Anti Depressants Double Suicidal thoughts

Antidepressants appear to double the risk of suicidal thoughts and actions in children who take them, US regulators said in a study outlining the methodology used for a 2004 report that led to warnings on drugs including Eli Lilly & Co.’s Prozac and GlaxoSmithKline’s Paxil. The Food and Drug Administration first presented the findings, detailed yesterday in the Archives of General Psychiatry, to an advisory panel in September 2004. The agency followed with a requirement that makers of antidepressants warn patients and doctors. The warning led to a 20 percent drop in antidepressant prescriptions for children between March 2004 and June 2005, according to Psychiatric News, the newspaper of the American Psychiatric Association. (Bloomberg)

Specialists debate use of masks in flu crisis
How much protection would a face mask offer during a worldwide flu epidemic? And would people need a fresh one every day or even every few hours? There aren’t clear answers, public health specialists said yesterday as the Institute of Medicine grappled with what advice to offer the federal government. Health workers use masks to prevent infection while caring for sick patients, but the public undoubtedly will turn to masks as well if a flu pandemic strikes, and specialists say supplies will quickly run short. (AP)

Sheehan arrested in N.Y. at protest at UN
Antiwar protester Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq, was arrested in New York yesterday for blocking an entrance to the building that includes the US mission to the United Nations. New York Police Detective Kevin Czartoryski said Sheehan, 48, was charged with criminal trespass and resisting arrest. Three other protesters were arrested with her and face similar charges. (Bloomberg)

Justices sidestep case of grandparents’ rights
The Supreme Court yesterday refused to consider making it harder for grandparents to win visitation rights, rejecting an appeal from a father who went to jail to fight a court-ordered visitation. Brian Collier had asked the justices to strike down Ohio visitation laws, on grounds that they interfere with parents’ rights to raise their families free from government interference. (AP)

Georgia

Suspicious powder found to be a cleaner
ATLANTA — A white powder that sent a scare through the Georgia Capitol complex after two employees complained it made them sick turned out to be a nonhazardous cleaning agent, officials said yesterday. Five people were decontaminated after an employee in the mailroom at the Department of Corrections found the substance stuffed into four or five manila envelopes in a mailbag that came from a state prison. (AP)

© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company