Prozac for Children

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A new study shows that doctors are giving American kids two or three times more psychiatric drugs than they were 15 years ago. A handful of newer drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRI-s, is increasingly being used to treat depression and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and the US Food and Drug Administration has just approved the anti-depressant Prozac for 7 and 8 year-olds, even though Prozac appears to inhibit growth. Are the benefits worth the risks? What-s the role of drug manufacturers and insurance companies? We hear more about the increase in prescribing anti-depressants for young children, and weigh the risks and rewards, with psychiatrists, pediatricians and human development specialists. Newsmaker: Friendly Fire Trial Begins in Shreveport, Louisiana At Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, a hearing begins today into last year-s so-called friendly-fire incident in Afghanistan. Two pilots from the Illinois Air National Guard dropped a 500-pound bomb that killed four Canadian soldiers on the ground. Former Navy combat pilot Brad Knickerbocker is following the trial for the Christian Science Monitor. Reporter-s Notebook: Venezuelan Oiligarchy-s General Strike Though it has the western hemisphere-s largest crude oil reserves, 80% of Venezuela-s people live in poverty. Hugo Chavez was elected president in 1998, and reelected in 2000, with the support of the poor and a middle class fed up with the greed of the oil oligarchy. Polls now show that two-thirds of the country is fed up with Chavez. Mark Weisbrot of KnightRidder/Tribune Media reports that the polls are somewhat deceiving.
A new study shows that doctors are giving American kids two or three times more psychiatric drugs than they were 15 years ago. A handful of newer drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRI-s, is increasingly being used to treat depression and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and the US Food and Drug Administration has just approved the anti-depressant Prozac for 7 and 8 year-olds, even though Prozac appears to inhibit growth. Are the benefits worth the risks? What-s the role of drug manufacturers and insurance companies? We hear more about the increase in prescribing anti-depressants for young children, and weigh the risks and rewards, with psychiatrists, pediatricians and human development specialists.
  • Newsmaker: Friendly Fire Trial Begins in Shreveport, Louisiana
    At Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, a hearing begins today into last year-s so-called friendly-fire incident in Afghanistan. Two pilots from the Illinois Air National Guard dropped a 500-pound bomb that killed four Canadian soldiers on the ground. Former Navy combat pilot Brad Knickerbocker is following the trial for the Christian Science Monitor.
  • Reporter-s Notebook: Venezuelan Oiligarchy-s General Strike
    Though it has the western hemisphere-s largest crude oil reserves, 80% of Venezuela-s people live in poverty. Hugo Chavez was elected president in 1998, and reelected in 2000, with the support of the poor and a middle class fed up with the greed of the oil oligarchy. Polls now show that two-thirds of the country is fed up with Chavez. Mark Weisbrot of KnightRidder/Tribune Media reports that the polls are somewhat deceiving.

Prozac

Eli Lilly and Company

National Institute of Mental Health

US Food and Drug Administration

Government of Venezuela (in Spanish)

Credits

Host:

Warren Olney