Anti-depressant lies corrected

Back in 2001 a major study claimed that giving adolescents anti-depressants was both effective and not harmful. In 2012 GSK, the makers of paroxetine, an SSRI, pleaded guilty to cases of fraud about this and other drugs and were fined $3 billion. Part of the settlement forced them to put their drug trial data online. This allowed scientists to re-analyse this trial’s date. The reanalysis has just been published in the British Medical Journal and concludes exactly the opposite – “Neither paroxetine nor high-dose imipramine demonstrated efficacy for major depression in adolescents, and there was an increase in harms with both drugs.”

Thousands of adolescents have been harmed, and some have died by misleading people. The full story is told at study329.org. Please sign my petition to stop drug companies putting profit before lives. We have 4,690 signatures so far. Let’s cross the 5,000 line.

Addiction Cartoon

“Doctor, I seem to have become addicted to prescribing drugs.”