There is a simple answer to this.

Pull out of Europe, so we can make our own laws again!

The government will ban super-casino's, because a handful of gamblers, but they wont make a law to protect hundreds of thousands of people, from drugs which either do not help, or can actually harm.

Arthur, Newcastle,

I was prescribed some SSRIs when I was unhappy about a relationship.

After a couple of days, my heart started racing and I got the shakes so bad that we called an ambulance. They told me to stop taking the pills immediately, but it took more than a day before I felt completely normal again.

Then I read that people in northern countries take fish oil to counteract seasonal depression, so I started taking 4 capsules of highly refined DHA and EPA (the best I could find.)

Its been 5 years, and I've never been depressed a single day after I started taking them, and I feel WONDERFUL!

Unfortunately, fish oil is not nearly as profitable, so don't expect your doctor to even mention the possibility to you!

Brian, London,

Hi: I was dealing with depression for several reasons. I tried some pills earlier, and wound up driving to the wrong city, while working (he didn't take me off work BTW; the pills said clearly "no operating vehicles"). So, I approached my doctor and he immediately prescribed more pills, before i was even done telling him my symptoms. I told him i did not want pills, just talk therapy. He kept trying to get me to take different types, i again stated "no".
My point is, he came across as some kind of drug dealer ,standing on a corner peddling his "junk" for his drug lords.
Finally, i had to tell him in no uncertain terms that i did not want pills, and if he kept pushing them on me i would take him to court for sending me to work while on the other ones. He then referred me to a phsycologist who implied i was being a wimp, and mostly rambled on about how tough she was during WWII. My point is,lets heal ourselves and leave these monkies to their own devices. Say 'NO" to Pills.

mr_bellows, Thunder Bay, Canada

They prescribed them for me when my mother was dying and my oldest child was moving out of state... Yeah, a pill should fix that...
I was one of the 1 in 10 with horrific side effects - 4 suicide attempts were the tip of the ice berg. These things are poison to the wrong people, then we are tossed under the bus. Two years after stopping ALL antidepressant or anti-anxiety meds, I finally fell human again. But my mother is still dead, and my baby girl went and grew up on me anyway. Hmmm, maybe there was not a pill for that after all?

Claire, Boise, USA

If these test results were published, at least the large proportion of the public that considers animal testing to be relevant would see the truth at last. But of course, profit before morality.

As for anti-depressants, chemicals treat chemical problems, not lifestyle problems. If you are depressed due to chemical imbalances then anti-depressants work. But if you are depressed due to the loss of a loved one, for example, they won't help one little bit. Talking therapy will. But trying to get that (or CBT) on the NHS is like trying to get the facts out of a pharmaceutical company!

Jennifer Hynes, Plymouth, England

what about open information about the products which DO work where no money can be made by pharmaceutical giants, natural progesterone being one very obvious case! not able to patent it, so any findings deemed to be helping people rubbished or supressed!

mary foord brown, suffolk coastal,

Another example of European corruption whereby a law that would protect us has been passed in the EU and we apparently cant override it. I'm sorry but this cannot go on we have to take back our powers and try to return to our higher moral standards.

allen, worcester, England

It's VERY important. Anti depressants are prescribed very lightly and quite often to people who aren't depressed at all. Even if the doctors are hoping for a placebo effect or to satisfy the client by prescribing antidepressants to the patients claim to being depressed or to be in good terms with pharmaceutical companies--- the bottom line is drugs are quite strong overall and psychiatry is at a very primitive state, despite the agressiveness of it's drugs and treatments, so I beleive much work is needed specially in the terms of mental health to healthier people instead of heading to an overmedicated society that beleives in the magical (placebo) effects of pills. Aditionally, some studies, despite not finding a benefit to psychiatric meds and or following wrong methods, recomend them. That's a horror!

Anne, Buenos Aires,