One of the most pervasive untruths jointly promoted by the drug companies and the FDA is that equally valid scientific studies have shown that antidepressants cause suicidality in children and youth, but not in adults. This gross distortion of the truth expands into falsely suggesting that antidepressants may even reduce suicidality in older adults. All of this appears in the FDA-approved Full Prescribing Information for all the antidepressants, such as Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Celexa, Lexapro, Effexor, and Wellbutrin. 

Prescribers unwittingly pass on these untruths in order to allay the fears of adults to whom they are prescribing antidepressants. However, there is no comparison between the relatively scientific FDA studies of antidepressant-induced suicide in children and the self-interested drug-company studies of antidepressant-induced suicide in adults. The child studies were organized, monitored and validated by the FDA; but the adult studies were left to the manipulations of the drug companies, who on their own have never been able to admit that their drugs cause suicidal behavior in children or adults. 

Read all about this FDA/drug-company fraud in my latest report on Mad in America, called “How FDA Avoided Finding Adult Antidepressant Suicidality.” 

The blog already has more than 3,000 viewers. Also, please do not forget my free and constantly growing Resource Center, www.123antidepressants.com, where you can find dozens of scientific articles on dozens of subjects including antidepressant-induced suicide and violence in children and in adults.

The most recent Dr. Peter Breggin Hour radio show, where I interviewed my evolving “business partner” nutritionist Pam Popper, turned out to be a stunner. Pam describes how I am becoming her partner in her plans to turn around the whole system of delivering healthcare services in America. That is not pie-in-the-sky. Pam is planning, and beginning to implement, clinics that will deliver truly holistic services with nutritional approaches and entirely drug-free mental health services, backed up by science-based medicine where it is truly scientific.

My upcoming radio broadcast on Wednesday June 7 features an interview with Kim Olver. Kim is a psychotherapist and ‎Executive Director of The William Glasser Institute and will talk with me and you about Choice Theory as a basis for psychotherapy. It will of course be archived. 

Our Center for the Study of Empathic Therapy is cosponsoring The William Glasser Institute annual conference in Raleigh, North Carolina, July 26-29, 2017. As conference cosponsor, I have invited Robert Whitaker, author of Anatomy of an Epidemic, and creator of MadinAmerica.com, to join me in presenting a full day workshop on July 26. Imagine spending a full day with Bob and me! As icing, I will give the luncheon talk on July 28. 

I hope you are finding these Frequent Alerts useful and please sign up to receive them by email (see below). My goal is to deliver at least one per week, usually on Monday to begin your week.

Before finishing, let me share with you something I wrote to a friend today: “Profound disappointment like ours is rooted in even more profound wishes for a better and more loving world.”  Thank you, and have a wonderful week!

Peter R. Breggin, MD