RITALIN CAUSED SUICIDES IN CHILDREN. | ADHD Information
http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=5058"Ritalin – The Cover-Up Of Suicides
Janne Larsson
10/27/2005 12:48:46 PM
Treatment with Ritalin has caused suicides and suicide attempts in children.
The Medical Products Agency (MPA) in Sweden knew about “21 cases of attempted suicide and six suicides” but approved Ritalin anyway.
FDA has warned about “Suicide Ideation” in connection with Ritalin treatment – but didn’t FDA know about the suicides?
From the depths of the archives at the Swedish Medical Products Agency (MPA) some astonishing papers have emerged. Papers showing that Ritalin, prescribed to children with the diagnosis ADHD, causes depression and has led to suicides and suicide attempts.
The MPA knew about these disastrous effects when approving Ritalin for sales in Sweden June 15 this year. No warnings were given to physicians or the public.
FDA announced June 28 that Ritalin and other methylphenidate drugs had been linked to “visual hallucinations, suicidal ideation, psychotic behavior, as well as aggression or violent behaviour”. Nothing was said about suicides or suicide attempts.
The narcotic drug Ritalin has been withdrawn from the Swedish market for 37 years – since the abuse catastrophe in the 60-ties. But Swedish psychiatrists have in recent years demanded the right to prescribe Ritalin and other stimulants to children – with the false pretence that the narcotic drug for children with the diagnosis ADHD would work as insulin for persons with diabetes. The expert child psychiatrist at the MPA has led the campaign; he has assured the public there are no serious short-term or long-term side effects from stimulant treatment of children.
When the British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 2003 tried to get approval for children for its blockbuster drug Seroxat (Paxil) it was revealed that the company already five years earlier had known that the drug increased the suicide risk in children. This exposure led to the disapproval of the application and the British authorities instead banned Seroxat – should not be prescribed to children.
History seemed to be repeating itself when pharmaceutical company Novartis in 2004 was seeking approval for Ritalin for children in Sweden – a country in the unique position of having banned the drug already in the 60-ties. Novartis had not for many years had reason to turn in documentation in other countries, but they had to do it in Sweden. And in the submitted documents (written already year 2000!) it is under the heading SUICIDE revealed: “it is known that Ritalin therapy and its sudden discontinuation may cause depression in some patients…”
Under the same heading Novartis is also revealing: “A search of the Novartis international safety data base allowed the identification of 21 cases of attempted suicide and six suicides, in addition to 25 reports of suicidal ideations in patient aged 6-48 years, 56% of whom were children aged less than 16 years.”
But unlike the British authorities in the Seroxat case the Swedish MPA didn’t come to the defence of the children. Instead the MPA in June 2005 approved Ritalin, and covered up the information about suicides and suicide attempts! The public or physicians didn’t get any warnings.
And now the MPA has taken one step further: declared that the document telling about the suicides is classified information. It is decided, “the pharmaceutical company in question can be harmed” if access is granted to the documentation.
The agency supposed to be for the public is, under pressure from psychiatrists and a pharmaceutical company, approving a narcotic drug that can cause depression and suicide. It is then hiding the disastrous results to protect the company.
This medical scandal also involves the FDA. The agency can be expected to have known about the deadly effects of Ritalin – but did not act. What is buried in the files of the FDA?
Contact Information:
Janne Larsson
Writer – investigating psychiatry
Janne Larsson
08-7089342 (Sweden)
janne.olov.larsson@telia.com "
I'm reporting this behavior to the group leader. This constitutes FLOODING - you are putting the same article everywhere you go. That's not allowed. This must stop here and now. You don't want dissemination of information - you want things your way or no way.
No way.
spam causes retardation in posters.. I read it on stupid.org... it must be true.. we have some "resident troll retards"
"I won't disprove curus"
BECAUSE YOU CAN'T GLEN !!!
You brought up a report that was published a week before the FDA hearings on antidepressants. It claimed that there was no link between the drugs and suicide.
Well Glen, when the FDA meeting ended at 6 pm, Feb 2/04.... everyone one in that room, including the speakers, the public , the media and 9 of the 12 FDA panel members were FULLY CONVINCED THAT THERE WAS A DEFINITE LINK BETWEEN SSRIs AND SUICIDE.
The 3 FDA holdouts... Drs. Laughren, Katz and Temple personally collect far more money from the drug companies than the FDA pays them... AND THAT'S A FACT !!!
There are serious problems with the psychotropic drugs you push and I will continue to warn the people of the hidden dangers and negative side effects.
bugz,
How would explain the FACT that over 90% of "under !8" suicides involve SSRI and SNRI antidepressants ?
Can you explain why 2 clinical trial patients who were SPECIFICALLY SCREENED AS "NON DEPRESSED, NON SUICIDAL"... committed suicide during the clinical trials for Cymbalta.
There were 7 suicides among 4,224 clinical trial patients.
That's 1 per 600 patients.... about 14 times higher than normal.
there were? were you there? under 8? look loser, there are no stats for under 8. no one under 8 commits suicide. it is so rare that when it does happen it is huge news. So put up or shut up. 8 yr olds... cripes... look it is falling, chicken little was right... WRONG...come on chicken little , show us how many 8 yr olds committed suicide while on these meds. They won't give little kids these meds, your just a story monger creating as you go.. chicken little fails again.
don't try to pull the I mistyped and meant 18, you mean everything you can get your hands on. More suicides are from 20-28 than ANY AGE GROUP.
most stats have been the same relative to the population since before these drugs were used. maybe a little lower. so your arguement is old and worn out. no one has these stats but you, and you fabricate them.
bugzappers38659.8197916667 [QUOTE=reality]
bugz,
How would explain the FACT that over 90% of "under !8" suicides involve SSRI and SNRI antidepressants ?
That is NOT A FACT. you made it up. Maybe you need to seek professional assistance since your homeopathy of lashing out on here is not working...
YES IT IS BUGZ.... AND IT IS A TYPO.... IT'S "UNDER 18"
OVER 90% OF THE PEOPLE UNDER 18 YEARS OF AGE WHO COMMIT SUICIDE... ARE TAKING AN SSRI OR SNRI ANTIDEPRESSANT AT THE TIME.
IT'S A FACT !!!!
Reality,
Uh, maybe that because they were depressed to begin with??! And the treatment just did not work for them. Hello. Forget it, in my short time here I have already noticed that you listen to no one.
Buehler.......Buehler........Buehler.......
You must be a very lonely person. People whose only communication with others is argumentative and inflammatory usually have few friends. Maybe you need a hug. Go hug Curus and ADHDisbogus. Group hug!! 
And why is everything in an alternate website, nothing from the usual places.
I MEAN NOT EVERYTHING IS CONTAMINATED.. like you would have us believe.
oh, I know why. Because the stat is made up to begin with.
More suicides happen in teens with cars and guns and bridges, then all of stims for all age groups.
If you would like to argue the point, go for it.
but for me. It is over. This thread can die.
DON'T POST. LET THIS THREAD DIE..
Glen,
Surely you've got some statistics to disprove curus.... don't you ?
( I've got some in support of curus that I'll be showing you soon.)
With curus - as with you - I have no trouble you bringing in data that we can discuss. But with curus - and with you as well you don't just bring it in - you throw it around everywhere. That's not only rude it's not allowed.
I won't disprove curus or debate - I'm declogging the group.
You - I am also tired of debating. You say you bring data - you bring second hand reporting of data. I bring the actual data - you question who paid for it. Now - I watch and if you bother everyone - I remove you from the system too.
We need debate - not fear.
yawn,WARNING THIS IS A CUT AND PASTE AGAINST THE BS OF MEDS CAUSING SUICIDES
Antidepressants and Suicide
October 05 2004
Rebecca Goldin
The New York Times perpetuates a myth
The
controversy over prescribing antidepressants to children and teenagers
deepened last week, when a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory
committee recommended that the agency issue a “black box” warning to
doctors about the increased risk of suicidal behavior from taking such
drugs.
The panel tried to weigh the risk of suicide from
taking antidepressants against the risk from not taking
antidepressants. But the evidence under consideration was insufficient
to draw easy or strong conclusions, thus making the issue a complicated
one for the public to understand.
To make matters worse, the
media did not always promote a consistent story about these risks. For
instance, the New York Times reported that
But the paper also quoted Dr. Matthew V. Rudorfer, of the National Institute of Mental Health saying that about 15 percent of teenagers with untreated depression commit suicide. (This would imply that even more exhibit suicidal behavior.)
This level of suicide ought to have raised some eyebrows, given that 9.5% of the American population suffers from a depressive illness according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) ( the data is derived from Robins LN, Regier DA (Eds). Psychiatric Disorders in America, The Epidemiologic Catchment Area Study, 1990; New York: The Free Press). But the Times made no attempt to explain the huge disparity between the two rates or to press Rudorfer on the source of his claim. As a result, the paper perpetuated a long-standing myth in the study of depression and suicide.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the suicide rate among all deaths is approximately 1.2 percent. Broken down by age, the rates for 2000 (the most recent figures) are as follows: In 2000, 10.6 out of every 100,000 persons died by suicide [.01 percent].
For children age 10 to 14, the rate was 1.5 per 100,000 [.0015 percent]
For children 15 to 19, the rate was 8.2 deaths per 100,000 [.0082 percent]
For young adults age 20 to 24 years of age, the suicide rate was 12.8 per 100,000 [.0128 percent]. These are death rates for the entire population; in other words, a “random” 12-year old has a .0015 percent chance of committing suicide.
These rates are higher when you look only at those who are depressed (as depressed people tend to be more suicidal than those who are not depressed); nevertheless, the rates are still significantly less than 15 percent.
Research by Dr. Eve Moscicki, of NIMH finds that over 90 percent of suicides are related to depression, other mental disorders, and substance abuse disorders (often in combination with mental disorders). While the rate of depression among those who commit suicide is extremely high, there is some controversy over the percentage of depressed individuals who commit suicide.
Depending on what group of depressed individuals one is using, the rate of suicide is much less, or much much less, than 15 percent. According to NIMH the most recent data on depression, based on looking at sufferers over long periods of time suggests the following: Two percent of those treated for depression in an outpatient setting will die by suicide.
Four percent of those treated for depression in an inpatient hospital setting will commit suicide.
Six percent of those treated for depression as inpatients following a suicide attempt or “suicide ideation” will die by suicide. In other words, depressed people are more likely to commit suicide than the general population, people hospitalized for depression are even more likely to commit suicide, and people hospitalized due to an attempt to commit suicide form a group at even greater risk for committing suicide.
The original source of the suicide myth is a 1970 review and analysis of 17 studies of depressed patients by Guze and Robins (Br. Journal of Psychiatry), in which the authors concluded that 15 percent of depressed patients commit suicide. Two decades later another analysis reviewed 13 additional studies and concluded an even more alarming rate – 18.9 percent – of depressed patients were projected to die by suicide (Goodwin and Jamison, Suicide, in Manic Depressive Illness, Oxford University Press, 1990).
These figures were debunked by Drs. John Michael Bostwick and V. Shane Pankratz. (Affective Disorders and Suicide Risk: A Reexamination, American Journal of Psychiatry, December, 2000). As pointed out by these authors, there were several methodological problems in both of these studies.
The first significant problem is that the original studies use a very strict definition of depression. Their samples consist of patients who were almost exclusively in the highest risk category, having been hospitalized for suicidal behavior. In 1970, patients with mild to moderate levels of depression (who may be treated for depression under today’s definition of depression) were not considered depressed. The rates for suicide are skewed because the sample is more suicidal than the general population diagnosed with depression today.
The second mistake which led to the faulty number was more subtle. The high suicide rates were actually percentages of the dead who died by suicide (and not of the whole sample). This is also called the proportionate mortality prevalence. Proportionate mortality prevalence is a measure of conditional probability; it is the probability someone will have died by suicide given he/she is dead within the follow-up period of the study.
To illustrate the statistical error, suppose that 500 severely depressed patients are observed over six years. At the end of the time, suppose 100 patients have died, 25 from committing suicide. Given the methodology used in the original study, the conclusion is that 25 out of a hundred, or 25 percent of the patients died by suicide. But it is not clear that 25 percent of the remaining 400 patients will also die by suicide, as they have already survived six years.
Thus the risk of suicide might be (and has in fact been observed to be) much lower than 25 percent. This effect is exacerbated by short follow-up periods (often just a few years). The percentage of suicides among those who have died is disproportionately high in a short period of time, because there is less time for non-suicide deaths to occur.
A more accurate picture of the rate of death due to suicide would be obtained by following the patients over their whole lives. A simpler method would be to divide the number of suicide by the whole population – in our example, 25/500 or 5 percent. According to Bostwick and Pankratz, “The percentage of subjects dead due to suicide (case fatality prevalence) is a more appropriate estimate of suicide risk than the percentage of the dead who died by suicide (proportionate mortality prevalence).” Using the case fatality prevalence requires a reasonable follow-up period and presumes that suicides are much more likely to occur immediately after a hospitalization (within the follow-up period) than many years later.
Lastly, it seems apt to mention another misleading message given both by the New York Times and by Reuters in Yahoo! Health. Although both articles were about the use of antidepressants in children and teenagers, they quoted parents of young people on antidepressants who committed suicide aged 25 and 21, respectively. The message regarding the risk for children and teenagers (up to age 19) may be confused when mixed with examples of young adults, for whom the effectiveness of antidepressants against suicide was not in question.
This is for 'reality' -
I do not know about all the reports that you are posting, BUT I can say FROM EXPERIENCE that when I tried to commit suicide I WAS NOT on any anti-depressants. (That was many, many years ago). I can say that when I was perscribed the anti-depressants - after the fact - they WORKED!
Just my two cents worth!
By the way . . . how come you pop up every way with negative comments and attitudes when this is suppose to be a place of encouragement for those with or have children/spouse with ADHD?
personally I think Congress should rid of the FDA, have
the FMA Food-Medicine-Association which would be one
whom actually cares for the people.
Someone told me one time he worked for the FDA and that
he'd posion my food, or etc I didn't take that threat lightly,
threatned him back to literally close down the FDA.
Well if you all want to know I've done extensive research on SSRI's,
have read on like a few, I read that in long term use
like over the years it can cause damage.
SSRI's, stim works by increasing the firing of neurons.
by Paul Cheney M.D. basically it says for his article.
"Frying the brain"?. Anyways if you want to search Paul Cheney,
you'll find his article.
TheAlphaOmega38672.5643287037Wow, rehash and relive old arguements.FLAME WAR.