Why are these dangerous drugs that don’t even work for kids still used?

When a child or teen you love is suffering from depression, it can be a helpless feeling.

So when the mainstream comes along promising that an antidepressant can fix the problem, it’s no wonder so many well-meaning parents and grandparents go for it.

But now a major new study out of Oxford University has found that these antidepressants are worse than useless for kids.

That means millions of young people are being put in harm’s way right now for absolutely no benefit.

Even worse, they’re being told these hazardous, ineffective meds are the only option they have.

The depressing reality

This new Oxford study should be required reading for any mainstream doc even thinking about prescribing an antidepressant for kids.

Because it proved beyond a shadow of a doubt how worthless and dangerous meds are.

Researchers analyzed 34 different clinical trials that looked at antidepressant use in kids. And they found that 13 out of 14 drugs didn’t perform any better than a placebo.

That’s right — they didn’t work any better than doing nothing at all.

With all the kids on antidepressants now (more on that in a minute), that’s practically criminal. And, actually, the antidepressants may have performed even worse than we’ve been told.

You see, the Oxford researchers said that they couldn’t really rely on “the truthfulness” of the studies they analyzed.

That’s because more than 65 percent of the studies were funded by drugmakers, and 90 percent were considered by the researchers to be “biased” in favor of the drugs.

You read that right. Big Pharma was trying to rig the research in favor of its drugs — and they still didn’t work!

And while children (and plenty of adults, for that matter) aren’t getting any benefit out of taking antidepressants, they are being exposed to a laundry list of dangers.

That’s because these SSRI antidepressant meds like Paxil and Prozac all carry a black-box warning about suicidal thoughts and actions.

And believe it or not, in the eight years after the FDA slapped antidepressants with that black-box suicide risk, the proportion of kids prescribed antidepressants nearly doubled.

That’s the sheer madness of a system that will blindly accept a pharma solution to every problem, no matter what the consequences might be.

If you’re a parent or grandparent who’s concerned about depression in a child of any age, you need to know that the four strategies below have been found to be very successful.

1. Try non-drug solutions first. As the lead author of the new study points out, psychotherapy in the form of interpersonal therapy or cognitive behavioral therapy is the recommended first-line treatment for major depressive disorder.
2. Get tested. Anyone — child or adult — who suffers from depression needs a blood test to detect nutritional deficiencies, thyroid disorders, and other health issues that can trigger depression.
3. Get moving. Exercise is a must, and exercise in the form of team sports is even more likely to erase depression.
4. Start supplementing. A wide variety of supplemental nutrients have been shown to help people of all ages cope with depression. Vitamin D tops the list, along with omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin C, St. John’s wort, and 5-HTP.

None of these strategies are magic bullets. But we now know that they’re far more effective and certainly safer than the dangerous drugs Big Pharma sells us.

Sources:
“Study questions use of antidepressants for children, teens” HealthDay, June 9, 2016, nlm.nih.gov