Wow. Yes, he is lying. All it takes is a cursory review of the available documentation. Makes you wonder what the sam hell we are dealing with here. Something profoundly depraved.

I just got emailed a study claiming that since anti-depressant use in teens declined, suicides increased. The emailer pointed out that even if the results are valid, antipsychotic use increased in the same time period. The definition for bipolar is so broad these days, that anyone who answers yes to the question, "have you ever been stressed out?" is at risk of being so labeled. Sanjay is a proponent of that idea I guess. The idea that all depression and all adhd are really bipolar is a huge marketing bonanza for antipsychotics.

Hello Philip,
Re: Sally's comment. I sent this to a corresponent earlier....
There's little doubt that some of these tragic deaths have been caused by sudden SSRI withdrawal. Physicians who were quick off the mark prescribing an SSRI, on the back of little proven safety and efficacy, were more than willing to not do so, once the causal suicidality risk was exposed--After all, who wants to be caught prescribing a drug that has been proved to induce thoughts of suicide, and may also activate the patient to perform the actual act of suicide.

However, even if the motive for prescribing these chemicals for everything from depression and general anxiety disorder (GAD) to an itchie bum, were noble and of the best intentions, they were ofttimes ill-informed intentions, as maybe was also the case to suddenly stop prescribing these chemicals--sudden decrease of highly elevated serotonin sometimes causes people to do the most outrageous things.

It should also be noted that during the periods mentioned in the WPost article, there has been a huge increase in the use of other psychiatric drugs.... That couldn't have been a contributing factor--Could It?!

Regards, Stu.

Dawdy--On NBC news tonight they are reporting a 76% increase in suicide in teenage girls since the warnings were taken off anti depressants in 2003---they are suggesting that more kids are killing themselves because the warning labels discouraged them from using anti depressants! WTF? By the way, please check out our Leadership 21 Blog, which is www.leadership-21.blogspot.com.

jesusfrigginkrist:

To all you folks who just got spun like tops by that p.r. push today:

Decreased SSRI => Increase suicide?

Plausible? Sure.

IF PRESCRIPTIONS FOR SSRI'S DID NOT ACTUALLY INCREASE DURING THE SAME TIME PERIOD!

All the decreases in use happened after these deaths. Usage was still going up b/w 2003-04.

Last I checked, cause does not come after effect.

Ugh . . . I heard this crap on NPR and I knew that it wouldn't matter that this makes no sense. All people will remember is this crap

C'mon people. Do you enjoy being spun like this?

Oh . . . and I've had a suicide prevention stand in my office building all week.

This is - in itself - noble.

But this is clearly part of a big multi-pronged PR push - national and local.

NPR, NBC, CNN = same day. It doesn't happen by itself.

Think about it, people. This type of push is how PR works. All it takes is a few doctor shills, a little astroturf, and some gullible reporters happy for a story that is already written for them and voila!

Broken record here: the ONLY time I ever felt the direct compulsion to kill myself was on 40mg of Prozac, it's not the ordinary sadness, or depression, that was wicked shit. I will never forget it, either will my family! I am a regular person, with typical "problems"--on Prozac I was wildly insane, standing on the roof of my car at midnight in my town, in pouring rain screaming. I crawled into the PCP's office after that incoherent and all I could do was say these words: "You drugged me up". Took me freaking 9 months to get off that crap. That's when I learned about withdrawals that held brainzaps,etc. similar to removing Seroquel, to the point I knew to recognize what was happening to me from the Prozac nightmare.

Dear Philip

Well, the difficulty with studying suicide in depressed patients is that it is difficult to tell whether reactive factors caused it or whether it was caused by the antidepressant. Therein lies the problem in all studies.

The problem also with SSRIs they are effective in a lot of people. I will agree that there are some studies as you point out that tip the balance in terms of suicide or DSH but as you say it is important to do as follows


1. Give the public a good critique of the studies
2. Allow the patient to make an informed choice.


On the same issue, it is not quite right to rattle everyone's cage to say that SSRIs are the worst evil that could have landed on this planet because as drugs they are actually effective in many people. To propagate this myth or cause frightening studies will deny many people the good effects of the drugs.


Moreover, it should be noted that after the Paroxetine SSRI scare presented by Panorama - the vast majority of patients who were stable on it, stopped immediately. Following this, they did become depressed, relapsed and suicidal. That is not a result you want Phil. I therefore believe it is important to give a balanced view of medication.

Unfortunately all drugs have side effects. We simply have to balance the risks with the benefits.

Dr Rita Pal UK

Dr. Gupta is a consultant for Lilly. I'm sure you're shocked. I saw him give a video CME exercise that was very dismissive of the metabolic issues Zyprexa can cause. Don't know him personally, but from the little I've seen him write/say, I know I differ with him quite a bit.