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Babies fed SSRIs are at risk of lifelong anxiety or depression

I saw this in Discover in 2004, and could never find it after that when I needed it. So here it is. The writer of this article is obviously clueless as to the real efficacy (or lack thereof) of "antidepressants" as well as the harmful effects on people of all ages. But of all people who deserve protection, I'd say babies rank pretty darn high on that list, especially considering that their brains are still developing. At least here we have one more study that has somehow worked its way into the public domain despite its negative conclusions (in terms of drug company interests). Perhaps this will help prevent the drug companies from promoting their drugs as  "SIDS preventers" as we have seen they are getting close to trying next.

Newborn mice given Prozac grow up depressed

a.. 17:00 26 October 2004
b.. NewScientist. com news service
c.. Philip Cohen

http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn6579

Mice treated with the antidepressant Prozac early in life grow into adults with emotional problems, a new report concludes.
Whether the drug has the same effect on people is unknown. But the result will add to the growing debate over what risks Prozac (fluoxetine) and similar SSRI drugs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) pose for young children and unborn babies.

"If they really need these drugs, people should take them. They can be life savers," says Jay Gingrich, a psychiatrist at Columbia University in New York City, US, who led the research. "But it is a little bit alarming to find they might carry risks that aren't apparent until later in life."

Researchers began injecting mice with fluoxetine four days after birth until they were 21 days old. Nine weeks after their last injection, the adult animals were given a series of behavioural tests designed to assess their level of anxiety and depression.

The team found that rodents who received drug as newborns were more intimidated by new surroundings and moved more slowly to avoid painful shocks compared to controls. "They are more inhibited in novel situations," says Gingrich. "Extrapolating to people, we'd say the mice are showing symptoms of anxiety and depression or emotional problems."

Suicidal thoughts
"It's fascinating, " says Tim Oberlander, a developmental paediatrician at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. "It suggests these chemicals can cause crucial changes in the developing brain."

SSRIs work by increasing the level of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain and can be extremely effective in treating depression. They have been widely prescribed and make huge amounts of money for the drug companies that sell them.

But the drugs have become the focus of some controversy. Recently, for example, GlaxoSmithKline was accused of withholding data from clinical trials, the results of which suggested that depressed children taking their SSRI drug Paxil (paroxetine) had more suicidal thoughts than placebo controls.

The use of SSRIs by pregnant women has been considered safe. For example, studies have shown that these women give birth to babies of normal weights, with unimpaired cognitive and language skills. But more recent research has suggested these medications may cause subtle neurological changes in the developing fetus.

Two years ago, for example, Oberlander and his colleagues reported that babies exposed to SSRIs in the womb were less sensitive to pain. And earlier in 2004, other researchers reported that SSRI-exposed infants had altered sleep patterns and a higher incidence of tremors. But it is not clear if these effects disappear soon after birth.

Difficult decisions
Gingrich's work suggests that even transient treatment with Prozac - and potentially other SSRIs - can have lasting, paradoxical changes. Even though the drug can treat depression in adult mice, it seems to trigger symptoms of depression in mice exposed to it as newborns.

"It suggests that the immature nervous system responds very differently than a mature one to the same drug," he says.

Even with this new evidence, pregnant women with depression still face a difficult decision over whether or not to take SSRIs, says Gingrich. Being depressed carries its own risks to babies since it can lead to poor care-giving and self-harm.

"It's important to assess for each patient whether there are non-pharmacological ways of addressing these emotional problems, while we try to get a handle on what the risks really are," he says.

Journal reference: Science (vol 306, p 879)