Media statement
For immediate release
Thursday, 13 September 2007

Turner: 'Babies on drugs' questions remain

UnitedFuture deputy leader Judy Turner says troubling questions remain about New Zealand's pharmaceutical approach to mental health problems among the young.

"At the end of last week I publicly released some shocking statistics I had received in response to written questions on the level of antidepressants prescribed to children.

"The figures sent to me by the Government's drug-buying agency PHARMAC were that in the last few years the number of prescriptions for children under 6 years of age were as follows

0-1 years 1650
2-5 years 4626
6-9 years 4269

"PHARMAC now says there was some sort of data mis-match, and that in fact there were probably only about 10 children under the age of 6 getting antidepressants, based on the fact that there were 91 scripts issued to this cohort.

"How can even ten children under the age of 6 have experienced enough of life to get depressed about it?

"As far as I can ascertain, the figures for the 6 – 9 years group remain accurate.

"When you consider that even teenagers are not considered candidates for newer anti-depressants as they tend towards side-effects like suicidal tendencies, why would PHARMAC believe that their correction of the earlier data in any way fills me with relief?"

Antidepressants are used for conditions including severe depression, anxiety disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder and bulimia.

Professor Max Abbott, AUT University’s dean of health and environment has suggested that if it is true that children and young people are inappropriately being prescribed antidepressants, then prescribing restrictions may have to be considered.

"I have always been quietly concerned about how pharmaceutical solutions dominate NZ mental health treatments rather than psychological therapies.

"I am still unclear as to whether PHARMAC has just re-checked their numbers or whether there is any intention to follow through with identifying which doctors are prescribing these drugs to under 18 year olds and better still tracking down the patients to see if they have or are suffering side-effects," said Mrs Turner.

ENDS

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