Valerie Rojas
LV Life Editor
Last month two advisory committees of the Food and Drug Administration recommended that the manufacturers of 10 antidepressants strengthen the warnings that are distributed with their products, to monitor the possible emergence of worsening depression or suicidal thoughts and behavior in the patients’ using the drugs.
Prozac, Paxil, Luvox, Celexa, Lexapro, Wellbutrin, Effexor, Serzone, Remeron and Zoloft, the drug most commonly prescribed for children, are recommended to include warning statements.
The warnings would urge adult and pediatric patients to be closely observed while under treatment involving these antidepressants, since they have been linked to actually worsening depression and possibly resulting in suicide, especially in children and adolescents.
The committees are urging the warning to be placed in a black box and be included on the insert containing detailed information about the specific drug, which is provided to the physician by the drug manufacturer. It is hoped that the black-box warning could possibly prevent doctors from prescribing these drugs to patients, particularly children and adolescents, without heavy consideration.
Although the FDA is not required to accept the panels’ urging to push a warning, they most likely will.
Antidepressants seem to be a popular form of treatment for those suffering from bouts of depression but also for psychiatric and non-psychiatric disorders. Just last year, doctors wrote an average of 15 million prescriptions for nine antidepressants for children and teenagers, according to IMS Health. The FDA is not urging those who are currently using antidepressants to forego their prescribed treatment, but just to take their medication with caution. The appearance of suicide and worsened depression was not common in all who are taking these drugs, but only in some, particularly adolescents and pre-adolescents.
But still, the threat of suicide remains.
According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, a suicide attempt is made every minute and every 18 minutes a suicide is completed successfully. More than 29,000 people in the United States kill themselves each year.
Suicide is the second leading cause of death among college age students. It is a second only to car accidents.
Although some students may suffer from depression, they are not necessarily at risk for committing suicide.
“Not every depressed student is going to be suicidal,” said Richard Rogers, associate professor of psychology and director of the counseling center at the University of La Verne.
According to Rogers, roughly 15 students are using antidepressants to cope with some form of depression on the ULV campus.
There are various types of depression that affect the population and require forms of treatment including the help of antidepressants or talk therapy.
Major Depressive Disorder is the most severe form of depression and those with this disorder are most likely to need medication.
People experiencing this disorder may suffer from impaired social and academic functioning and withdrawal.
Dysthymic Disorder is a longer lasting form of depression and patients can display symptoms of this disorder for nearly two years.
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association, children and adolescents may display warning signs for just a year before being diagnosed.
Adjustment disorder with depressed mood does not last very long, but it is rather common. It occurs when a stressful event triggers a depressed mood in a person.
According to Rogers, roughly 10 percent of the adult population in the United States may suffer from some form of depression in any given year.
“Not all of those people are going to get treatment. That is true for college students as well,” he said.
Aside from the use of medication, patients can undergo talk therapy sessions with trained professionals to deal with depression issues. Cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the most popular forms of this treatment.
Medication alone is usually not enough to help those dealing with depression. People can have recovery episodes with medication alone, but once they discontinue use of medication, they can get depressed again.
“Talk therapy helps that not to happen,” Rogers said.
At the same time, talk therapy is not enough to help the depressed on its own. When the depression is impairing biological functions such as sleeping patterns, medication is needed.
“Talk therapy usually is not enough. Medicine is there to help,” Rogers said.
The average antidepressant takes two to six weeks for improvement to be noticed and depending on the severity of the depression, six months to two years for improvements to be stable.
Although these drugs have helped those suffering from depression in many cases, experts have found that there have been instances where the drugs may worsen the depression and eventually cost the patient his life.
Valerie Rojas can be reached at skalivornia@hotmail.com.
