SSRI Drug News
Studies link SSRIs and birth defects
Babies born to women who take antidepressant during the first trimester of pregnancy face an increased risk of several types of birth defects, two new studies have found. The studies examined whether babies born with birth defects were more likely to have been born to mothers who took antidepressants.
FDA calls for expanded SSRI suicide warning
Federal health officials are calling for new labels that would warn of the link between antidepressants and suicide in young adults. The Food and Drug Administration says that younger patients beginning treatment on antidepressants need to be warned that they can cause suicidal thoughts or behavior.
Psych drugs may have contributed to Cho?s rampage at Va. Tech
Cho Seung-Hui, who murdered 32 students and faculty members at Virginia Tech before killing himself on April 16, is drawing the attention of gun-control advocates. But his medicine cabinet is also of some interest since psychiatric drugs have been linked with dozens of school shootings in the last two decades
Report accuses GSK of hiding Paxil suicide link
A BBC news program has accused drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) of attempting to hide the side effects of its antidepressant drug Paxil. A report by the British network’s Panorama says that GSK employed ghostwriters in order to hide the results of a failed clinical trial which showed that Paxil raised the risk of suicide in patients under 18.
Study links antidepressant use among elderly with broken bones
A Canadian study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine has found that adults over 50 who use a popular type of antidepressant face twice the risk of broken bones as non-users. The study also found that the antidepressant users suffered many more falls than those not on the drugs.