STATE TESTING PROZAC ON 6-YEAR-OLDS ; PARENTS NOT TOLD ABOUT ; RISKS

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[sSRI-Research] Archive: 1999 - STATE TESTING PROZAC ON

6-YEAR-OLDS ; PARENTS NOT TOLD ABOUT ; RISKS, INCLUDING SUICIDE & MANIA

 

 

 

 

The New York Post

 

January 31, 1999

 

STATE TESTING PROZAC ON 6-YEAR-OLDS ; PARENTS NOT TOLD ABOUT ; RISKS,

INCLUDING SUICIDE & MANIA

 

By: GREGG BIRNBAUM

 

http://www.psychsearch.net/ruane-a.html

 

 

-- BEGIN EXCERPT

 

ALBANY - The state has been conducting experiments on kids with the

powerful mood-altering drug Prozac - and failing to tell the children

and their parents about the most serious risks, The Post has learned.

The New York State Psychiatric Institute in Manhattan is performing

its little-known but extensive Prozac experimentation on troubled kids

as young as 6 years old, according to internal records.

 

..

 

While the potential deadly danger was cited in the researchers'

documents, it was not included in the consent forms given to children

and their parents to read and sign.

 

" Some patients have been reported to have an increase in suicidal

thoughts and/or violent behavior, " note researchers' documents

describing the risks involved in an experiment to test Prozac on 30

severely depressed patients ages 12 to 18.

 

..

 

Records show that at least four experiments using Prozac on young

children have been undertaken recently by the New York State

Psychiatric Institute, including one funded by Prozac's manufacturer,

Eli Lilly Co.

 

Dr. Donald Rosenblitt, an expert on Prozac, warned that the

antidepressant drug can trigger psychotic episodes in seriously

disturbed youngsters, and that the drug's long-term impact on kids

remains unknown. " We simply do not know what the effect of drugs on

children before the age of 7 is, " said Rosenblitt, clinical director

of the Lucy Daniels Center for Early Childhood in Cary, N.C. " The

brain is still ... developing up to age 7. The jury's absolutely still

out. "

 

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