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Antidepressants the Facts

Comprehensive list of articles about anti depressants, their side effects and warnings...more...

SSRI & SSNRI Antidepressants side-effects, neurological damage

Take notice that also non SSRI antidepressants (and even Ritalin) may interact (primary or secondary) with the serotonergic (or serotoninergic) system in the brain.

Every medication - especially SSRI antidepressants- boosting serotonin activity in the brain, has potential to induce the very dangerous and potentially fatal hyperserotonergic state of the Serotonin Syndrome...more...

FDA orders antidepressant warning
By Carol Marbin Miller
Miami Herald
DRUG SAFETY Sat, Oct. 16, 2004

Antidepressants used to treat youths must carry a warning label about suicide risks, a U.S. agency has mandated.

The federal government ordered drugmakers Friday to include a strong warning on the labels of all antidepressants linking the drugs to an increased risk of suicide or suicidal thoughts among youths.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's action comes amid swirling controversy over the effectiveness and safety of more than two dozen medications prescribed by doctors to treat clinical depression.

Advocates say such drugs save the lives of children by alleviating a dangerous mental illness. Critics say they have not been proven effective in treating depression among children, and now are linked to an increased risk of suicidal thinking...more..

Paid doctors just drug spruikers, says insider
Source: The Age,
Reporter: Nick Miller
Date:  June 21, 2008

PHARMACEUTICAL companies consider the doctors in their pay to be little more than salespeople spruiking their products, a drug industry whistleblower has admitted in a prestigious medical journal.

In response, the British Medical Journal has called for medical leaders to stop accepting personal payments for promoting a company's drug or device.

Companies pay "key opinion leader" doctors up to $6000 a day to deliver lectures to boost sales of new drugs. They give them slides for their presentations and train them in what to say and what not to say.

The companies even have special software that tracks the return on their financial investment in the doctor, assessing how much their lectures, publications and work on advisory boards have improved sales.

If they don't show a boost in sales, they are dropped.

"Many leading specialists are being paid generous fees to peddle influence on behalf of the world's biggest drug companies," wrote Australian researcher Ray Moynihan in yesterday's edition of the British Medical Journal.

He interviewed Kimberly Elliott, who was an award-winning drug company sales representative for 18 years in the US.

Ms Elliott said the "opinion leader" doctors were "basically my salespeople".

"I would give them all the information I wanted them to talk about, I would give them slides, they would go through specific training programs on what to say and what not to say so it would be beneficial for my company," she said.

BMJ editor Fione Godlee said the revelations in Mr Moynihan's article were troubling.

"Medicine sorely needs leaders, but not if they've been bought," she said.