Experts Say Birth Defect Risks Outweigh Benefits of SSRIs

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Another leading expert on SSRI's, Dr David Healy, author of, "The Antidepressant Era," says that the efficacy of SSRI's has been greatly exaggerated, and a review of the actual clinical trials reveal that only one in ten patients responds specifically to an SSRI rather than a nonspecific factor or placebo.

Dr Jackson also notes that SSRI's barely out-performed sugar pills in head-to-head trials. Dr Healy and Dr Jackson both say that the risks of the neonatal withdrawal syndrome and serious birth defects far outweigh any benefits of SSRI use by pregnant women.

Critics point out that, if SSRI's worked, suicide rates would be declining, especially since patients are kept on the drugs indefinitely. But suicide rates have not dropped at all, and in fact, suicides have increased in some age groups.

The April 19, 2006, National Vital Statistic Report shows the overall suicide rate in the US has remained basically unchanged since 1999 when the rate was 10.5 suicides per 100,000. In 2000, the rate was 10.4, and in 2001 it dipped to 10.1; but in 2002, the rate was back up to 11.0. In 2003, the suicide rate was 10.8 per 100,000, and in 2004 it was back up to 11.0.

Going back to 1980, a year in the pre-SSRI era, in persons aged 25 to 44, death by suicide was ranked the 5th leading cause of death. In 2004, however, when SSRI's were close to being the most prescribed class of drugs in the US, suicide rates were higher, and it became the 4th leading cause of death for persons in this age group.

Yet the Centers for Disease Control recently reported that antidepressants were the most prescribed drugs in the US in 2005, with higher prescription rates than drugs used to treat high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes or headaches.

Experts say people are being misdiagnosed with depression as a result of normal responses to stressful events or an important loss, or in the case of pregnant women, worries that naturally occur with becoming a new mother. According to Dr Timothy Scott, author of "America Fooled," there is an abundance of research indicating that depression can stem from many issues that are downplayed by drug-industry-funded ads and literature.

"The fact that physicians rarely go over the many factors which we know can move us away from joyfulness and toward depression," he says, "is a clear indication of the success of the industry's marketing strategy."

Dr Scott says he is frustrated and angered by the industry's essential disregard for the financial costs these ineffective drugs impose on families and the physical harm they inflict on millions of users who consume them year in and year out.

Families seeking legal advice regarding SSRI birth defects can contact the Baum, Hedlund, Aristei, Goldman & Menzies Law Firm at: (800) 827-0087; http://www.baumhedlundlaw.com/

Evelyn Pringle
evelyn-pringle@sbcglobal.net

(Written as part of the Antidepressant Birth Defect Litigation Monthly Round-Up, Sponsored by Baum Hedlund's Pharmaceutical Antidepressant Litigation Department)

www.paxilbirthdefect.com/
www.pphnlawyers.com

(Evelyn Pringle is a regular columnist for OpEd News and investigative journalist focused on exposing corruption in government and corporate America)

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