T04-31
August 20, 2004
FDA Updates Its Review of Antidepressant Drugs in Children
Agency Details
Plans to Present Data to Advisory Committees in September and Seek
Advice on Appropriate Regulatory Actions
As part of its commitment to keep the American public fully informed about the status of its review of data concerning the use of antidepressants in pediatric patients, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is issuing this update to provide health care providers and patients with the most current information on this topic.
FDA has completed a new analysis of pediatric suicidality (suicidal thoughts and actions) data submitted to the agency and will be posting its analysis on its web site. FDA will also be posting on its web site additional summaries of pediatric efficacy studies from drugs that have been studied in depression in pediatric patients. Although specific new labeling language has yet to be developed, FDA will assure that the labels of the antidepressants used in pediatric patients reflect the most recent information obtained from these studies and analyses.
Next month, on September 13 and 14, 2004, FDA officials will be discussing this issue at a public meeting of its Psychopharmacologic Drugs and Pediatric Advisory Committees, at which time the agency will hear from the public and solicit the advice of the committees on these labeling changes and other possible regulatory actions.
Background
FDA has been
closely reviewing the results of antidepressant studies in children since
June 2003, after an initial report
on studies
with paroxetine (Paxil) appeared to suggest an increased
risk of suicidal
thoughts and actions in the children given Paxil, compared
to those given placebo. Later reports on studies of other
drugs supported
the possibility of an increased risk of suicidal thoughts
and actions
in children taking these drugs. There were no suicides
in any of the trials.
FDA has closely examined the studies of the antidepressants because of the potential public health impact of a link between the drugs and suicidality and the importance of these drugs in treating depression and other serious mental health conditions. On close examination of the initial reports of suicidality, it was unclear whether some of the identified suicidal behaviors reported in these studies represented actual suicide attempts or self-injurious behavior that was not suicide-related. FDA therefore arranged with Columbia University suicidality experts to review these reports.
Meanwhile, FDA brought the available information to its Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee (PDAC) and Pediatric Subcommittee of the Anti-Infective Drugs Advisory Committees on February 2, 2004. The advisory committee members advised FDA that even before the Columbia analysis was complete, the labeling should draw more attention to the need to monitor patients closely when antidepressant therapy is initiated. Based on this recommendation, FDA asked manufacturers to change the labels of ten drugs to include stronger cautions and warnings about the need to monitor patients for worsening of depression and the emergence of suicidality, whether such worsening represents an adverse effect of the drug or failure of the drug to prevent such worsening. The new warning language has now been added to the labels for seven of these products. Sponsors for the other three drugs have agreed to adopt the language.
The "Columbia" Study
Because of
concerns about whether the varied events identified by sponsors under
the
broad category of "possibly suicide-related" could
all reasonably be considered to represent suicidality,
FDA asked Columbia University to assemble an international
panel
of pediatric
suicidality experts to undertake a blinded review
of the reported behaviors using a rigorous classification system.
The Columbia
group submitted its completed review to FDA last
month.
FDA has developed its analysis of the pediatric suicidality data, based on case classifications provided by Columbia University, and will be posting the analysis on its web site. While there are findings among these data suggestive of an increased risk of suicidality for some of these drugs, there remain inconsistencies in the results, both across trials for individual drugs and across drugs. Thus, an overall interpretation of these findings represents a substantial challenge.
The September FDA
Advisory Committee Meeting
FDA's next step, planned for some time, will
be to update the Psychopharmacologic Drugs
and the Pediatric
Advisory
Committees
about the results of
these reviews and to seek assistance from
the committees in interpreting the data and in
considering what
additional regulatory actions
may be needed to promote the safe use of
these drugs.
As a public health agency, FDA must weigh the possibility of an increased risk of suicidality in young patients taking these drugs against the known risk of suicide in patients whose depression goes untreated.
FDA will be bringing the following issues and draft questions to the committees for their input:
- Please
comment on our approach
to classification
of the possible cases of suicidality
(suicidal thinking and/or behaviors) and our analyses
of the resulting data from the 23 pediatric
trials involving 9 antidepressant drugs.
- Do the suicidality data from these trials
support the conclusion that any
or all of these drugs
increase the risk of suicidality
in pediatric
patients?
- If the answer to the previous question
is yes, to which of these 9 drugs
does this
increased
risk of suicidality
apply?
Please discuss,
for example, whether the increased
risk applies to all antidepressants,
only
certain classes
of antidepressants,
or only certain antidepressants.
- If there is a class suicidality
risk, or a suicidality risk
that is limited
to certain
drugs in this
class, how should
this information
be reflected in the labeling
of each of the products? What,
if
any,
additional regulatory actions
should the Agency
take?
- Please discuss what additional
research is needed to further
delineate the risks
and
benefits of
these drugs
in pediatric
patients with
psychiatric illness.
The meeting will be held
in Bethesda, Maryland on
September
13 and
14, 2004. So that all
interested parties will
have ample opportunity
to review the information
to be discussed next month,
FDA
will
be posting
information on its website
at
http://www.fda.gov/cder/pediatric/Summaryreview.htm and
http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/04/briefing/2004-4065b1.htm.
Media Inquiries: 301-827-6242
Consumer Inquiries: 888-INFO-FDA
Source: http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/ANSWERS/2004/ANS01306.html
