Interesting news report on new study:

http://www.newsday.com/news/health/ny-hssuic223636765jan22,0,4857636.story?coll=
ny-health-headlines

*****************
Panel: SSRIs Don't Raise Risk of Child Suicides
By Jamie Talan
STAFF WRITER

January 22, 2004

Antidepressants in children and adolescents can be effective and do
not increase the risk of suicidal behavior, according to a report by
scientists at the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.

Yesterday, the elite research association published a preliminary
report by a task force convened to address the issue of a possible
link between selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors, SSRI
antidepressants, and suicidal behavior in children and adolescents.

<snip>

"We can't think of a good reason why one SSRI [Prozac] should work
better than another," said Dr. J. John Mann, a professor of psychiatry
at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York
and the other co-chairman of the task force.
*******************

About Co-Chairman of the Taskforce Dr. J. John Mann:

Joseph John Mann, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Radiology,
Columbia University; Chief of the Division of Neuroscience and Chair
of the Department of Neuroscience at New York Psychiatric Institute,
New York, NY.   Presenter at the American Foundation for Suicide
Prevention's National Conference whose program was partially supported
by program was sponsored in part by Forest Laboratories,
GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen Pharmaceutica, Organon Pharmaceuticals,
Pfizer, Solvay Pharmaceuticals, and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals.
(http://www.afsp.org/survivor/conference02.htm; accessed 01/20/04)  
Attended a 2002 GlaxoSmithKline Advisory meeting on lamotrigine.
(Preliminary Report of the Task Force on SSRIs and Suicidal Behavior
in Youth, American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, January 21,
2004, p.16; On file with CSPI)    Acted as a consultant and as an
expert witness for Pfizer for the drug Zoloft (Sertraline), submitting
a deposition for the company in 2000. Acted as an expert witness
SmithKline Beecham (now GlaxoSmithKline). nbspIn 1990, Dr. Mann
persuaded Eli Lilly to fund a small study on the safety and biological
mechanisms of action in norepinephrine and serotonin reuptake
inhibitor antidepressants.(http://www.healyprozac.com/Trials/Tobin/Transcripts/5-31%20Suhaney-Mann.txt,
pg. 1622; accessed 01/19/04)  Research involving all suicide victims
in the Kiskunhalas region of Hungary received three years of funding
from Janssen Pharmaceutica, Inc.
(http://www.hu.afsp.org/english/fr_hun_eng.htm; accessed 01/19/03)
Ran a symposia at the 2001 annual meeting of the American Psychiatric
Association on suicide risk and bipolar disorder that was partially
supported by Solvay Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
(http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/36/4/8; accessed
01/20/03)

No conspiracy here, eh?

TC