Wyeth Pharma Warns Doctors Against Rx Effexor to Kids Tue, 2 Sep 2003 View Wyeth Warning Letter The Hartford Courant reports that the latest warning against prescribing an antidepressant drug for children comes from Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, makers of Effexor, a drug just like Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil–a class known as…
UK Doctors told to stop giving antidepressants to children – Glaxo Warns of Paxil Birth Defects Wed, 28 Sep 2005 Related Link – See Guidelines at: http://www.nice.org.uk/page.aspx?o=273073 The UK National Health Service has taken a decisive, responsible step to protect the lives of children who are being exposed to serious risks…
Sen Schumer asks FDA to place hold on Paxil for kids Fri, 13 Jun 2003 Senator Charles Schumer held a press conference in New York to announce that he had written to Mark McClellan, FDA Commissioner to investigate the adverse effects of Paxil, the SSRI antidepressant on children and teens,…
Randomized Controlled Trials: Evidence Biased Psychiatry By David Healy, MD MRCPsych Introduction A new drug gets introduced to the market. It has been approved after stringent scrutiny by the FDA, which requires ever more convincing evidence that it works and that its safe. The new treatment will always cost more…
Fewer Kids Prescribed Drugs for Depression – WashPost Wed, 2 Feb 2005 A report by Medco revealing a decline in SSRI prescriptions for children is giving drug industry stakeholders nightmares about the cash flow. The Washington Post reports "medical groups such as the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy…
20% Drop in Psych Drugs Prescribed for US Children – WashPost Sat, 8 Oct 2005 The Washington Post reports (below) that prescriptions for antidepressants for children have dropped an unprecedented 20% in the US. A continuing series of substantiated reports and Black Box warnings about an increased risk of suicide,…
GlaxoSmithKline CEO: “We had to absorb a number of hits” Mon, 16 Feb 2004 Antidepressant drug safety issues are beginning to have a financial impact. Dow Jones reports: “GlaxoSmithKline PLC said its net income fell 6% in the fourth quarter, hurt by previously announced legal costs related to its anti-inflammatory…
Pfizer Must Hand Over Documents in Pitman Case Sat, 4 Dec 2004 A federal judge in Charlotte North Carolina rejected Pfizer’s arguments and ordered the company to hand over the concealed documents sought by defense counsels in the criminal case against Christopher Pitman, a teenager who, at the age of…
Antidepressant drug induced Suicides: Evidence of “Iceberg effect” Revealed Thu, 10 Jun 2004 Canada West reports today: “At least five teenagers in Canada have died, four of suicide, while being treated with the most widely prescribed antidepressants in Canada and at least 100 other children as young as 18 months…
Psychiatric Drugs Pushing Children to Crisis Units_Tampa Tribune Tue, 15 Apr 2003 A report in the Tampa Tribune following its five month investigation, shows how misprescribing of psychiatric drugs for children can precipitate life-threatening tragedies. The report describes a 9 year old child’s descent into suicidal violence after she had…
British Government Issues New Warnings Re: Use of antidepressant drugs for children Tue, 23 Sep 2003 related link: U.K. Government Document – New SSRI Warnings for Children In light of evidence from previously unexamined data from controlled clinical trials, the British Committee on Safety of Medicines (CSM), an arm of…
Paxil for Children: Safety, Efficacy Aren’t Established – Letter WSJ Fri, 9 Jul 2004 Dr. Arnold Relman, Professor Emeritus, Medicine and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine, responds to a June 21 editorial in The Wall Street Journal. The editorial attacked…
