Atoms
SSRIS IN THE US – STRUGGLING WITH UNCERTAINTY
Following the lead of the British Government, the FDA in the US has announced a review of the relationship between suicide risk and SSRI drugs.1 A spokesman for the FDA reported that 109 of 4000 young people who had participated in 25 studies of these medications experienced suicide related behaviours. None had actually committed suicide. In a recent hearing in Washington, protagonists and antagonists battled it out about the value of the medications. Some parents suggested that their use had caused suicidal and aggressive behaviour in their children. Others suggested that the drugs dramatically improved the lives of their children. Is their scientific truth to be had in this debate, or because of the complexity of human behaviour coupled with drug therapy, will we never be certain about the risk of suicide associated with SSRIs? Truth is likely to be elusive, and with an increasingly informed and vociferous public, debates like this one …
