"Although patients get better when they take antidepressants, they also get better when they take a placebo, and the difference in improvement is not very great," lead researcher Irving Kirsch, a professor of psychology at the University of Hull in Great Britain, said in a prepared statement. "This means that depressed people can improve without chemical treatments," he added.

The researchers got their results by examining unpublished drug trial results done by the drug companies. They got the study results from the FDA through the Freedom of Information Act.

Not surprisingly, the drug companies aren't thrilled with the results of the review. A spokesperson from Prozac manufacturer Eli Lilly said the study "does not take into account that today more than 12,000 patients have participated in Prozac clinical trials and thousands of scientific papers have referenced Prozac, supporting its use in the treatment of depression."

GlaxoSmithKline, makers of Paxil, said, "This analysis has only examined a small subset of the total data available ... and this one study should not be used to cause unnecessary alarm and concern for patients."

The officially reported side effects of this drug are:

Common: bladder pain, chest pain, bloody or cloudy urine, cough producing mucus, difficulty breathing, fever or chills, painful, difficult, or burning urination, frequent urge to urinate, lower back or side pain, pounding in the ears, nervousness, shortness of breath, sneezing, slow or fast heartbeat, sore throat, wheezing, and tightness in chest.

Less common: bloody or cloudy urine, congestion, aches and pains, difficulty swallowing, dizziness, dryness of throat, frequent urge to urinate, fast heartbeat, hives, itching, hoarseness, numbness, puffiness or swelling of the eyelids or around the eyes, face, lips, or tongue, runny nose, skin rash, swollen glands in neck, tingling, trouble swallowing, tiredness or weakness, and voice changes.

Unknown incidence: blurred vision or other vision changes, severe and occasionally incapacitating bone, joint and/or muscle pain, eye redness and/or tenderness, heavy jaw feeling, loosening of a tooth, pain, swelling, or numbness in the mouth or jaw, sensitivity to light, severe eye pain, tearing.

"I don't disagree with anything Tom says," Travolta says in the July issue of W magazine, on newsstands Friday. "How would I have presented it? Maybe differently than how he did, but it doesn't matter. I still think that if you analyze most of the school shootings, it is not gun control. It is (psychotropic) drugs at the bottom of it."

It's true that many of the school shooters were on antidepressants and many - not just Scientologists like Travolta and Cruise - believe there is a link.

While taking the drugs themselves often causes psychotic reactions, it is also frequently the case that withdrawal from these drugs causes normally peaceful people to become violent and murderous.

I agree with John Travolta that we can't jump to the conclusion that lack of gun control is the cause of school shootings. Vermont has one of the most relaxed stances on gun control in the country and has one of the lowest violent crime rates in the country. The people who really want to go on a shooting rampage are going to get their guns illegally, anyway.

Do people want to blame guns because they can't face the fact that questionable medical treatment may be to blame for these horrors? How many more school shootings do we need to live through before someone says enough is enough when it comes to the overprescription of antidepressants in adolescents and teens?

You don't have to be a Scientologist to see that something is very wrong and needs to be changed within the psychiatric system.

Travolta Echoes Cruise on Psychiatry

The research and consulting firm surveyed 4,000 people by showing them visual storyboards of direct-to-consumer (DTC) TV ads and found that 36% recalled specific TV campaigns. That compares with 50% that recall specific print campaigns.

They've also found that people with the medical problem for which the drug is aimed recall the drug ad more often.

For example, 43% of people who suffer with osteoporosis recalled a TV ad for Fosamax Plus D compared with only 19% of non-sufferers.

It's amusing that while most countries have banned direct-to-consumer drug advertising (the United States and New Zealand are the only countries where this is legal and New Zealand is planning to ban it), the United States is performing studies to figure out how to make them more effective.

Study Finds TV Pharma Ads Less Effective Than Print

Fatal overdoses of methadone rose at a higher rate than those involving any other narcotic from 1999 through 2004, according to a recent study by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). The number of deaths from methadone in 2004 (3,849) represented a 390% rise from 1999, the study said.

Deadly abuse of methadone tops other prescription drugs

In an editorial note, the CDC researchers write: "Effective response to increasing fatal drug overdoses requires strengthening regulatory measures to reduce unsafe use of drugs, increasing physician awareness regarding appropriate pharmacologic treatment of pain and psychiatric problems, supporting best practices for treating drug dependence, and potentially modifying prescription drugs to reduce their potential for abuse."

Accidental drug-poisoning deaths on the rise

According to the new study, only two developed countries - the United States and New Zealand - allow drug companies as much unfettered access to the TV airwaves. In fact, the average American television viewer now spends 16 hours a year watching prescription drug ads, "far exceeding the average time spent with a primary care physician," Frosch's team said.

16 hours a year? For the most part, I watch drug ads for comic relief. It's always fun to see the new and uncreative ways they attempt to get around the possible side effects list that they are required by law to include.

Study Blasts TV Drug Ads

The jury is expected to return, possibly as soon as Tuesday, to decide punitive damages after also finding that Wyeth's conduct was "malicious, wanton, willful or oppressive or showed reckless indifference to the interest of others" in its failure to provide proper warnings about its HRT drugs, taken by millions of women to treat symptoms of menopause.

Wyeth loses Prempro trial, to pay $1.5 million

Sen. Rudy Garcia has asked for a deferment of approval of the funds. He said:

"I'm very leery. 'Pay us now and we'll do great work, and then we'll do the best for the people of Florida' - I want to know exactly what that means ... Once we release the money, it's gone."

Others are concerned that taxpayers haven't been given enough information about the deal and how the money will be allocated.

Merck-cancer center deal rapped
Moffitt, Merck plan hits a snag
Full Disclosure Needed On Scope Of Moffitt-Merck Biotech Venture

Dr. Michael S. Okun, the medical director for the National Parkinson Foundation, said people taking Permax or Dostinex for Parkinson’s should be told about the new information and given a chance to switch to other drugs. He added that patients who were just starting treatment should be given other drugs. Safer, equally effective drugs are available, he said.

Studies Find Harm in 2 Parkinson’s Drugs

Researchers say the number is an underestimation since many adverse reactions go unreported or unrecognized.

"The numbers are quite troubling," said Jim Conway, senior vice president at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. The tally underscores that "there is a tremendous number of consumers in the United States taking medication."

Drug reactions send 700,000 yearly to ER

So far, Januvia appears free of the side effects -- such as serious gastrointestinal problems and weight gain -- that are found in older diabetes therapies. Many fear that could change when millions begin to use the drug.

Because there are so many people with diabetes, the drug companies and investors are anxious to make money off of the situation.

Deutsche Bank research analyst Barbara Ryan, in a recent note, called diabetes "hot, hot, hot" with a market size capable of supporting "multiple new blockbuster opportunities."

Isn't it great to know that your illness is "hot, hot, hot"?

FDA approves Merck's diabetes pill

Advertisements for Lunesta, the sleeping pill marketed with an animated moth by Sepracor Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., almost single-handedly turned around a slide in the industry's drug-ad spending from the first six months of last year to the same period this year, according to TNS Media Intelligence.

On the wings of a moth

Doctors said the lack of a warning could mean that patients may face a sudden withdrawal that can spur suicidal thoughts, shooting pain and flu-like symptoms. The Paxil CR pills Glaxo recalled can cause severe withdrawal symptoms, said Stephen Ellen of the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Peter Lurie of advocacy group Public Citizen said: "To the extent patients learn of it, they're likely to return distributed inventory and that's going to cost the company money. This way the company gets to say they did a recall, they dump the responsibility on intermediaries, and the patient most likely hears nothing."

Glaxo didn't tell of Paxil recall

While the market as a treatment for the cancer, also called CTCL, is limited, Merck is studying the drug as a tumor-fighting treatment in many other cancers, including of the breast and lung. Additional approvals from the FDA could vastly expand the market for the drug, also known as vorinostat.

Merck cancer drug approved