Antidepressant orders decrease 20 percent

This headline appears over a small article in the Dallas Morning News, bottom of page A13 today. This means there probably have been more suicides than there would have been without the intervention of Joe Barton (R-Ennis). A couple of years ago the Archives of General Psychiatry published an article looking at prescription of antidepressants in adolescents. Increasing prescription was correlated with a drop in completed suicides in the geographical areas surveyed from 1991 - 2001. Meanwhile, U.S. MEDICINE reported that an FDA official, a physician, testified as a an expert witness in malpractice litigation involving Zoloft and his office at the FDA was stripped of its $400,00 budget by Joe Barton, head of the Commerce Committee, who controls the budget there, and who recently subpoenaed e-mails at the FDA. Congressman Barton, subsequent to his stripping of the official's budget, 'Wanted answers as to the dangers of antidepressants.' 'Yes, Sir,' FDA officials said, and he got answers. The 'answers' Mr. Barton wanted were not hid in the back of the teacher's book. Dr. RH Weisler reports reviewing data that pollution releases from chemical plants have been correlated with an increase in incidents of child abuse and of other psychopathologies. It would be interesting to see if this research might apply to the Texas Industries plants burning tires in Mr. Barton's district, contributing so much to Dallas pollution.