TY  - JOUR
AU  - Busch,Susan
AU  - Golberstein,Ezra
AU  - Meara,Ellen
TI  - The FDA and ABCs: The Unintended Consequences of Antidepressant Warnings on Human Capital
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 17426
PY  - 2011
Y2  - September 2011
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w17426
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w17426.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Susan Busch
School of Publc Health
Yale University
P.O. Box 208034
New Haven, CT 06520-8034
E-Mail: susan.busch@yale.edu

Ezra Golberstein
Division of Health Policy and Management
University of Minnesota
School of Public Health
420 Delaware St. SE, MMC 729
Minneapolis, MN 55455
E-Mail: egolber@umn.edu

Ellen Meara
Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy
and Clinical Practice
35 Centerra Parkway
Lebanon, NH 03755
Tel: 603/653-0899
E-Mail: ellen.r.meara@dartmouth.edu
AB  - Using annual cross-sectional data on over 100,000 adolescents aged 12-17, we studied academic and behavioral outcomes among those who were and were not likely affected by FDA warnings regarding the safety of antidepressants. Just before the FDA warnings, adolescents with probable depression had grade point averages 0.14 points higher than adolescents with depression just after the warnings. The FDA warnings also coincided with increased delinquency, use of tobacco and illicit drugs.  Together, our results stress the importance of mental health and its treatment as an input into cognitive and non-cognitive aspects of human capital.
ER  -