Well, the folks covered in the following article won’t need this, but I’ll probably find a use for it, personally.
WASHINGTON (AP)â€â€Federal regulators approved the first antidepressant skin patch on Tuesday, providing a different way to administer a drug already used by Parkinson’s disease patients.
The Food and Drug Administration approved the selegiline transdermal patch, agency spokeswoman Susan Cruzan said. The drug belongs to a class of medicines that is rarely a first or even second choice to treat depression.
Shoot. Not a first or second choice? Guess that leaves me out of the likely market. My problems are easily handled by the most mild anti-depressants out there.
The FDA will require the drug to bear a so-called “black-box” warning of the risks of suicidal thoughts and behaviors in children and adolescents treated with antidepressants. The drug is meant for use only by adults.
Honestly, I’ve always been surprised that anyone is surprised to hear people who are very depressed have suicidal thoughts when on the strongest anti-depressants. Really, if these people are depressed enough to need the stronger medicines, don’t they already fall in to the group of people likely to have suicidal thoughts? I don’t mean to make light of this, and I certainly don’t know enough about the statistics of various groups to know if there is any real meaning, but it doesn’t come as a shock to me that very depressed people sometimes have suicidal thoughts, even when medicated.
[tags]Anti-depressant, Depression patch[/tags]