An Interesting OCD Study

A reader passed along a University of Florida study, just in the recruitment phase, that will both try to measure increased agitation and suicidality in kids and teens (ages 7 to 17) taking Zoloft for obsessive-compulsive disorder, and create a behavioral model to scientifically assess agitation and suicidality in such patients.

Zoloft is one of the SSRIs that carries a black box warning for the risk of increased suicidality in adults and youngsters. Its only approved use in people younger than 18 is for OCD. It is not approved for use in treating depression and such in this population.

So, if a drug is linked with suicides and suicidal ideation in youth, then why would you even need to test what problems it might present with youth who are not depressed? Isn't this just courting disaster?

If there's one thing I have learned about researchers over the years, and not simply psych researchers, is that they will study literally every possible question around literally every substance on earth and how it interacts with humans. That's good in some ways. Scientific inquiry should be encouraged. But sometimes it leads to plenty of studies where we already have a pretty decent idea what the answer will be. Researchers can always make the case that even though an answer is known, it is not known with scientific precision (or at least not the kind researchers prefer) and therefore it must be studied. Besides, they can get grant money for the research. And if you are a researcher who's under pressure to drum up research dollars for your university, then you'll chase the money. Or be out of a job. Seriously, academic science is cut throat like that these days.

I think that's what we have going on with this study. But it still makes me uneasy. My hunch is that if this study shows that there is no connection between Zoloft and suicidality, etc. in the young OCD study group, then we will see headlines and media mentions that "Zoloft doesn't cause suicide after all, researchers at the University of Florida announced today." What the articles won't mention is that this is a study group of about 140 youth and that the larger population upon which all the bad news was predicated involved hundreds of thousands of people. Maybe I am weird, but I consider that more solid evidence than whatever you might get from a 140 patient study group.

Stay tuned.

NOTE: The study's principal investigator, Wayne Goodman, recently showed up in a "New York Times article about conflict of interest (ie, getting pharma money) amongst researchers who advise government agencies about drug approvals. Dr. Goodman, a major player on the FDA advisory committee on psych meds, appears to be one of those whose hands are clean. Which is good.