JAMA: Mild to severe depression better treated with alternatives to medications

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Workers with depression stay home
sick more often than healthy colleagues, even when their disease is treated,
according to a Thomson Reuters report released on Tuesday.

The report,
commissioned by drug maker Sanofi Aventis, suggests that employers would
benefit from better treatments of their workers for depression. Depression is
the leading cause of disability among Americans aged 15 to 44, according to
the National Institute of Mental Health.

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ANTIDEPRESSANTS: Senate Orders Study on Military Suicides

“By voice vote, the Senate approved a Cardin-sponsored amendment to the 2010 defense authorization bill that would order an independent study by the National Institute of Mental Health on the potential relationship between suicide or suicide attempts and the use of antidepressants, anti-anxiety and other behavior-modifying prescription drugs.”

“That study is expected to take two years. In the meantime, Cardin’s amendment also would require a report every June from 2010 through 2015 giving the number and percentages of troops who are serving or have served in Iraq or Afghanistan who had prescriptions for antidepressants or similar drugs.”

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02/15/2001 – RISKING KIDS' HEALTH FOR SAKE OF SCIENCE – AT WHAT COST?

TWO city research institutions will extend their tentacles into our
communities today, looking for hundreds of kids, some as young as 3, to use
as guinea pigs.

The experiments, to determine the safety and efficacy of Ritalin in
preschoolers, have advocates up in arms – they think researchers are playing
fast and loose with the brains of children.

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1/9/2000 – The Legal Drugging Of America

The big drugmakers will no doubt use these studies as additional
weapons in their ongoing war to make mood-altering drugs the solution
to all life’s problems. Our magazines are already stuffed with ads
portraying pharmaceutical giants as noble enterprises, engaged in
nothing but the pursuit of pure science and the public good. And our
television screens are filled with commercials for drugs to cure
shyness and so-called “social phobias.”

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