How the FDA helps to sell the drugs it approves

While there’s a lot of drug advertising going on, Big Pharma still has to watch what it says. And watch it very carefully.

And when they don’t, there are big fines to pay.

So when a popular health website publishes an article pitching the advantages of antidepressant drugs for kids, telling about the “benefits” in a big way, you might think the company involved is taking a risk.

And you’d be right. Except this website isn’t from a company at all.

It’s from the FDA.

In an article about childhood depression that first appeared on its home page, the FDA’s Dr. Mitchel Mathis gives us the hard sell on Prozac for kids.

He says that “a lot of kids respond very well to drugs.” And that “medications help patients” recover fast and “more completely.”

And Dr. Mathis warns that if depression in kids is left untreated, they can fail in school and “lose all of their friends.”

Dr. Mathis admits that kids on antidepressants “might have more suicidal thoughts,” which is why these drugs have a black box warning about that. But he reminds us that the scary-sounding warning “does not say not to treat children,” just to be on the lookout for “signs of suicidality.”

Remember, this is the same agency that gave the okay for Prozac to be prescribed to these kids. Kids as young as 7!

Isn’t it enough that the FDA held Eli Lilly’s hand and walked it through that approval? Should it also be on its sales team, too?

And one more thing…

On a personal note, one of the smartest, bravest, most talented women I know (and am lucky enough to be related to) is celebrating a milestone birthday today. She would kill me for doing this so I won’t say her name. Happy Birthday, M. I love you.

Sources:
“FDA: Don’t leave childhood depression untreated” FDA Consumer Updates, fda.gov