Archive | Mental Illness RSS feed for this section

Evidence of Harm

9 Aug

A new Cochrane Review looks at the issue of SSRI’s in use for autistic populations.

OBJECTIVES: To determine if treatment with an SSRI: 1. improves the core features of autism (social interaction, communication and behavioural problems); 2. improves other non-core aspects of behaviour or function such as self-injurious behaviour; 3. improves the quality of life of children and their carers; 4. has short and long term effects on outcome; 5. causes harms.

SSRIs (Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) do exactly what they say – they combat depression by ‘boosting’ serotonin. They are usually fairly effective in that role, although not all people with depressive tendencies use SSRIs, the majority tolerate them well. The most famous SSRI is Prozac.

The outcome of the study was:

There is no evidence of effect of SSRIs in children and emerging evidence of harm. There is limited evidence of the effectiveness of SSRIs in adults from small studies in which risk of bias is unclear

This is worrying. It indicates to me that autistic people are being treated for autism with SSRIs. Bearing in mind I haven’t read the full paper, it does read to me as though we are verging into the territory of chemical cosh.

A chemical cosh is shorthand for the administration of drugs to people who don;t actually require its benefit but who are kept quiet by its effects or side effects. This isn’t the fault of the drug or even the manufacturer but the prescriber. This is also not a situation unique to autism but is frequently found throughout all areas of mental health.