people could die
Top Food and Drug Administration officials admitted yesterday that they barred the agency's top expert from testifying at a public hearing about his conclusion that antidepressants cause children to become suicidal because they viewed his findings as alarmist and premature.
"It would have been entirely inappropriate to present as an F.D.A. conclusion an analysis of data that were not ripe," Dr. Robert Temple, the Food and Drug Administration's associate director of medical policy, said in an interview. "This is a very serious matter. If you get it wrong and over-discourage the use of these medicines, people could die."
Gardiner Harris/NYTimes Apr.16.04
All other things being equal - chance of death from drug-driven suicide, chance of death from depression-driven suicide - we'll go with the profit-driven drug dispensers.________________
If you can't use the pills, how are you going to treat the ills?
Phillip Hodson, fellow of the BACP, said that introducing counsellors to schools would help the Government to meet its recruitment targets for the teaching profession. 'It would make teaching more attractive. Teachers could concentrate on being teachers,' Hodson said.
He pointed out that there had recently been a spate of concerns about whether children should be prescribed anti-depressants and that many experts doubted whether they worked.
'If you look at the prescription of anti-depressants, they've doubled in something like 10 years,' Hodson said. 'But if they don't work, what are you going to do? If you can't use the pills, how are you going to treat the ills?'
Mark Prever, a counsellor who works with schoolchildren in Birmingham, said the strains of modern society meant that counselling was increasingly necessary for today's pupils.
'It is hard for children growing up now. The pressures on young people are considerable. For me, counselling should be something you're entitled to, no matter what your age. Older people can buy counselling, but young people don't have the money.'
Jamie Doward/Observer Apr.18.04
