." How many people who turned to "happy pills" would
not have done so if they had been fully aware of the
potential harms? "
To refer to anti-depressants as "happy pills" appears to
be an attempt to forge an association with drugs of
abuse . It should be noted there is zero market for
anti-depressants on the street. They do not make
non-patients happy. They do treat a serious disease.
One expects more from the BMJ editorial staff.
Competing interests:
Have studied
Anti-depressants for 50
years with academic
,industrial and federal
funding.
Competing interests:
No competing interests
21 February 2005
Donald F. Klein
Professor Psychiatry
Columbia University 1051 Riverside Drive NEW YORK NEW YORK USA 10032
Rapid Response:
Slanted Language
Kamran Abbasi asks,
." How many people who turned to "happy pills" would
not have done so if they had been fully aware of the
potential harms? "
To refer to anti-depressants as "happy pills" appears to
be an attempt to forge an association with drugs of
abuse . It should be noted there is zero market for
anti-depressants on the street. They do not make
non-patients happy. They do treat a serious disease.
One expects more from the BMJ editorial staff.
Competing interests:
Have studied
Anti-depressants for 50
years with academic
,industrial and federal
funding.
Competing interests: No competing interests