September 25th, 2007 5:29 pm By Ed Silverman
It’s not clear who posted this pastiche of clips, but the message isn’t ambivalent - antidepressants can cause suicide and, in some cases, violence. The timing is interesting, too - this appears on YouTube (see below) just a week after a study is published in The American Journal of Psychiatry suggesting Black Box warnings on product labeling caused scrips to drop and suicides to rise.
The video contains TV clips about the controversy, snippets of an FDA meeting about the drugs, and interviews with now-familiar critics, including Harvard’s Joseph Glenmullen and David Healy of the University of Wales. The video opens and closes with a 911 call in which a New Jersey teen can be heard threatening to kill herself. This is not for the faint-hearted, and it’s likely to upset anyone who believes antidepressants can help people.
“These are stories from real families,” says Lisa Van Syckel, a self-stylist activist, whose family is heard in the 911 tape. “The media only provides a snippet - 30 seconds of a parent making a statement, and then there’s comment from the pharmaceutical industry or someone who’s conducted clinical trials. This clip gives you insight of what those families have endured.”