Children and Parents To Go Before the FDA
Contact Information:
Patricia Weathers: 845-677-8115
Sheila Matthews: 203-966-8419
Victims of the massed marketed antidepressant industry will go before the FDA on February 2, 2003 to place on the record their own personal tragedies of violent behaviors, induced suicide, and deaths associated with the use of antidepressants in children. These parents and children will attempt to get the FDA to recognize the very real dangers that can occur when using many of today’s SSRI’s, also known as Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors. The overall hope of these victims is that the FDA will step up to the plate, in much the same way as the UK recently did, by delivering a no nonsense blow to the pharmaceutical industry, altogether banning all but one SSRI for use in children. At the very least, parents hope that the FDA will take some constructive action to protect children in the U.S. Sadly these hopes are being questioned, in lieu of the FDA’s recent choice of a panel review committee with some members clearly tied into the pharmaceutical industry itself.
Just weeks before these hearings, a new study appeared in the printed media. The psychiatric industry uses statistics in its latest attempt to debunk the link between antidepressants and suicide. Even the New York Times has questioned the release and validity of such a study and questions the timing of its release.
The end result is, that no matter how you twist and turn the numbers, one thing that cannot be explained away is the violent behaviors, and in some cases even deaths associated with the use of antidepressants. Parents are in for a bumpy ride, clearly up against the billion dollar psychiatric and drug industries choke hold on an overwhelmingly unsuspecting American public. The question is; will the FDA ask the psychiatric industry to support its latest claims with actual evidence, or will it play the numbers game as well? Parents will fight for answers not just numbers. They ask for accountability in hopes that the profits on Wall Street do not override the safety of our future investment, our American Children. Our organization www.ablechild.org proudly supports the parents that go before the FDA and take a stand for children. For more information, please visit www.ablechild.org