For years, as government agencies ignored his pleas, Miller was driven by guilt -- he had told his son to take the pills -- and sustained by his conversations with people seeking help because their loved ones had become suicidal or violent while taking antidepressants.
"I always thought if I could just reach one more person before his son or daughter did something tragic, it would be worth it. It has become a very bittersweet labor of love," Miller said.
Tom Woodward of suburban Philadelphia found Miller's website, but not until it was too late.
When Julie Woodward, 17, was going through a "rough patch" last year, a psychiatrist urged her to take Zoloft, which he assured the family was mild, safe and effective. Seven days later, her father found her body hanging in the garage.
The Woodwards' next-door neighbor, Doug Ross, a neuroscientist, turned to the Internet, where he learned that just a month earlier, the FDA had issued a warning that Paxil, another popular antidepressant, might be linked to increased risk of suicidal thoughts and attempts in young people.
It did not take long, Woodward recalled, before he and his wife were "absolutely convinced that the drug had done this," referring to Julie's death.
The Woodwards found Miller's website, www.drugawareness.org. They had long talks with Miller and other parents about the similar circumstances surrounding their children's deaths.
The families grew convinced that some drug companies had suppressed clinical trial data suggesting a link between the drugs and suicidal behavior. They resolved to make the government do something.
Today, they regularly share information about new scientific studies and plot strategies to push Congress to act.
"We've become very, very close to a lot of these other families," Tom Woodward said. "We are bound together by a parent's worst nightmare."
Most of the families met for the first time in person in February at a hotel bar in Bethesda, Md., where one FDA advisory panel was scheduled to hear their stories the next day.
Their accounts helped persuade the panels to urge the agency to warn doctors and families about the risk of suicide -- and of the need to vigilantly monitor patients. But at that point, the FDA stopped short of suggesting that the drugs caused the suicidal behavior.
