As the FDA Advisory committee was reaching the conclusion of their statement yesterday, I had to leave the room several times to step out into the hallway to jump and shout for joy! BLACK BOX WARNINGS!!!! We got black box warnings on ALL antidepressant medications for children!!! I had begun to wonder if we would ever see this day.
 

But beyond that, they have also agreed to study the violence issue associated with antidepressants. And the Senate now wants to begin their own investigation into these drugs!!!!!

So now, we have not only Congress, but the Senate as well, looking into possible cover-up and criminal actions by all those whose responsibility it was to protect the public, and most especially our precious children who were to be our future.

What a bitter/sweet victory this has been in the warnings coming so many years too late!

Dr. Ann Blake Tracy, Ph.D

September 20, 2004 Contact: Marla Filidei humanrights@cchr.org 1-800-869-2247 In 1989, CCHR used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain FDA Adverse Reaction Reports on the first Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) marketed. The documents revealed that over 500 deaths had been linked to the drug and that 83 children between the ages of 4 and 18 had attempted suicide. Two children aged 5 had committed suicide, and 77 experienced hostility, agitation and intentional injury. CCHR, along with medical experts, presented evidence of homicidal and suicidal drug reactions to the FDA's psychopharmacological drugs advisory committee in 1991. The panel comprised nine psychiatrists and a psychologist who ignored parents and family members' testimony about the violent and suicidal effects of the drugs. The testimony given by grieving families at last week's FDA hearing was a chilling reminder of the first hearing, Bruce Wiseman, CCHR's National President said. "The FDA may be accountable for failing to warn the public, but psychiatrists were their advisors with a vested interest in maintaining a multi billion dollar child drugging industry. Now, in the wake of international controversy over the antidepressant drugs' great risk to children's lives, psychiatrists claim they were unaware of the potential harm to children. This is a lie and they should be held accountable," he stated. Mr. Wiseman says, "There is no science to childhood psychiatric disorders. Any child who is so labeled is on a one-way ticket to drug dependence or suicide. As for the children who have committed suicide or died while taking an antidepressant in the last 14 years, their blood is caked on psychiatry's hands. Psychiatrists should be held accountable for both the lack of 'science' behind their diagnostic criteria and for any lethal consequences of their drug practices." With psychiatrists negating the evidence, the number of children prescribed the drugs has escalated. Children aged 1 to 17 now account for 7% of the antidepressants sold in today's $12 billion a year market. Of the 11 million prescriptions for children in 2002, 2.7 million were for those aged 12 and under.

Pfizer Canada Inc. warns Canadians that Zoloft and other SSRIs may be associated with behavioural and emotional changes, including risk of self-harm. Why aren't they sharing this information with the US?