http://www.ragged-edge-mag.com/departments/mediacircusblog/000604.html

Why Would The U. S. Food & Drug Administration
Approve False Advertising?

Why would the U. S. Food and Drug Administration
approve false ads for the SSRI drugs?

The human rights group MindFreedom International
has been asking that question for a long time.

Millions of viewers have seen the TV ads for the anti-
depressant drug Zoloft. A bouncing ball turns from a
sad face to a happy face. Like many ads for similar
psychiatric drugs, the voice-over claims Zoloft helps
correct a "chemical imbalance."

Not true, say researchers. Not true at all.

The researchers -- Jeffrey Lacasse, a doctoral
candidate at Florida State University and
Dr. Jonathan Leo, a neuroanatomy professor at
Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine --
studied U. S. consumer advertisements for SSRIs
from print, television, and the Internet. They found
widespread claims that SSRIs restore the serotonin
balance of the brain. "Yet there is no such thing as
a scientifically established correct 'balance' of sero-
tonin," the authors say.

According to Lacasse and Leo, in the scientific liter-
ature it is openly admitted that the serotonin hypo-
thesis remains unconfirmed and that there is "a
growing body of medical literature casting doubt on
the serotonin hypothesis," which is not reflected in
the consumer ads.

The widely televised animated Zoloft (sertraline)
commercials have dramatized a serotonin imbalance
and stated, "Prescription Zoloft works to correct this
imbalance." Advertisements for other SSRIs, such
as Prozac (fluoxetine), Paxil (paroxetine), and
Lexapro (escitalopram), have made similar claims.

According to the Public Library of Science,

The FDA is responsible for regulating consumer
advertisements, and requires that they be based on
scientific evidence. Yet, according to Lacasse and
Leo, the mismatch between the scientific literature
and the SSRI advertisements is "remarkable, and
possibly unparalleled."

A news release from Mind Freedom says,

On behalf of MindFreedom, Sen. Ron Wyden (D.-OR)
contacted the FDA for an explanation about why they
approve such false advertising. In their response --
which took over one year -- the FDA could cite no
scientific literature or studies.

It turns out there's a good reason the FDA can't
find any scientific evidence for these ads.

The scientific evidence does not exist.

Read Serotonin and Depression: A Disconnect
between the Advertisements and the Scientific
Literature by Jeffrey R. Lacasse and Jonathan Leo.
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