Shots - Health Blog A Fresh Look At Antidepressants Finds Low
Risk Of Youth Suicide In 2004, after an extensive review, the
Food and Drug Administration issued a strong warning to doctors
who prescribed antidepressants to teens and children.
Antidepressants, the FDA said, appeared to increase suicide
among kids and teens. Doctors needed to be careful. The FDA even
mandated that a "black-box warning," the strongest type, be
placed on antidepressant packaging. This warning and worries
that giving antidepressants to children might cause them to kill
themselves was front-page news for weeks and appeared to changed
the prescribing behavior of doctors. Fewer doctors used
antidepressant medications with their young patients and,
according to at least one study, the number of suicides among
kids and teens began to rise. This week the Archives of General
Psychiatry published an analysis that finds no increase in
suicide among young people taking Prozac. The findings put a new
wrinkle in the long-running debate over th