Can AntiDepressants Transform Despair into Suicide?
When Matt Miller’s family moved to a bigger house in a new neighbourhood in Kansas City, Mo., the athletic 13-year-old with thick blond hair found that he couldn’t penetrate the cliques at his new school. He was a nobody, an outsider. “He was angry at us, he was angry at the school, his grades suffered. He wasn’t himself,” said his father, Mark Miller. The boy’s teachers recommended that he see a psychiatrist, who prescribed Zoloft, an antidepressant in the same chemical family as Prozac. The doctor said it would help Matt’s mood, make him feel better about himself. The boy started taking the pills and seemed to be in good spirits for a few days. But then he began showing signs of intense nervousness and agitation. He couldn’t sit still, his father remembers. He kept kicking people under the table. His eyes were sunken and he couldn’t sleep, yet he had a restless energy. After six days on the drug, on July 28, 1997, Matt hanged himself in his bedroom closet. “Suicide always takes you b
