A recent study purports to show that FDA warnings about the link between the use of anti-depressants and teen suicide may have led to more suicides. The NYT has an excellent article this morning pointing out that the evidence in the study is far from conclusive. Assessing the evidence on such issues would be difficult for researchers and medical experts in any case, but the fact that an industry has billions of dollars at stake in pushing a particular position cannot help matters. The pharmaceutical industry has not hesitated to pay large sums to researchers to promote views that support its products. Unfortunately, this article does not mention the perverse incentive created by patent rents on this issue.
--Dean Baker