The Food and Drug Administration ordered drug makers yesterday to add warnings to antidepressant medications, saying the drugs increase the risk of suicidal thinking or behavior in some young adults. The drug labels, which have included similar warnings for adolescents and children since 2005, will now apply to people younger than 25.
The expanded warnings, which will appear in a black box displayed prominently on the prescribing information, are the strongest caution that regulators can impose. The drug agency also recommended that the labels remind doctors to balance this risk against the ‘clinical need’ for treatment and to mention that the drugs, which include well-known products like Paxil and Zoloft, are associated with no increased suicide risk in patients older than 25 and appear to reduce the risk in those older than 64.
Read the New York Times article on this news.