British Watchdog bans 14 prescription drugs over fear of multiple deaths

As seen in the Observer, in a follow up to the earlier story on the ban of Efexor:

Britain's drug watchdog has been forced to ban the use of 14 prescription drugs in the last five years after they were suspected of killing hundreds of people in the UK or harming thousands through serious side effects. Official figures released for the first time highlight the growing number of controversial decisions made by the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which gave the green light to the drugs in the first place. In some cases, concerns about the drugs' safety records were already known.

Last week the MHRA released data to The Observer confirming that the 14 drugs it has banned since 1997 have been cited as a possible cause in at least 71 deaths in Britain and more than 3,000 injuries. Because these 'adverse' incidents are only reported on a voluntary basis by a hospital or doctor, experts believe the true number of people killed by these drugs probably runs into several hundreds, with thousands more injured.

The disclosure of these figures will put further pressure on the agency, which was forced on Friday to announce a ban on the anti-depressant Efexor for children and adolescents with depression. The move came within months of a ban on under-18s taking another anti-depressant, Seroxat, after concerns that it increased the risk of suicide. [...]

Consumer groups and other critics of the drug-licensing system are alarmed at how many dangerous drugs win approval in the UK and are later withdrawn after being linked to serious side- effects. In the five years prior to 1997, only six drugs had to be taken off the market.

Many of these are not psych oriented, but are indicators of a larger ongoing situation