Damaging Drug Study?

[desdemona]

just unbelievable, they prescribe anti-depressants to preschoolers now too, tell me this isn't an environmental problem. Here's a related article re: pharmaceutical co.'s role.

By Kristen Philipkoski

02:00 AM Apr. 22, 2004 PT

The risks for children taking some antidepressants could outweigh the benefits, according to an analysis of data that pharmaceutical companies did not make widely available to the public or to researchers.

Researchers in the United Kingdom analyzed 22 randomized controlled trials that compared the effects of antidepressants and placebos in children from 5 to 18 years old. Data on four out of the five antidepressants examined showed the drugs had the potential to do more harm than good in depressed kids, according to research published in the April issue of the British medical journal The Lancet.

About half of the results had not previously been published in medical journals, so researchers and doctors didn't have access to them. The published data showed the drugs benefited young patients with depression. But when the unpublished results were factored in, the risks outweighed the benefits, the researchers said. It's unclear why the studies were not published, but critics accuse pharmaceutical companies of withholding studies that didn't turn out the way they hoped.

"We can't tell what motivates the pharmaceutical companies involved, but we do know that some probably don't publish for that reason, given recent reports," said Dr. Craig Whittington, the lead researcher on the Lancet paper and a researcher at the University College of London, referring to a recent study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal that said executives of GlaxoSmithKline (the maker of Paxil) had advised members of their staff to withhold data about antidepressants' effects on children.

read the entire article here:

http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,63186,00.html

[Umma]

Who knows what the cause.... if it's an environmental problem it's probably easier, and more lucrative to treat the effect rather than the deal with the cause and drug companies have no qualms about lining the coffers with the takings from the manufacture of synthetic wonder drugs, when there are natural remedies already available at a fraction of the cost.

[DudeAsInCool]

they prescribe anti-depressants to preschoolers now too

:reallymad: :reallymad:

[desdemona]

in my opinion ( deluded or whatever), families aren't willing to make the sacrifices necessary to deal with childrens problems today, you can't have both parents working and delegate that role to childcare, no matter how confident you are in the caretaker. I divorced early in my marriage my daughter was 4, I took the worst jobs at work to stay on dayturn so that I could be home when my daughter was home. I have a friend who has 3 kids, they all took ritalin, there's another drug that was prescribed way too much. kids supposedly grow out of all this but I just think parents don't want to deal with their behavior in the meantime. I think the drugs are an easy way out.

[Umma]

Exactly... they prefer to take a dose of something to deal with the effect rather than deal with the cause...

I'm sure your daughter has benefitted greatly from having you at home Des :good job: