depression
grrlscientist | September 10, 2007tags: suicide, world suicide prevention day, mental health, depression, bipolar disorder
Suicide is a major public health issue and accounts for nearly 3% of all deaths worldwide -- around the world, one million people will die by suicide this year. But suicide is a taboo subject that many people, regardless of age, sex, socioeconomic status or religious and cultural affiliations, are ashamed of, and rarely speak about. This veil of secrecy leads to needless deaths worldwide. So as a result, today was designated as World Suicide Prevention Day, which is designed to raise public awareness of…
grrlscientist | September 6, 2007tags: researchblogging.org, mental health, suicide, depression, bipolar disorder, SSRIs, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, antidepressants, FDA black-box warning
Prozac.
Image: Tom Varco
After a 2003 report linking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, with increased suicide rates among children and teen agers was published, the use of this class of antidepressants in these age groups has decreased dramatically. This led to a change in labeling in 2003 that warned that use of the medications could increase suicidal thoughts and behavior among youths. Sadly, this 'black…
purepedantry | July 17, 2007Ronald Bailey at Reason has an article about the costs of the FDA black box warning on antidepressants:
Excessive caution is risky, too. Back in 1992, Congress, worried about the slow rate of approvals, passed legislation imposing FDA user fees on pharmaceutical companies. Flush with these new funds the agency hired 1000 additional drug reviewers and slashed new drug review time from 30 months to 15 months. Now critics claim that the FDA is in the thrall of drug companies and is endangering the public's health by rushing dangerous new drugs onto the market. As evidence they cite the dangerous…
purepedantry | August 22, 2006Before, I talk about a mouse model that is resistant to depression, I think I had better talk about mouse models of depression so that everyone is on the same page. If you ask a nonscientist whether they think there can be a mouse model of depression, you would probably get a raised eyebrow if the person didn't totally laugh in your face. But mouse models of depression -- ridiculous as they may sound -- are actually important learning tools for understanding the disease...that is as long as you think of them in context.
How would we define a mouse model of depression? Well, since it is…