- At least five teenagers in Canada have died, four of
suicide, while being treated with the most widely prescribed antidepressants
in Canada and at least 100 other children as young as 18 months old have
experienced serious suspected adverse reactions to the pills, CanWest News
Service has learned.
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- The most recent reported suicide involves a 14-year-old
boy who killed himself after 25 days on Paxil, one of the antidepressants
known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).
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- The antidepressants are at the centre of a growing storm
over whether SSRIs, blockbuster drugs that have become among the most popular
medicines in history, cause some children to become suicidal or trigger
other severe emotional or behavioural changes within weeks of the commencement
of treatment or a change in dose.
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- Health Canada was notified of the boy's suicide on July
22, 2003, nearly two weeks after the government and GlaxoSmithKline, the
makers of Paxil, warned doctors not to prescribe the drug to children and
teens because of a possible increased risk of suicidal thinking, suicide
attempts or self-harm.
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- Health Canada learned in October 1996 of a 17-year-old
boy who committed suicide while he was being treated with Zoloft. A suicide
involving a male 18-year-old who had been taking Prozac was reported to
the government in 1992.
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- In all three suicides, the antidepressants might have
contributed to the deaths, according to adverse-drug-reaction reports contained
in an edited, online Health Canada database.
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- It's estimated only one to 10 per cent of all adverse
drug reactions are reported to Health Canada.
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- But there's no proof of a cause-and-effect link between
the antidepressants and any of the suicides.
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- And it's not known from the reports why the teens were
receiving treatment, or whether any had a history of suicide attempts.
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- "Health Canada did conduct an assessment to see
whether the deaths were caused by SSRIs," department spokesperson
Jirini Vlk said.
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- "There was no causal link established."
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- The fourth suicide involved an 18-year-old female who
overdosed on Effexor; her death was reported to Health Canada in December
1998.
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- The fifth death involved a 16-year-old boy who died of
cardiomyopathy, inflammation of the heart, after taking Celexa for 17 days.
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- It is not known from the report, received in May 2003,
how long this teen had cardiomyopathy. The youth had also been taking another
antidepressant, and possibly an anti-psychotic drug. According to the doctor
who filed the report, Celexa "may be contributory" to the death.
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- The New York state attorney-general, Eliot Spitzer, launched
a lawsuit last week against GlaxoSmithKline, alleging the drug giant "engaged
in repeated and persistent fraud" by concealing critical scientific
studies about the safety and efficacy of Paxil for depression in children
and teens.
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- The company denied the charge.
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- Today, preschoolers make up the fastest-growing segment
of the SSRI market, studies show. Even infants under one are being prescribed
the drugs for anxiety or sleep problems.
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- Health Canada records reveal that at least five years
ago, Ottawa began receiving reports of agitation, hostility, aggression,
hallucinations, psychotic states, impulsive behaviour and other suspected
drug reactions among children on SSRIs.
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- But it wasn't until last week that Health Canada issued
a public advisory, warning parents to rigorously watch their children for
signs of unusual or disturbing behaviour, including want-ing to harm themselves
or others.
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- Although British authorities ordered doctors six months
ago to stop prescribing the antidepressants to anyone younger than 18,
Health Canada has decided against barring their use by children.
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- Nor has it restricted their use to trained physicians
who have the time to do a proper assessment and follow-up, even though
none of the drugs have been approved for use in children in Canada.
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- A recent analysis by Health Canada of all adverse reactions
experienced by patients taking
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- SSRIs found no direct link between the drugs and patient
deaths.
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- "What you really need is information like what other
drugs were involved, were there any other extraneous circumstances, what
happened. And sometimes, it's very difficult to be able to get that information,"
said Siddika Mithani, director of Health Canada's bureau of cardiology,
allergy and neurological sciences.
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- Critics say the story of how SSRIs have become among
the top drugs prescribed to children is a saga of biased reporting, bureaucratic
breakdowns and flawed assumptions that what would work in adults would
work in children.
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- It amounts to a "disaster," according to The
Lancet, the world's top medical journal, leading to spiralling prescriptions
for SSRIs among toddlers, grade-schoolers and adolescents - without any
evidence that most of them work much better than placebos, or fake pills.
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- Some parents swear the medications have given their children
full, happy and functional lives. Such medical groups as the American Psychiatric
Association say they fear the controversy will scare doctors away from
prescribing the drugs and prevent people who need help from being treated.
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- But critics, including some of Canada's leading child
psychiatrists, worry the antidepressants are being handed out like lollipops.
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- They say their soaring use reflects our busy society's
growing intolerance for moodiness, shyness, anxiety and other normal life
problems in children.
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- Copyright © 2004 CanWest Interactive Inc. All rights
reserved. http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=a97
05835-8241-4dd0-9559-a7e7b6bf2c3f&page=2
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- Comment
- From Mary Sparrowdancer
6-11-4
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- It is unconscionable that "we" are treating
infants and children with antidepressants for their agitation rather than
identifying the cause of their agitation.
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- The number of children and infants now apparently "needing"
some sort of pharmaceutical treatment for strange, inexplicable agitation,
as well as other uncharacteristic conditions and aggression, has risen
exponentially in the United States with the doses of fluoride (an industrial,
HAZMAT toxin) that is being added into municipal water supplies under mandates.
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- Most individuals do not realize that the government also
suggested that certain schools in America privately fluoridate children's
school drinking water at 4.5 times the amount permitted in municipal waters
supplies.
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- Approximately two-thirds of the US drinking water is
now thoroughly contaminated with fluoride - with 100% mandatory fluoridation
planned by those who are representing industries, while working in regulatory
positions within our "government." (The type of fluoride being
used has never been approved by the FDA.)
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- Among the drugs that are being repeatedly associated
with suicidal tendencies, murder and unexplained, bizarre behavior, certain
names continue to be repeated.
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- The majority of those pharmaceuticals all have fluoride
as a base, active chemical agent.
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- fluoride paper: http://www.rense.com/general45/bll.htm
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- mary sparrowdancer
www.sparrowdancer.com
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