Lynch to meet group to discuss anti-depressants

The minister with responsibility for mental health will meet a delegation concerned about serious side-effects of anti-depressants.

Kathleen Lynch has agreed to meet with former state pathologist Declan Gilsenan, the mother of Shane Clancy, who killed a man and took his own life, psychiatrist Prof David Healy, and a former government minister.

Earlier this month, Dr Gilsenan raised concern about the number of suicides he had seen where the person had recently started taking SSRI anti-depressants. He said in his 30-year experience carrying out postmortems, he had seen “too many suicides” after people had recently started taking the drugs. At Mr Clancy’s inquest, Dr Gilsenan testified there were “toxic” levels of citalopram (brand name Celexa or Cipramil) in Mr Clancy’s blood.