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Monday, August 22, 2005Further concerns have been raised about potential suicidal side effects of a commonly used antidepressant. The drug Seroxat (paroxetine) [Paxil in the U.S. -ed] is already banned from use by adolescents because of an increased risk of suicidal thoughts. In Biomed Central journal, University of Oslo scientists said analysis of existing studies suggested these warnings should be extended to adults. But the numbers in the study (published in an "open access" journal - which is a nice change), are less than convincing. The authors looked at 16 studies that compared depressed patients treated with Paxil to those treated with placebo. Altogether, the sixteen studies represented 916 patients on Paxil and 550 on placebo. There were 7 suicide attempts in the Paxil group (0.7%), and 1 attempt in the placebo group (0.2%). Those are very small numbers gathered from pools of very small data from studies of various degrees of worth. It's extremely difficult to reach the conclusion that Paxil is dangerous based on this, especially when you consider that most suicides occur in people with untreated depression. As the head of the wonderfully named British mental health charity group, Sane, reminds us: "Seventy per cent of those being treated with the new anti-depressants respond well, and the risks of suicide from untreated depression must be borne in mind in balancing the risks and benefits." posted by Sydney on 8/22/2005 08:41:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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