Antidepressant Danger For Kids?

WASHINGTON, Feb. 2, 2004

(AP) The government is trying to determine if popular adult antidepressants sometimes increase the risk of suicide when they're given to children, an emotionally charged controversy that escalated months ago when British authorities sounded an alarm.

A series of public hearings by the Food and Drug Administration beginning Monday focuses on a difficult question, in which parents who blame the drugs for children's deaths are expected to face families who credit the same pills for saving lives.

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. The agency has approved only one treatment — Prozac, the best known of a family of popular antidepressants called SSRIs — to alleviate pediatric depression, saying its benefits outweigh side effects.

Still, it is legal for doctors to prescribe adult medicines to children even if the FDA has not formally approved pediatric use, and child antidepressant prescriptions rose dramatically in the 1990s. The FDA ordered other manufacturers to submit research on how their drugs affect children and teenagers.

Last summer, British health authorities acted on the first of those findings, declaring that no depressed patient should use the SSRI drug Paxil, sold in Britain under the name Seroxat.

In October, the FDA warned that doctors should use a list of SSRIs and closely related competitors only with great caution in depressed children. Studies don't clearly prove a link with suicide, but it was impossible to rule out, the agency said.

In December, Britain went much farther, declaring an entire list of antidepressants unsuitable for children. Prozac was the only exception.

No suicides have occurred in studies encompassing 4,000 children. Preliminary data, however, suggest that suicidal behavior and attempts, while infrequent, might be at least twice as frequent among some antidepressant users. Britain put the risk at around 3.2 percent of children given the drugs, compared with 1.5 percent of those given dummy pills.

The FDA is analyzing those studies but doesn't expect to complete its work until summer.

The reports of suicidal behavior are a hodgepodge difficult to sort out, said Dr. Russell Katz, the FDA's neurologic drugs chief. Some cases counted as unintentional drug overdoses may not have been, for example, while others termed suicidal were caused by a mental illness called self-mutilation, where children make small cuts over their bodies. Sorting out just what happened is crucial to settling the issue, Katz said.

For Monday's hearing, the FDA brought together its scientific advisers to ask if it is analyzing the research appropriately, and if families or doctors need additional advice in the meantime.

It's a debate eliciting strong emotions.

The American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, considered the field's top specialists, last month declared evidence that links SSRIs to suicide too weak to justify not using them. The group points to evidence that suicides have dropped as SSRI use increased around the world, and to autopsy studies that show most suicides hadn't taken an anti-depressant, or the right dose, just before their deaths.

On the other side, critics claim SSRIs sometimes cause agitation and urgent anxiety, called akathisia, that could make certain people suicidal. Dr. David Healy, a Welsh physician who pushed for Britain's crackdown, says even he prescribes the drugs, but that they must come with warnings so doctors can monitor children for signs of trouble.


© MMIV The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


Source: CBSnews.com

Sorry about the old article, but this is a subject that's been of interest to me lately.

Thoughts?

Damn the materialist infidels and their mind altering pills.
To abuse and devalue the brain so...

Wha?

which adult anti-depressants are they talking about?

They're talking about most popular adult brands, like Zoloft, Paxil, Prozac, etc.

Yes, the medicine is too strong for people under the age of 19 yrs.
I know many young people from helping at the schools, who had problems but the doctors would not prescribe medicine to them.
I take Zoloft 200mg and Trazodone 150mg and they are too strong for them, even Zoloft 25mg.
My thought is, the whole family should seek counseling as a group because medicine alone is not a cure-all.
Also with my experiences, if a child is having problems, in most instances the main problem was due to the other members of the family. In America, at MHMR, they treat the entire family. IF you can get the other members to attend the counseling!

^^^ Exactly.

These meds should be a last resort, not the first option. And I strongly believe that there should be a real physiological problem for these drugs to be taken. Society seems to be in a "quick-fix" mentality, and taking harmful drugs to make themselves think that they feel better.

SSRIs only increase the risk of suicide in severely depressed people. it has to do with how decisions are made in the brain. other than that, they're definitely good for you. they increase levels of neurotrophic factors, which increase brain development, in the hippocampus (memory-making and short-term memory) and certain cerebral areas. they are both less developed than normal in depression and the underdevelopment doesn't correct itself on its own in the hippocampus. the brain is going through heavy development in teens and SSRIs would catalyze the brain development which would be harder to get later in life.



in all depressed people there are real physiological problems.

Whoa it's worse then you guy's think I dropped out of psychology when a great professor of mine told me how corrupted psychology is. These drugs are basically crack with maybe one or to molecule difference. The drug companies claim that chemical imbalance causes most of the psychological problems of the brain, but in actuality nobody knows what causes these problems. these drugs are designed to block human emotions, if you ask anybody who take these drugs they will tell they feel like zombies unable to feel sad, angry, shame, remorse, empathy, sympathy and worst of all happiness. Plus it's addictive. And the reason why psychologist are giving out these drugs for whatever illness they believe there patients are suffering from is because every patient they get fixed they get a commision.

I have a conspiracy theory that the government knows these drugs are dangerous, and as long people are hooked on these and people keep facing depression and get fixed the govt are willing turn a blind eye with these drug companies because if people are acting like zombies they won't ask questions about the govt.

I think it was in minnesota or some state in the midwest started a program in the school systems where the high school students were to be evaluated by a psychologist. More then half the school was diagnosed with a psychological problem. Example one girl was sad that her boy friend dumped, the doctor sad it was depression. Well in my opinion I would say she does have a problem if she was not sad about losing her boyfriend. A lot of the students whose parents could afford the drug got their kids on it. This program was indorsed by the govt and APA (American Psychological Association).

My professor and some other psychologist fought for ten yrs to get the APA to admit they do not know what causes psychological problems and deny that their are caused by chemical imbalance. but oddly enough the govt ignored it. the FDA is also another issue did you know the FDA does not study or check these drugs its the drug company themselves. They pay scientist and doctors to tell them what they want them to hear.

Example: Ritalin when they were tested by ADD patients the parents of the kids were giving a personal stat sheet and report progress. All The parents told the Doctors the drug changed their kid, they were less active and less responsive to emotions. They were rejected and the doctors reports were given to the FDA instead, the drug got FDA approval. Now every kid who can't stay still to learn in class Is Reported as ADD, which is weird because kids are supposed to act like kids, they are awed by everything around them of course they won't stand still and pay attention to one thing.

I used to have depression, and the best medicine is creativity. I painted, learnt to play guitar, and now sing, play and write for a band.

I'm glad you were not taken by the drugs, and found a way to get through your sadness .

What people don't understand like happiness, sadness does not last forever it's part of life you got to go through, but some corrupted doc is going to tell you your damned for life if you don't take drugs.

That's not depression. Depression isn't being sad, and just pulling yourself out of it. Depression is a form of mental deterioration, similar to alzheimer's disease. The links between the neurons in the brain are deteriorating and not communicating to each other properly. Luckily, there is treatment for this disorder, which is where the medication comes in.

There is a very small percentage of people today who are on the drugs who actually need to be. Most of the people today on Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, etc could treat their problems with therapy.

Personally, I don't know anyone who's on medication that is also going to therapy.

I want to know how you know this, better yet show me the scientific data that support this.

Depression has a variety of symptoms, but the most common is a deep feeling of sadness. People with depression may feel tired, listless, hopeless, helpless, and generally overwhelmed by life. Simple pleasures are no longer enjoyed, and their world can appear dark and uncontrollable. Emotional and physical withdrawal are common responses of depressed people.

(APA) American Psychiatric Association

I do agree though therapy is better then medication

Yes, I am aware of it's symptoms.

I don't have a link, it's from one of my Psych books by Carlson, Buskist, Enzle and Heth.

Depression is close to dementia. We're not looking at just sadness, sometimes people are sad for long periods of time without having depression. What I'm saying is that people these days don't seem to know the difference between a real, psychological disorder and the 'blues'.

I thought Dementia causes depression. Dementia has valid proof of mental deterioration which can lead to symtoms of depression. But people who are not suffering dementia but shows those odd deficiencies in two chemicals in the brain, serotonin and norepinephrine like dementia is thought to be a chemical imbalance.

What I'm arguing against is whether its chemicals that tell us how we feel or is it our emotions that has an reaction to the chemicals in the brain.

I honestly don't know much about dementia since I haven't really studied it, but I do know that depression is often diagnosed as dementia. I don't think think that they're too far off from each other, but I could be mistaken. But they are both definitely serious illnesses that consitute a lot more than a few symptoms.

I don't think that our emotions could have such a reaction that they could cause such an imbalance.

how do we know what is chemical imbalance there is no official requirenment on how stable amount of chemicals in our brain.

Psychologicaly a person could be sad and just can't understand there emotions and just take it to far changing the amount of sertonin in our head because there is no need for it if we feel sad.

I can't by the fact that its chemicals in our head that dictate our emotions.

Any way nice talking to you it's almost 7:00 pm I got to go.

I don't think that the amount of chemicals matters, but I think rather their levels in comparisson to each other or how they are functioning.

Anyway, the whole point of this thread was in regards to the high increase of teenagers taking anti-depressants, when they shouldn't be. Teenagers aren't exactly the happiest group and I don't buy into all these drugs that are being pumped into them.

actually, only some are. crack is a dopamine reuptake inhibitor and a sigma-1 receptor stimulant. SSRIs (Prozac, Zoloft, etc.) don't stimulate either. they're selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, which means they only affect the chemical called serotonin. they can overstimulate serotonin neurons and make them use serotonin faster than they can make it, which can cause some of the things you listed. the other things are caused by how rwork. they keep intersynaptic serotonin levels from lowering, which prevents emotions that lower serotonin activity. they are separated from crack by more than one or two molecules.

whether they're trying to get commissions or not doesn't change whether the drugs help depression. not all psychiatrists/psychologists are like that anyways and most of them still use antidepressants.



the drugs aren't that dangerous. the depression only recurs when you don't stay on them for long enough.



that's called situational depression. certain types of depression are common in teenagers.



they know more than you think, dude. it's not just a overall chemical imbalance in the whole brain. different mental disorders have different chemical imbalances and under-/overactivity in different parts of the brain. in depression, there is a lowered ratio of monoamine neurotransmitters to the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus, lowered overall activity in the dorsolateral and orbital prefrontal cortices, and increased activity in the limbic system. they don't know all the details on the cellular level (ie the different layers and types of brain cells in certain areas) yet, partly because that hasn't even been completely mapped out by neurologists, and they can't know exactly what causes it, because alot of things can cause it. correcting brain activity alleviates depression symptoms, whether it's done physically or psychologically.



the drugs used for ADD can't all be lumped into the same group. ritalin makes you more concentrated on work than on socializing. the areas of the brain stimulated by socializing are also used in certain emotions and the prefrontal cortex, which is underactive in ADD/ADHD, modulates limbic system emotions, which kids are more likely to feel. ritalin is usually used in ADHD because it makes you care less about things other than work. adderall is usually used in ADD and makes you care more about both social relationships and working. it depends what age you're talking about for not being able to concentrate in school to be normal.





creativity uses the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. stimulating it relieves depression.





they can't force you to take them and they don't say that you'll never recover without them.





i used to be depressed and i was on both.





if you look up the effects of depression on your brain on the internet you can find it in a few minutes.

Hippocampal Atrophy
Lowered Monoamines
Dorsolateral Prefrontal Atrophy
Orbital Prefrontal Atrophy

antidepressants used in combination with other things that relieve depression are the most effective. exercise is one of the best things you can do to help depression, but it's harder to make yourself do when you're depressed. SSRIs make it easier to make yourself do things.






it's both chemicals and emotions. chemicals stimulate emotions and emotions stimulate chemicals. emotions can cause chemical imbalances like that under the right circumstances. chronic, inescapable stress is one of the worst emotions for depression. inescapable stress causes "no-escape behaviors" that lower prefrontal dopamine and stimulate limbic dopamine. they lower the overall stress response. the study didn't measure any other neurotransmitters. all stress stimulates acetylcholine in the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus, which can cause depression.

National Mental Health Association
National Mental Health Association
2001 North Beauregard St, 12th floor
Akexandria, VA 22311
1-800-969-6642

I am on medication and therapy.
I have the condition where I suffer from both physical and mental illnesses.

Here is a list of some of the companies that provide medication:

AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP
Bristol-Myers Sqibb Company
The E.H.A. Foundation
Eli and Company
Forest Laboratories, Inc.
GlaxoSmithKline, McNeil Consumer & Specialty Pharmaceuticals
Organon, Inc.
Pfizer Inc and Wyeth

Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance
1-800-826-3632
www.ndmda.org

Child & Adolescent Bipolar Foundation
www.cabf.org

National Institute of Mental Health
1-301-443-4513
www.nimh.nih.gov

I have recently got some concrete news about a certain wellbutrin, which helps to fight depression. It is a medication which has some other functions as well, like helping the smokers to quit. If ever any of u have heard about this, do share your views about this. Thanks!



Edit- Removed link, if members wish to purchase anything they can find it on their own
-UA

Of course its dangerous to give developing minds a mood and pschological mind altering drugs.

There is very little research done on the effects of many commonly prescribed anti depressants on those 18 and under due to the ethical ramifications these kind of studies would have.

Humans have 2 basic drives, sex instinc ( to procreate) and aggression ( to defend ones self and family), the fight or flight instict stems from this and depression is anger internalized by the individual suffering from it. Its essentially a chemical imbalance in the brain and in many cases medication is required to help amend this problem.

But those under the age of 18, imparctical 13 years and under prescribing anti depressants drugs is like shooting chickens in the dark, you really don't know what else is going on or the potential effects it could have on the child.

This is a dangerous game, i believe that all other possible causes should be exhausted before even considering anti- depressants and several second opinions ( i hope that make sense) should be considered and perhaps a specialist should be consulted.

There is increasing dependency of Seroxat and Prozac anti-depressents especially in young women who suffer from Anorexia. Research has been carried out and has shown that it really does cause suicidal thinking and agression especially with women under 18 years of age. Look up research carried out by Harriman (2001) and Dr. Healey (who has carried out experiments into their effects) Google it! The side amount of minor side effects are just as bad.. as they cause erratic shaking, nervousness and anxiety.

people should look for alternative ways of treating depression, for instance Cognitive therapies are effective such as Systematic Desensitisation..

Having visited the link, I think this thread was resurrected for the purpose of spamming by fullstop.

I think that there are many anti-depressants suitable for the youth, but in my opinion Prozac is the best...personal experience!! I havent had any other antidepressants but my belief is that if its causing negative bothersome side effects the psychaiatrist should try a different anti-depressant...until they find a working one

Yes, but it's better than nothing! It helps a lot of people! including those 13 and younger...I have been taking anti-depressants (Prozac) since I was about 8, and I'm a perfectly happy individual!! I have never had thoughts of suicide! And I'm a better person...dont say that unless you see the results! ok...