Product News and Recalls

Author warns of antidepressant side effects

Kaitlin Bell Barnett, author of Dosed: The Medication Generation Grows Up, wrote a piece for Website PsychCentral about what she terms a “shocking lack of studies” concerning the relationship between antidepressant use and sexual dysfunction in young people.

Barnett writes that the drugs most famous for causing loss of libido and sexual dysfunction are the SSRI antidepressants, such as Prozac and Zoloft, which can cause loss of libido and problems with sexual arousal and orgasm.

Barnett points out that the connection between ...

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Cosmopolitan informs readers of FDA Yaz warning

An entry on the blog for Cosmopolitan warns readers of a recent announcement by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that Yasmin, Yaz, Beyaz, Safyral, Ocella and other oral contraceptives containing the compound drospirenone ...

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Study says antidepressants may create health risk

Antidepressants such as Zoloft may put middle-aged men at higher risk for heart attacks and stroke, according to Bloomberg.

Bloomberg reports a U.S. National Institutes of Health-funded study of 513 male twins, average age 55, which found those taking antidepressants including Zoloft had thicker blood vessel walls.

The report quotes the lead researcher as saying antidepressants may increase levels of brain chemicals including serotonin and norepinephrine, which could cause blood vessels ...

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Former FDA director: Bayer withheld info on Yaz

According to Bloomberg, a former director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reported that pharmaceutical maker Bayer withheld company research indicating that its Yasmin line of birth control pills caused increased blood clots.

David Kessler, the former FDA commissioner, made those allegations in a report unsealed as part of the ongoing litigation on behalf of patients claiming to be injured by the contraceptives, Bloomberg reports.

It quotes Kessler as saying: “Bayer ...

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FDA issues guidelines for medical devices

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued what the agency is describing as a “first-of-a-kind guidance” to help medical device manufacturers get through the review process for new devices.

The FDA is issuing the document, titled “Factors To Consider When Making Benefit-Risk Determinations in Medical Device Premarket Approval and De Novo Classifications,” to address problems that have come up recently as a result of the agency’s approval process.

An FDA spokeswoman has been quoted as saying: “The devices center identified several ...

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Changing perceptions of antidepressants examined

In a recent piece for the New York Times Magazine, Columbia University Professor Siddhartha Mukherjee takes a look at the changing attitudes regarding the nature of clinical depression and its treatment.

Mukherjee observes that a class of anti-depressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), widely considered wonder drugs in the 1990s, now have a considerably diminished reputation.

“Fast forward to 2012 and the same antidepressants that inspired such enthusiasm have become ...

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