FDA considers issuing antidepressant suicide warning to adults

[The Straight Story]

FDA considers issuing antidepressant suicide warning to adults

Last Update: 12/13/2006 7:55:22 PM

Posted 12/13/06

BAKERSFIELD - Three years after warning antidepressants can make teens suicidal, the Food and Drug Administration is now considering whether to issue a similar warning for adults.

New research shows 18- to 25-year-olds in particular may be at risk.

During testimony Wednesday in Washington, D.C. compelling stories on both sides of the issue: People who said the drugs saved their lives and those who insist their loved ones suddenly committed suicide just days after taking the antidepressants.

With his 3-year-old son sleeping just a few feet away, Harry Gonzalez shot himself last year while on the antidepressant Paxil.

http://www.kget.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=7e430051-e03f-4c45-b139-4d92739ba185

[Nordmadr]

1. Ummm, call me nutty, but doesn't it seem that if anti-depressants

are making people suicdial, then you shouldn't be prescribing them as ANTI-DEPRESSANTS? FDA...anyone?

Now, if you want to market them as something along the lines of "Assisted suicide" line of products then perhaps they'll have their niche. I don't know how we ever survived as a species without all of our meds.

[hedgehog]

3. The pills take time to work.

Who is to say that this poor guy didn't wake up, figure that the pill wasn't working, that there was no hope and decided to end the pain. If he had waited a few days or weeks, he might just as easily been fine.

[hedgehog]

2. The problem isn't with the pills, the problem is with handing out the

pills with no proper accompanying counseling and follow-up. Depression is a serious disease that often results in suicide. unfortunately, there is no magic test to tell how depressed a person is. Even selecting the right anti-depressant is often time a hit or miss process. Many people go through a series of medications before they hit the right combination.

[Nordmadr]

4. To me it seems often the pills are just masking underlying

emotional issues. I also understand sometimes it is chemical imbalances and the pills seem to help a lot of people. I think you have to have a solid understanding of what the root of someones problem is. Unfortunately, I think this is often neglected.

My mother is an alcoholic. She used to beat the snot out of us, particularly one of my sisters, and disparage us when we were children. As you can imagine this had various affects on us and our personal relationships. I went through a painful separation and eventual divorce and entered into a long period of depression. I sought professional help (counseling) after I felt I could no longer handle it on my own. I'm still a largely piseed off at the world anti-social prick sometimes, but I'm not depressed, and I like who I am as a person overall.

My mother, refusing help to this date, is in a VERY bad place.

Olafr

[hedgehog]

6. That's a good example of why the pills are only half the solution.

No one gets an insulin prescription to treat diabetes without careful counseling about diet, exercise, symptoms, weight control etc. Handing out anti-depressants without careful consultation is just asking for trouble.

[melm00se]

5. plus, there are folks

who, for some physiological reason, react 180 degrees from the intended effect. in their cases anti-depressants actually make the depression worse.

[thingfisher]

7. Warning.

Use of this product may result in suicide.

There that should satisfy the full disclosure laws.