Teen depression: The good, the bad, and the reality
If you've been a reader of mine for any length of time at all, you know how I feel about childhood antidepressant drugs and the "diseases" they're meant to treat. I've written about this topic at great length in the past, but since the Vioxx scandal broke last fall, I haven't given it much ink. Today, there's news to report - both good and bad - about antidepressants…
However, if you don't know my "global" stance on the matter, here it is in a nutshell:
I think the vast bulk of "depressed" kids are suffering from no more than a perfectly normal bout of teenage angst, the same as every other generation of kids before them through the ages. The difference is that nowadays, their self-pitying or self-loathing behaviors are given weight and earnest attention by so-called "experts." This misguided concern grants kids a measure of power over the adults in their world. And because they lack the temperance and perspective that comes with the years, youngsters will use this power to get attention or special treatment - even if it causes them to self-destruct. It's as simple as that.
Here's what's even worse: Other kids see (and subconsciously envy) the slack cut and special treatment given to "depressed" children and CONVINCE THEMSELVES THEY'RE DEPRESSED. Again, this is because they have no frame of reference. It's easy for teenagers to deduce that the perfectly normal anxiety they feel about their bodies, their sexuality, their studies, their futures and where they fit in the dog-eat-dog pecking order of the typical American high school is some kind of crisis or imbalance - especially when every third kid they know is on antidepressants and all the adults around them are wiping their every tear with a prescription slip for Prozac!
What really floors me is that a lot of people - especially the pointy-heads in charge of public health policy - are flummoxed as to why the incidence of teenage depression has skyrocketed in recent years. The 2-part answer is so easy: Adults in power (teachers, counselors, and doctors) have been brainwashed by the "education" efforts of drug makers, and kids themselves have marked a diagnosis of depression as a ticket to low expectations, parental laxity, and a perpetual state of legally medicated bliss.
So there it is, the whole teenage depression problem in a nutshell. If only the medical and education establishments would ASK ME, I could straighten so much out for them. But as I said, there's news to report, so here goes…
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According to a recent USA Today article, a pair of FDA-released market analyses indicate a strong downward trend in the teenage use of antidepressants - as much as 25% in just the last year since a "black box" warning about the drugs' suicide risks were added to their labels.
The piece cites an FDA finding that a full 2% of kids become more suicidal because of the pills (if you've been reading the Daily Dose, you already knew this). So obviously, this down-trend is good news…
However, in other antidepressant news (the bad news), the FDA now warns that at least one study has suggested that one popular "happy drug" (Glaxo's Paxil) has been linked to an increased risk of birth defects, a recent Associated Press article maintains. Currently, Paxil is classified as a Category C drug, which means comprehensive research on its effects on pregnant women has not been conducted.
Of course, Glaxo is claiming that "no causal link" has been established between the drug and birth defects. Hmmm. Isn't that what all the drug companies said when the antidepressant/suicide link was first reported?
Isn't that what Merck is STILL saying about Vioxx and its heart risks?
Dedicated, not medicated,
William Campbell Douglass II, MD
