Now BBC has grim doubts about ‘happy pills’

THE BBC’s Panorama programme was attacked last week by the President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists for alleged ‘scaremongering’. Why?

This gripping, tragic and carefully researched piece of work explored the mass murder of 12 people in a Colorado cinema, five years ago. It found that the killer – previously a shy, peaceable and awkward student – had undergone a huge personality change after being prescribed increasing doses of ‘antidepressant’ pills.

He suddenly became a gun enthusiast, his academic work went down the drain. He dyed his hair orange. He began making crude sexual remarks to women.

Now, varying personality changes are not all that uncommon in people who are prescribed these pills, as any careful reader of the newspapers will know. Sometimes they are mild, sometimes they are large. But they do suggest a problem that needs addressing.

The programme was careful not to say the pills caused the murders. How could we know? Proving that A caused B is, oddly enough, one of the most difficult tasks in science. But this is by no means the only case of a person taking ‘antidepressants’ going very badly off the rails.

Add to that the discovery a few years ago that the pill companies had (quite legally) suppressed their own research, showing their products were not as effective as claimed, and what do you have? You have a case for a thorough inquiry into the whole thing. It is not ‘scaremongering’ to ask for one and I’m very glad Panorama has brought this important subject right into the mainstream of debate. Others please copy.