Danger of antidepressant medications

WRITTEN QUESTION

Submission: To the Commission

3 June 2003

Subject: Are widely available antidepressant medications dangerous for health?

After numerous reports of suicides and the appearance of withdrawal syndrome in individuals who used widely available antidepressant medications, including products like Prozac, the British government tasked the competent Medicines Safety Committee with reviewing their safety. The investigation comes as a result of a series of cases of individuals who experienced severe withdrawal syndrome and needed months to detoxify from medications of this category, as well as cases of suicides that appear to be linked to the use of these drugs.

The Committee is asked what measures it intends to take in order to fully clarify this serious issue through the conduct of larger-scale research at a European level and to monitor the degree of dependency that long-term use of antidepressant medications may cause in individuals.