Prozac given to 2yr olds in US? [ot]

[Guest guest]

[source: What Doctors Don't Tell You - E-News Broadcast]

 

ANTIDEPRESSANTS: They're great for two-year-olds

 

America's drug 'watchdog', the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is finally waking up to a drug scandal that is involving children as young as two years of age.

 

These children are being prescribed powerful antidepressants that could be making them suicidal, and so the FDA has agreed to review the practice.

 

Today, it's been reckoned that 2 per cent of all youths in the USA are now prescribed an antidepressant. Prescriptions to children increased by 400 per cent between 1988 and 1994 alone, a study has found.

 

Researchers have discovered that children as young as two have been prescribed an antidepressant such as Prozac, although usage more usually begins at the age of six and then carries on until the age of 19.

 

Nobody knows for sure how many children have committed suicide, attempted suicide or had suicidal thoughts while on these drugs, and regulators the world over have always hidden behind the fact that these children may have been suicidal because of their depression.

 

The FDA has nonetheless conceded that the drugs are more likely than a placebo to cause suicidal thoughts. It based its conclusion on a review of 20 placebo-controlled trials, involving over 4100 children and adolescents who were prescribed one of eight antidepressants. The 'gang of eight' includes citalopram, fluoxetine, fluvoxamine, mirtazapine, nefazodone,paroxetine, sertraline and venlazafine.

 

Worse, perhaps, the FDA concluded that the drugs were not even effective.

 

Of the drugs reviewed, only Prozac (fluoxetine) has been approved for pediatric use, and fluvoxamine is not even approved as an antidepressant in the USA.

 

Pfizer, the manufacturer of sertraline, marketed as Lustral in the UK and as Zoloft in the USA, has been quick to try and distance itself from the review.

 

In a study of 376 depressed children aged from 6 to 17 years, sertraline was "effective and well-tolerated", the researchers concluded. A generous conclusion for a study that saw 17 of the children having to stop treatment because of a side effect, and two who tried to commit suicide. It's perhaps worth pointing out that Pfizer kindly sponsored the research.

 

But even leaving all that aside, there is no doubt that the drugs should not be prescribed to children anyway. Aside from Prozac, none of the drugs has been licensed for pediatric use, and so the drug regulators should be stopping the practice for that reason alone.

 

(Sources: Pediatrics, 2002; 109: 721-7; Journal of the American Medical Association, 2003; 290: 1033-41).

 

**

[Guest guest]

And many many more are being poisoned several times a day by their parents' cigarette smoke, yet where is the outcry over that? That is a powerful and dangerous drug forced upon them and nothing is done about it.

 

Of course drugging kids up in this way with Prozac is a bad idea, but when I was a child, if I had had the choice of being in a smoke-free home with antidepressants or my parents' smoke-filled home and no anti-depressants (I was depressed and miserable because of the physical effects of the cigarette smoke I was forced to endure), I know which I would have chosen. I know which would have been the lesser of two evils.

 

But I guess smoking parents are not bad for all children according to your values and Paul's, no absolutes and all that..

 

I'm just pointing out that children being made to breathe cigarette smoke is still a more pervasive problem than Ritalin and Prozac.

 

Lesley

 

Oliver Slay [oliver]19 November 2003 14:31 Subject: Prozac given to 2yr olds in US? [ot]

 

[source: What Doctors Don't Tell You - E-News Broadcast]

 

ANTIDEPRESSANTS: They're great for two-year-olds

 

America's drug 'watchdog', the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is finally waking up to a drug scandal that is involving children as young as two years of age.

 

These children are being prescribed powerful antidepressants that could be making them suicidal, and so the FDA has agreed to review the practice.

 

Today, it's been reckoned that 2 per cent of all youths in the USA are now prescribed an antidepressant. Prescriptions to children increased by 400 per cent between 1988 and 1994 alone, a study has found.

 

Researchers have discovered that children as young as two have been prescribed an antidepressant such as Prozac, although usage more usually begins at the age of six and then carries on until the age of 19.

 

Nobody knows for sure how many children have committed suicide, attempted suicide or had suicidal thoughts while on these drugs, and regulators the world over have always hidden behind the fact that these children may have been suicidal because of their depression.

 

The FDA has nonetheless conceded that the drugs are more likely than a placebo to cause suicidal thoughts. It based its conclusion on a review of 20 placebo-controlled trials, involving over 4100 children and adolescents who were prescribed one of eight antidepressants. The 'gang of eight' includes citalopram, fluoxetine, fluvoxamine, mirtazapine, nefazodone,paroxetine, sertraline and venlazafine.

 

Worse, perhaps, the FDA concluded that the drugs were not even effective.

 

Of the drugs reviewed, only Prozac (fluoxetine) has been approved for pediatric use, and fluvoxamine is not even approved as an antidepressant in the USA.

 

Pfizer, the manufacturer of sertraline, marketed as Lustral in the UK and as Zoloft in the USA, has been quick to try and distance itself from the review.

 

In a study of 376 depressed children aged from 6 to 17 years, sertraline was "effective and well-tolerated", the researchers concluded. A generous conclusion for a study that saw 17 of the children having to stop treatment because of a side effect, and two who tried to commit suicide. It's perhaps worth pointing out that Pfizer kindly sponsored the research.

 

But even leaving all that aside, there is no doubt that the drugs should not be prescribed to children anyway. Aside from Prozac, none of the drugs has been licensed for pediatric use, and so the drug regulators should be stopping the practice for that reason alone.

 

(Sources: Pediatrics, 2002; 109: 721-7; Journal of the American Medical Association, 2003; 290: 1033-41). **~~ info ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Please remember that the above is only the opinion of the author, there may be another side to the story you have not heard.---------------------------Was this message Off Topic? Did you know? Was it snipped?~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Guidelines: visit <site temporarily offline>Un: send a blank message to -

[Guest guest]

thank-you for pointing this out... but the discussion [OT] that I started is about Prozac supplied to young children ... and not about anything supplied to young children... and I would prefer if this discussion was not hijacked and converted into a discussion about smoke and children ... which is an altogether separate issue.... (even if it is no less important an issue)...

 

However, I hope you are not suggesting that we disagree with you on your point?

 

 

 

Lesley Dove [Lesley]

 

And many many more are being poisoned several times a day by their parents' cigarette smoke, yet where is the outcry over that? That is a powerful and dangerous drug forced upon them and nothing is done about it.

 

 

But I guess smoking parents are not bad for all children according to your values and Paul's, no absolutes and all that..

 

I'm just pointing out that children being made to breathe cigarette smoke is still a more pervasive problem than Ritalin and Prozac.

 

**