| Time | Text |
|---|---|
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Risks Undersold, Benefits Oversold
00:01:43
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| So it sounds like you're saying that basically the benefits are oversold and the risks are undersold as a general pretty great way of summing that up. | |
| And the data supports that. | |
| When these medications first came to market, Dr. Daniel E. Casey, a psychiatrist of the Portland VA at that time, he also was the chair of the FDA's Psychopharmacological Drug Advisory Committee. | |
| And in these hearings, the entire debate was about efficacy. | |
| The drug companies are required to submit two studies to the FDA for review. | |
| They could have done 20 others, but they just needed to show two that showed some level of efficacy. | |
| And when you read these entire transcripts, which I've done, the entire debate for these multi-hour meetings, hearings, were solely about efficacy. | |
| And we have a belief that we can trust our government. | |
| We believe that these medications are studied rigorously, that we are looking for not just efficacy but safety. | |
| But what we now know is that that has not been happening, and it never was. | |
| And now we have a suicide epidemic, not just of veterans, but of the entire American population. | |
| Suicide rates have continued to skyrocket for all groups. | |
| Young women, from 20 to 21, prescription rates of antidepressants went up by 130%. | |
| For young women to age 24, went up by 60%. | |
| And during that period, suicides of those groups spiked. | |
| For young men, prescription rates stayed the same or declined slightly. | |
| And we did not see the suicide spikes that we did with young boys and young men. | |