Thursday, October 11, 2007

The Politics Behind Despair and Depression

On September 14, 2007, New York Times reporters Alex Berenson and Benedict Carey foiled, at least temporarily, Big Pharma and its psychiatry allies' attempt to eliminate the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warning label about increased suicidal thoughts and behaviors in minors using antidepressants.

Berenson and Carey refuted a September 2007 American Journal of Psychiatry article that had claimed an increase in the youth suicide rate in 2004 was related to declining antidepressant prescriptions for that group (caused by the FDA warning). Berenson and Carey reported that, in fact, in 2004 the "number of prescriptions for antidepressants in that group was basically unchanged and did not drop substantially." The New York Times did not, however, report that the lead author of the American Journal of Psychiatry article had served as an expert witness for Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, makers of the antidepressant Effexor.

While the recent smoke and mirrors of Big Pharma and the American Journal of Psychiatry was detected by The New York Times, the media, once again, is losing sight of a more important revelation: scientists currently agree that "the neurotransmitter-deficiency theory of depression"--the rationale for antidepressants--has no validity.

READ MORE @ HUFFINGTON POST