Aussie FDA Secretly Probing Anti-Depressant Problems

This is amazing to me: the Therapeutic Goods Administration, Australia's FDA, is reportedly conducting a review of problems with anti-depressants in secret with no public input, unlike what's gone on in the US and UK.

"Sydney psychiatrist Yolande Lucire, who has reported between 300 and 400 cases to the TGA in which she claims patients have had serious reactions to the anti-depressants, including some who had committed suicide, said the inquiry must be made public. 'This is being done in secret,' Dr Lucire said. 'We have no terms of reference, no opportunity for people to make submissions; it's a scandal.'

"Federal Health Department secretary Jane Halton wrote to Dr Lucire recently, informing her the inquiry was under way and the panel would report back at the end of this year.

"'This only happened after,' Dr Lucire said. 'In frustration at being fobbed off by the TGA, I personally sent the head of the department 100 cases detailing what had actually happened to people who went from being fully functioning members of the community to patients with serious mental health problems and some who in fact killed themselves after being put on these drugs for stress-related disorders.'"

This is complete nonsense and I hope Australian readers of this site will contact their MPs and hound the TGA until this is set right. Otherwise, the opportunity for a whitewash is simply too great.