For Immediate Release                   NEWS

Date:  July 7, 2005

Contact:   Senator Karen Johnson, R-Mesa, 602-926-3160

                Representative Cheryl Chase, D-Kearny, 602-926-5030

                 Senator Linda Gray, R-Glendale, 602-926-3376

                Representative Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, 602-926-5760

                 Senator Thayer Verschoor, R-Gilbert, 602-926-4136

LEGISLATORS SUPPORT PUBLICLY EXPRESSED CONCERNS OVER ANTIDEPRESSANTS

(State Capitol, Phoenix)  –   A key issue that the media seems to have overlooked in the recent controversy over antidepressant drugs is that while actor Tom Cruise has been able to sound the alarm bell about the serious dangers of these substances, government agencies charged with this responsibility have been slow to act.

On July 1, 2005, within days of Mr. Cruise’s statement on The Today Show calling attention to the potential dangers of antidepressants, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning that adults who use the drugs could be at increased risk of suicidal behavior. This follows an FDA mandate last October that these same drugs carry a “Black Box” warning that children and adolescents are at increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior taking these same drugs.

This, however, was long overdue. Since 1999 eight incidents of horrific school violence have been tied to children or adolescents on these drugs. The withdrawal effects of these drugs are also frightening. According to the book, Prozac Backlash, Arizona was chosen by pharmaceutical companies in 1996 to hold a “closed symposium” to discuss the growing concern about drug withdrawal effects.  Harvard Medical School’s Joseph Glenmullen, says the term "antidepressant discontinuation syndrome" was coined to avoid the “negative connotations of ‘withdrawal.’” This “sanitized term,” he said, “is the kind of well-funded obfuscation” that patients “frequently face when trying to get honest, reliable information on these powerful drugs.”

But the issue is not limited to anti-depressants. On June 28, 2005, three days prior to its announcement about antidepressants, the FDA issued a statement saying that it would make labeling changes to methylphenidate products such as Ritalin and Concerta describing “psychiatric events” such as suicidal ideation, hallucinations, aggression and violent and psychotic behavior. Yet this horse has long been out of the barn as well with more than 6 million American children on these stimulant – cocaine-like - drugs. Ritalin is a drug of abuse now in Arizona schools.

In the legislative session that recently concluded, legislators made a strong bipartisan effort to deal with the problems these drugs are causing for our school children.  Senate Bill 1270 would have simply required school officials to get parental consent before asking children to participate in mental health evaluations or asking them questions about their family’s mental health history.   Unfortunately, Governor Janet Napolitano, who often uses rhetoric about protecting children, vetoed the bill that would have done exactly that .  Her action allowed children to continue to be at risk from the employment of these potentially devastating drugs by being labeled through mental health evaluations without parents having a chance to be involved until after the fact. 

We will continue to work on these issues at the state level in an effort to have the Governor reconsider her ill-advised position on an issue so fundamental to the well-being of our children.  In the meantime, it must not be forgotten that it is the FDA’s responsibility to protect the public from unsafe drugs.  It is their duty to keep the public informed about their dangers and adverse side effects. We laud Mr. Cruise’s courage for speaking up but call on the FDA to get its house in order and do its job so that children and adults of this country are no longer at risk from the neglect of the Federal agency whose job it is to protect them. In this way, we can also assure better protection in our own state.

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