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Epilepsy Drugs Avoid 'Black Box'

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 11, 2008

WASHINGTON - Drugs used to treat epileptic seizures can raise suicide risks, but not enough to warrant the strongest warning labels available, a government panel of experts said Thursday.

Advisers to the Food and Drug Administration voted 14-4 against adding a "black box" warning about the risks of suicidal tendencies to all anti-seizure drugs.

The experts said they worried the warning labels could inadvertently cause doctors and patients to abandon the treatments.

"If we have good drugs that are working, we have to be very careful about scaring patients into not taking them," said Rochelle Caplan, a professor of psychiatry at University of California, Los Angeles.

Instead of a boxed warning, a majority of panelists said companies should distribute pamphlets about the drugs' risks to patients.

The Associated Press

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