BBC - Radio 4 - Woman's Hour - Anti-depressants

Last week the chief executive of the mental health charity MIND resigned from a review of modern anti-depressant drugs.

He had claimed that the British Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency failed to pass on concerns about the safe dosage level of the antidepressant Seroxat despite holding data which highlighted these concerns.

In return the Agency has said that these accusations do not tally with reality and that the MHRA is the only regulator in the world to have undertaken such a rigorous review of SSRIs (a type of antidepressant), and has delivered backed up advice at every stage.

It's estimated that up to 10% of the British population are currently taking some form of antidepressant. Two thirds of all the users in Britain are women.

Veronica O'Keane from the Department of Perinatal Psychiatry at the Maudsley Hospital and Richard Brook, Chief Executive of MIND join Jenni to discuss why more women than men are taking these pills and what the effects are.

For more information call the BBC Actionline on 0800 044 044.

OneLife - Anti-depressants
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MIND

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