FDA Issues Antidepressant Warning About Overdosing

Another reason you shouldn't rely on antidepressants to tame the negative emotions that harm your health: Earlier this week, the FDA issued a warning letter about increasing incidents of fatal overdosing via Effexor (venlafaxine HCI).

Although the letter didn't spell out how many overdoses were reported (other than they occurred most often when taken in combination with other drugs or alcohol), a notice issued by drugmaker Wyeth to physicians points to epidemiological studies that prove patients treated with Effexor have a higher preexisting burden of suicide risk factors than those who take SSRIs with dangerous side effects like Prozac and Paxil.

Although some analysts believe Wyeth will only be marginally affected economically, the letter may prompt physicians to use Effexor, considered the world's most lucrative antidepressant, only in the event other, perhaps equally as toxic, SSRIs fail to do the job.

And fail they often do, as researchers discovered more than a year ago. Some gentler treatments that will tame your emotions far more safely than a pill:

• Learning to use an energy psychology tool like the Emotional Freedom Technique, the one used daily in my practice.
• Taking a high quality fish or krill oil daily.
• Starting an exercise program today.