Dying for a cure

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Okay, so sometimes drugs have side effects. To get the cure you’re after you may have to put up with a little dry mouth, sweaty palms, itchy scalp, even nausea. But suicide?

The BOSTON GLOBE reports that Dr. Jonathan O. Cole, a Harvard psychiatrist, is criticizing drug companies and the Food and Drug Administration for failing to take seriously the possibility that, in a small percentage of cases, antidepressants can actually lead to suicide in patients with no prior history of self-slaying thoughts. Testifying in a suit charging that the drug Zoloft caused a 13-year-old boy to kill himself, Cole said he and other researchers suggested the possible link a decade ago. So far, however, no maker of these drugs has done a serious study to confirm, deny, or measure the incidence of antidepressant-induced suicide. With more than 84 million prescriptions a year for this family of drugs, even a rare side effect can add up to significant numbers.

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Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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