Today’s front page article on the likely Adderall-addiction, subsequent psychosis, then suicide of a young man, Richard Fee (whose parents report no childhood history of ADHD and who implored the young man’s physicians not to prescribe the amphetamines) follows the recent report of a suit against Zoloft alleging inefficacy as well as selective reporting of clinical trials.
Too near the end of today’s lengthy and heart-wrenching tale, the reporter contacted forty “experts” in ADHD; “almost every one…said that worst case scenarios like Richard Fee’s can occur with any medication…”
In the fifth paragraph nearer the end, the dead Fee’s father asks Jeffrey Katz, reportedly a psychologist and “…a national board member of Chadd,” about the drawbacks or dangers of misdiagnosis and then (mis-medicating). “Dr. Katz looked straight at the Fees as he answered, “Not Much….the medication itself is pretty innocuous.”
Read the piece in full. Let’s think about where we can help as analysts.
Click Here to Read: Drowned in a Stream of Prescriptions By Alan Sscharz in The New York Times on February 2, 2013.
–N. Szajnberg, MD Managing Editor.