Prozac Use Approved for Depressed Kids

Prozac, the serotonin-boosting antidepressant drug, has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat depression in children.

Although the drug, made by Eli Lilly & Co., was not initially intended for children, psychiatrists have prescribed it for children in the past despite a lack of research to prove its effectiveness.

Now, the FDA has stated that there is proof that Prozac eases depression in children aged 8 years and older. The drug's label will now include child-specific information, which may make doctors, rather than just depression specialists, more likely to prescribe it.

Depression affects close to 25 percent of U.S. children and eight percent of teenagers.

Prozac has also been approved to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder in children. The disorder affects about two percent of Americans, and at least one-third of these cases began during childhood.

While some Prozac side effects, including tiredness, nervousness, dizziness and difficulty concentrating, are similar for adults and children, the drug was found to affect growth in children and teenagers.

Children and teenagers who took Prozac grew about a half inch less in height and 2 pounds less in weight over a 19-week period than children who took a placebo. It is not known whether this effect continues in the long-term; Eli Lilly is further researching these findings.

Reportedly, psychiatrists favored Prozac's FDA approval for children. Drug manufacturers do not have much reason to study the effects of adult drugs in children, as many times doctors prescribe the medications without such research.

The FDA has tried to require more pediatric testing, but the requirement was recently thrown out by a federal court.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) January 3, 2003

DR. MERCOLA'S COMMENT: Now one-quarter of American children are officially candidates for Prozac. The drug's manufacturer, Eli Lilly, claims that they don't plan on marketing the drug for children, but who paid for the research to get it approved for children in the first place?

Lilly is the same company who, a few short weeks ago, skirted vaccine-related liability through the last minute addition of an amendment to the Homeland Security Bill. The amendment protects Lilly, which manufactured the mercury-containing preservative that was inserted into many vaccines, from any related liability, despite the belief by many that the mercury-laden vaccines have contributed to autism in tens of thousands of children. More information at www.mercola.com

PROZAC (fluoxetine)
Profile: Manufactured by Eli Lilly. Designed as a 'mood brightener', released in 1987 and instantly became part of Hollywood chic. Prozac is now routinely prescribed to 'problem' children. Side-effects can include abnormal dreams, bronchitis, agitation, chills, diarrhoea, dizziness, loss of appetite, paranoid reaction and insomnia (Physician's Desk Reference). The side-effects list for Prozac in the PDR runs to over 100 adverse reactions.

Sales of Prozac reached $125 million in 1988 and $350 million the following year. The drug attracted massive publicity, both in support and condemnation. In 1993, Peter Kramer, a columnist for the Psychiatric Times, wrote his bestseller Listening to Prozac, in support of the drug. In spite of 160 lawsuits brought against the manufacturer for alleged suicidal or violent reactions to their product, Eli Lilly's sales of Prozac in 1993 reached a staggering $1.2 billion.

The medical journal Cancer Research published research which demonstrated that Prozac and other anti-depressants "bind to growth-regulatory… receptors", propagating malignant cancer growth in rats. Interestingly, it appears that the famous American 'Delaney Amendment', designed to outlaw consumption of drugs which provoke cancer at any dosage, was not invoked in the case of Prozac.

Extracted from The Mind Game by Phillip Day
Available through www.credence.org