Anti-depressants: side-effects of SSRIs
I posted the following earlier in this thread following the announcement of "significant finds" at the pilot's home:
There would seem to be a limited number of items that would qualify as a significant find at the FO's home(s). It's too soon for an analysis of the computer content and no suicide note was found.
My guess is that they've found anti-depressants. One of the main questions that doctors ask patients who are commencing a course of SSRIs (Prozac etc) is whether they are experiencing any suicidal feelings.
One of the reported side-effects of SSRIs is suicidal impulses (obviously only in a limited - but statistically significant - number of cases).
That would fit the evidence so far released.
Whether or not I'm right about what they've found, I think it's worth emphasising a couple of things about this. There have been a lot of cases where the suicidal impulses seem to have been have been triggered by the use of this class of drugs (selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors) even in patients where there hasn't necessarily been any occurrence of suicidal ideation previously - or even a diagnosis of severe depression.
The sheer simplicity of prescribing a one-size-fits-all medication (20mg p.d. usually) for a wide range of symptoms diagnosed as "depression" has resulted in an explosion of prescriptions for these drugs - not to mention profits for the pharmaceutical industry. What's not widely known is that the clinical trials submitted for FDA approval of SSRIs (I believe 4 statistically positive sets of results are required) were cherry-picked from the totality of these trials. Taken overall the entire range of clinical trials resulted in an effectiveness barely greater than that of the placebos: a USA doctor has published a book in which he reveals an analysis of ALL the clinical trials concerned, not just those which were submitted to the FDA. Furthermore the side-effects of SSRIs mean that anyone in the trial taking the drug, rather than the placebo, is bound to know it isn't a placebo. Which distorts the results significantly.
Given the hugely widespread prescription of Prozac, Seroxat etc, I'd be very surprised if there aren't numerous pilots out there using, and concealing the use of, SSRIs.