Posts Tagged ‘antidepressants’

Depression Drug Illegally Marketed to Kids, Kickbacks Paid, FDA Approved Anyway

depression drug, FDA, kickbacks

A five year probe of Forest Laboratories by the U.S. Justice Department into illegal marketing of Lexapro to children has an ironic twist to it: The FDA just approved the use of Lexapro for depression in children.

“Federal health care programs have paid thousands of false and fraudulent claims for Celexa and Lexapro prescriptions that were not covered for off-label pediatric use and/or were ineligible for payment as a result of illegal kickbacks paid by Forest.”

Fish on Prozac: This is Your Ocean on Drugs

the ocean on drugsMore than 200 million prescriptions for antidepressants are taken each year in the US, many of which end up in our ground water through patients’ excrement or from the pills being flushed down the toilet. According to Discover Magazine:

The concentrations of antidepressants in the water—billionths of a gram per liter—aren’t enough to affect larger species, but they are enough to make small fish

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