Alton Raines
1-21-04
Yeah, it must all be in our imaginations that countless friends and loved
ones are burying their teens, or seeing them turn into sociopaths almost
overnight when given Prozac, Paxil and other antidepressants. WE'RE just
stupid and the Psychiatric association knows best. BALONIE!!!
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