About one in seven people in the UK now take medication to treat depression but some say they are not being given appropriate advice about the potential side-effects of the drugs they have been prescribed.
By Anton Ferrie
Seonaid Stallan’s son Dylan was a teenager when he began receiving treatment for body dysmorphia and depression. “He was struggling with the way he felt about himself, the way he looked,” Seonaid said.
“He was extremely anxious. He would be physically sick. He would be unable to leave the house.”
Dylan, from Glasgow, was treated with the antidepressant Fluoxetine from the age of 16. But when he turned 18, his medication was changed to Sertraline. Within two months of his prescription change he had taken his own life…
His mother says neither of them were warned about potential side-effects when his medication was changed. Seonaid says she was at the appointment with her son and they were not told he might feel worse on the new drug before he felt better. She says he was also told that it would be okay to drink alcohol while on the new antidepressant.
NHS guidance says it is best to avoid alcohol when starting on Sertraline until you see how it makes you feel – and the leaflet inside the box itself says alcohol should be avoided. Seonaid says the night before her son took his own life in 2015, he had drunk a “considerable amount” of alcohol.
She says Dylan had expressed no suicidal thoughts before starting on Sertraline. Seonaid says “none of us can say for sure what would have happened” had she and Dylan been told about the possible effects of drinking alcohol. But she believes the advice they received from the clinic played a role in her son’s decision to end his life…
After the truth-shower 