The FDA and ABCs: The Unintended Consequences of Antidepressant Warnings on Human Capital
, ,
NBER Working Paper No. 17426
Issued in September 2011
NBER Program(s):Children, Health Care, Health Economics
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.
This paper is available as PDF (2916 K) or via email
Machine-readable bibliographic record - MARC, RIS, BibTeX
Document Object Identifier (DOI): 10.3386/w17426
Published: Susan H. Busch & Ezra Golberstein & Ellen Meara, 2014. "The FDA and ABCs," Journal of Human Resources, vol 49(3), pages 540-571.