Posts Tagged 'SSRI'

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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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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Study questions safety of antidepressants

Researchers at McMaster University in Canada are questioning whether widely prescribed antidepressants do more harm than good. Their study is published in the online journal Frontiers in Psychology.

An article about the study in PsychCentral quotes lead author Dr. Paul Andrews as saying: “We need to be much more cautious about the widespread use of these drugs. It’s important because millions of people are prescribed antidepressants each year, and the conventional wisdom about these drugs is that they’re safe and effective.”

Most ...

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Psychiatrist details deceptive tactics for SSRI clinical trials

In a piece published in British newspaper The Daily Mail, psychiatrist David Healy claims pharmaceutical companies commonly use deceptive tactics to manipulate clinical trials for new drugs. As a result, Healy alleges, health regulatory agencies approve drugs that are not only ineffective, but dangerous for patients who use them.

He writes that the corporate tactics include the following:

  • Conducting clinical trials and not publishing any negative results that come out of ...
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Antidepressants ineffective in treating autism symptoms

An article published in the journal Pediatrics claims that “publication bias,” or medical journals’ tendency to publish clinical trials with a positive result, may have given physicians the false impression that certain types of antidepressants improve repetitive behaviors in autistic children such as rocking and hand-flapping.

A report on the research in U.S. News and World Report says analysis of all the studies, not just the ones that made it into ...

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Journalist questions new Yaz, Beyaz, and Yasmin warnings

In a recent entry for “re:Cycling,” the blog of the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research, journalist Holly Grigg-Spall questions whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration went far enough in its new labeling requirements for the Yasmin line of birth control pills.

Grigg-Spall points out that the new labels mention the results of “conflicting” studies, most of which concluded that the pills in question cause a significant increase ...

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