As for antidepressants, between 1995 and 1999, the use of these for 7- to 12-year-olds in the United States increased 151% and 580% for children under six, resulting in some as young as five committing suicide. In 2003, the British medicine regulatory agency warned doctors not to prescribe Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants for under 18-year-olds because of the risk of suicide.

Following that warning, an FDA Public Health Advisory of March 22, 2004 stated, �Anxiety, agitation, panic attacks, insomnia, irritability, hostility, impulsivity, akathisia (severe restlessness), hypomania and mania have been reported in adult and pediatric patients being treated with [SSRI]  antidepressants � both psychiatric and non- psychiatric.� Bizarre
dreams and violent be- havior have also been re- ported. The Australian, Canadian and European agencies also issued warnings. Then in October 2004, after parent testimonies of children killing themselves, the FDA ordered a �black box� warning of suicide risk be placed prominently on SSRI antidepressants.

However, such warnings came too late for Matt Miller and Cecily Bostock. Matt hanged himself in his bedroom closet after one week of taking an SSRI antidepressant. Cecily stabbed herself in the chest with a kitchen knife two weeks after she began taking an antidepressant. �To die in this violent, unusual manner without making a sound � [the drug] must have put her over the edge,� said Cecily�s mother, Sara.

�Black box� warnings will do nothing to stem the fact that children are dying, are killing others or being turned into addicts because of these and other psychiatric drugs. Their future will only be safeguarded when the unscientific �mental disorders� they are diagnosed with are abolished and dangerous psychotropic drugs are prohibited. 

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