Earlier in the year a review confirmed a link between antidepressants and suicidal behaviour in children. The researchers looked at 70 studies involving more than 18,500 people, and found that under-18s taking either of two classes of drugs – selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) – were more than twice as likely to have suicidal thoughts, or attempt suicide, than those taking a placebo. The report stressed that the overall suicide risk was still low, at three in 100 people, but suggested that where possible, under-18s should be offered non-drug treatments such as psychotherapy.
This doesn’t just apply to young people. Some years ago I was put on Paxil, an anti-depressant and SSRI, to help me sleep. A week later I found myself becoming totally irrational and feeling suicidal. How can they sell drugs for depression that enhance depression? Among other things Paxil has been associated with autism, birth defects and weight gain of up to ten pounds (I put on weight as well, an extra indignity). Paxil is still on the market, and so are other drugs that should be carefully controlled, such as painkillers oxycodone, hydrocodone, and fentanyl, the most commonly abused drugs, addictive, with horrible side effects and responsible for an alarming rise in suicides and unintended deaths.
The old pharmaceutical businesses were started by Quakers on Quaker principles. Those were the days of working to improve the health of the community, not simply to make big profits. Now American TV is full of ads for drugs showing beautiful, happy people enjoying full, smiley lives. But listen to the side-effects of some of the drugs they are made by law to mention in the ads! Scary. How did the pharmacuetical industry get to advertise on TV anyway? (silly question- we all know the answer). I used to work for a pharmaceutical company in the days when their products were called “ethical pharmaceuticals”. At some point big pharma must have had a short burst of moral self-revelation and dropped the claim.
Its astonishing that these sorts of drugs are available over the counter. I think they should be strictly prescription only. You’re right about your wider critique of Big Pharma. The prescription system in Britain, where everyone pays the same regardless of which drug they’re being prescribed, works much better. In an ideal world, prescription drugs would be free, but I doubt we could afford that just yet.
What a dispiriting account. I’m surprised to learn of the Quaker origins of the pharmaceutical business. It evolved into something the original Quakers would have thought morally monstrous.
When I joined the pharma company as a young marketing officer I dropped a huge clanger at a company marketing meeting, attended by over 30 peopke. Asked what I could do with an old product that had had no attention for years, I referred, inter alia, to the word “profit”. A deathly silence ensued. ” Mr Hanrott, in this company we use the word “surplus”, never “profit”. The company, now massive, was founded by Quakers who disapproved of “profit”. Hypocrisy lives on.