Jerome Wakefield, a professor of social work at NYU who has probed depression studies, is also dubious. “We’re using instruments that are too broad to identify those who are truly at risk, so the false-positive rate is enormous,” he explains. “The public has been sold on this idea that it’s all depression, but there’s plenty of good evidence which shows that suicidal behavior, especially in adolescents, is triggered by stress of various kinds.”
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Also controversial among some observers is the use of antidepressants—particularly psychotropic medications like Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft, which in some studies have been found to actually increase the potential for suicide among teens and young adults. Last February, Brooklyn Assemblyman Felix Ortiz reintroduced legislation to prohibit school personnel from recommending the use of psychotropic drugs. “A lot of parents in my district have complained about teachers who told them that child should be put on Ritalin and other medication,” says Ortiz, who now chairs the mental health committee. “It’s not the role of teachers to ever tell parents about medication. They ’re not doctors. That’s the responsibility of a health professional.” The bill has since been referred to the education committee.
“I think [antidepressants] are being prescribed too frequently and too automatically,” cautions Raiten. “With depression, the thing that we have to do is get to the underlying cause. Ultimately, it’s about dealing with those personal problems that led up to the depression in the first place.” A RAND study found that $1 billion was spent on psychotropic medication in 1998 for children and teens.
But experts contend that medication can bring relief to those who are suffering from a range of debilitating addictions. In a 2005 letter to the Food and Drug Administration expressing worry about the FDA’s 2004 warning on antidepressants’ risks to teens, the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry wrote: “Several studies … have shown a combination treatment (medication and talk therapy) as being most effective for youngsters with depression—a course of treatment that would appear to be endangered by such a strong decline in the medication portion of therapy.” “The biggest threat to a depressed young person’s well-being is to receive no care at all,” the letter continued.
At colleges and universities, the discussion around suicide prevention isn’t quite as contentious as the intense debate now swirling around younger teens. Still, the conversation—and the response of many institutions— is often set against the unwelcome backdrop of highly publicized suicides on campus. New York University saw six students kill themselves on campus in 2003 and 2004. And while glass barriers have been installed along the railings of Bobst Library—where two suicides occurred in 2003—a College of Arts and Sciences junior killed himself after leaping from the library’s fifth floor last year. NYU administrators did not respond to City Limits requests for comment. University officials had previously expressed concern over media coverage of previous suicides, citing it as a catalyst for possible copycat incidents.
Even schools that haven’t suffered from suicides are moving to prevent them. Pace University received a $220,000 suicide prevention grant last year from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration for its Project OPEN (Outreach, Prevention and Emergency Network) program. The initiative—which is intended to serve as a national model—is focused on raising mental health awareness among previously overlooked segments of the Pace population, including Muslims and Asians as well as gay, lesbian and transgender students. “Those students who write about suicide in their English assignments are more likely to come in for help,” says Richard Shadick, director of counseling services at Pace. “It’s really the students who are quiet about their pain that we’re trying to reach.”
