AMA supports youth antidepressant access

The Association advocates monitoring young patients on these drugs, calls for studies and recognizes suicide in this age group as a serious public health issue.

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff. July 18, 2005.

Chicago -- When Melvyn Sterling, MD, an internist from Orange, Calif., was the director of the emergency department for a university medical center, he treated thousands of suicide attempts among young people.

This experience, along with what he considers to be a continuing lack of conclusive evidence proving that the use of antidepressants by those younger than 18 increases suicide risk, led Dr. Sterling, also the chair of the American Medical Association's Council on Scientific Affairs, to support efforts to ensure that access to these drugs for this age group, when appropriate, is allowed to continue.

"To deny patients access to what could be the most important medication in their lives when the data is equivocal would be very, very sad," said Dr. Sterling, who presented the CSA's report on the subject at the AMA Annual Meeting in June.

In turn, AMA delegates endorsed the CSA's findings -- agreeing that these drugs should continue to be available if indicated by "prudent clinical judgment" and that well-designed studies are urgently needed to answer the question of whether there truly is a link between suicide and the use of these drugs.

Responding to concerns that the continuing controversy might have restricted access to those who need it, the AMA will also urge that the "black box" warnings added to these drugs in October 2004 be treated as precautionary statements that should require careful monitoring of patients but should not impede patient access. In addition, the AMA wants the Food and Drug Administration to evaluate the impact of the new warnings.