Can Tamiflu cause psychiatric side effects?
November 15, 2006 Following more than 200 reports over six years of adverse psychiatric effects in minors taking the drug Tamiflu, including 15 deaths, the FDA has made an addition to the drug’s warning label. It cautions parents to watch out for “an increased risk of self-injury and confusion” in children, which could begin within a day of starting on the drug. Almost all of the reports of psychiatric issues have come out of Japan, which uses more Tamiflu than any other country in the world. The first 126 reports were spread out between 1999 and 2005, and the FDA did not believe the evidence warranted a change to the label. But when another 103 reports flooded in between 2005 and 2006, the FDA decided to act on the side of caution. Tamiflu is not a flu vaccine. It is an oral, anti-viral drug that is supposed to shorten the duration and the severity of the flu once someone already has it. It’s in a class of drugs called neuraminidase inhibitors , and it prevents the flu virus from esca
