Facts and Fibbers… The AP pulls an L-I-E We cannot predict when outbreaks of disease will hit. We can't know for certain when Mother Nature's wrath will lay us low. We can't always anticipate terrorist attacks. And we can't always count on the markets to make us money… But there's one thing I've learned to count on absolutely in this day and age: The medical establishment and advocacy media will ALWAYS interpret data in the way most favorable to sales of prescription drugs. Case in point: According to a recent Associated Press article, mental health "experts" (no doubt including the piece's author - as you'll see in a minute) have concluded that the reason behind a recent increase in suicides among American youth is a decline in the use of antidepressant drugs! Yes, you read that right. The pointy-heads and pundits think that fewer prescriptions of one of the only classes of drugs to carry a BLACK-BOX WARNING AGAINST SUICIDE RISK is the reason why more kids are offing themselves… Closer examination reveals some trickery with the AP article's numbers. The piece reveals that in the one-year span between 2003 and 2004: * Suicides among Americans under age 20 increased 18%, with "most" of these occurring in older teens (the exact percentage wasn't given - for a reason I'll tell you below)… * Antidepressant use among kids under 12 dropped 6.8%, yet declined less than 1% among 13-19-year olds - hardly a reverse linear correlation to the huge suicide spike in that demographic… Clearly, there's some "advocacy journalism" going on in the usually evenhanded AP. And though I won't mention her by name, I've seen this kind of thing before in the author of this piece. What's not in her article is this conveniently omitted fact: Kids in the 15-19 age range commit suicide at a rate that's MORE THAN 5 TIMES HIGHER than in the 10-14 group. Keep reading… Now stay with me here while I pull back the curtain for you. By characterizing a 530% risk multiple with a term that could mean as little as 51% ("most"), the author of the AP piece attempts to understate the lopsided increase in suicides among the group whose usage of antidepressants was virtually unchanged (15-19-year-olds)… While spinning the significant decline in the use of these drugs among a demographic that hardly ever commits suicide (10-14-year-olds) into the suggestion that there's an inverse relationship between antidepressant use and suicide… When exactly the opposite - that antidepressant drugs spur some teens to suicide - has been proven to be true! Still wonder why I'm always watch-dogging the mainstream media? It's because they LIE. They twist some facts, understate some statistics while conveniently omitting others, then sprinkle a few quotes from carefully chosen "experts" over the whole disingenuous mess and voila! They've got a story that says whatever they WANT to say… Why do they love Big Pharma so much? Who knows? Maybe it's because most of them are medicated or addicted to some drug themselves - and they don't want to feel like losers. They sure write like they are… But I digress: In the next Daily Dose, I'll let you in on a few reasons why I think the teen suicide rate has jumped. And antidepressant drugs are only ONE of them. | 
