Epoch Times - Is Overprescription Fueling Veteran Suicides? | Derek Blumke
Aired: 2025-08-08
Duration: 01:44


=== Risks Undersold, Benefits Oversold (01:43) ===

[00:00:00]  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.
[00:00:10]  And the data supports that.
[00:00:11]  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.
[00:00:24]  And in these hearings, the entire debate was about efficacy.
[00:00:29]  The drug companies are required to submit two studies to the FDA for review.
[00:00:33]  They could have done 20 others, but they just needed to show two that showed some level of efficacy.
[00:00:38]  And when you read these entire transcripts, which I've done, the entire debate for these multi-hour meetings, hearings, were solely about efficacy.
[00:00:51]  And we have a belief that we can trust our government.
[00:00:54]  We believe that these medications are studied rigorously, that we are looking for not just efficacy but safety.
[00:01:03]  But what we now know is that that has not been happening, and it never was.
[00:01:07]  And now we have a suicide epidemic, not just of veterans, but of the entire American population.
[00:01:14]  Suicide rates have continued to skyrocket for all groups.
[00:01:18]  Young women, from 20 to 21, prescription rates of antidepressants went up by 130%.
[00:01:26]  For young women to age 24, went up by 60%.
[00:01:30]  And during that period, suicides of those groups spiked.
[00:01:35]  For young men, prescription rates stayed the same or declined slightly.
[00:01:40]  And we did not see the suicide spikes that we did with young boys and young men.