It's a short walk from unhappy teen to Rx: non-psychiatrists prescribe 80% of antidepressant and anxiolytic medications––primarily internists, gynecologists, family practitioners, PAs, and nurse practitioners. Yet the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says extensive analysis of clinical trials showed antidepressants may cause or worsen suicidal thinking or behavior in children and adolescents. An in-depth two part discussion can be found in The New York Review of Books by Marcia Angell (former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine and now lecturer in social medicine at Harvard), here and here.
11.14.2011
Wide-spread Use of Psychoactive Drugs in Children
It's a short walk from unhappy teen to Rx: non-psychiatrists prescribe 80% of antidepressant and anxiolytic medications––primarily internists, gynecologists, family practitioners, PAs, and nurse practitioners. Yet the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says extensive analysis of clinical trials showed antidepressants may cause or worsen suicidal thinking or behavior in children and adolescents. An in-depth two part discussion can be found in The New York Review of Books by Marcia Angell (former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine and now lecturer in social medicine at Harvard), here and here.
