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Antidepressants may harm, FDA says

By TIMES WIRES
Published December 6, 2006

Health officials reported Tuesday that antidepressant medications appeared to increase significantly the risk of suicide attempts and related behaviors in adults under 25, while reducing such risks in older people.

The analysis, the most comprehensive and rigorous to date, found that suicidal behavior of any kind was rare and that all adults taking the medications were no more likely to kill themselves than those taking placebo pills. But after breaking down the data by age, agency analysts found that adults under 25 taking the drugs were more than twice as likely as those on placebos to report a suicide attempt, or to prepare for one.

The drugs appeared to reduce the risk of suicidal behavior significantly in people 65 and over.

The report was compiled by the Food and Drug Administration and posted on its Web site.  

More research points to stents' clotting risk 

WASHINGTON - Patients who have received a drug-coated stent to prop open an artery face double the risk of heart attack or death after they stop taking an anticlotting drug, researchers said Tuesday.

The findings mean patients may need to stay on medication beyond the three to six months currently recommended and possibly for the rest of their lives, scientists said.

The study, funded by the Department of Health and Human Services, was the latest to connect drug-coated stents to an increased risk of deadly blood clots. It was published online by the Journal of the American Medical Association.

A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee is scheduled to meet Thursday and Friday to consider how to address mounting safety concerns.

Superfund cleanup may not be effective

WASHINGTON - The Environmental Protection Agency cannot verify the effectiveness of its cleanup programs in a Montana town where residents have contracted asbestos-related illnesses in unusually large numbers, the agency's inspector general said Tuesday.

The agency needs to do more testing to be certain its cleanup in Libby, a Superfund site, reduces the risk that residents may become ill - or, if already ill, become sicker, the inspector general's office wrote in a report released by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.

The report could mean that hundreds of homes already cleaned by the EPA would need to be re-evaluated for safety. The EPA did not respond to requests for comment.

Health officials reported Tuesday that antidepressant medications appeared to increase significantly the risk of suicide attempts and related behaviors in adults under 25, while reducing such risks in older people.

The analysis, the most comprehensive and rigorous to date, found that suicidal behavior of any kind was rare and that all adults taking the medications were no more likely to kill themselves than those taking placebo pills. But after breaking down the data by age, agency analysts found that adults under 25 taking the drugs were more than twice as likely as those on placebos to report a suicide attempt, or to prepare for one.

The drugs appeared to reduce the risk of suicidal behavior significantly in people 65 and over.

The report was compiled by the Food and Drug Administration and posted on its Web site.

[Last modified December 6, 2006, 01:43:27]