Re: your drug may be your problem
cloudberry
I agree with you totally, its dangerous and a scandal.
I became suicidal while having to come off an SSRI, the drug had caused me
to have a seizure, breaking my jaw and damaging three teeth during the
seizure.
I received 33 stitches and lost a lot of blood, was sent home with no help.
A friend warned my GP I was still suicidal, still nothing was done. Two days
later I took a hose pipe and my car to a remote field. A passing cyclist
spotted me and called the police.
Healy says SSRI's are like air travel - the most dangerous time in take off
and landing. In my case it was landing.
My heart goes out to you for the loss of your husband. I wish more people
would wake up out of their denial and ignorance about these drugs, which
IMHO should never have been licensed.
From Cloudberry, UK.
<outr...@despammed.com> wrote in message
news:1123127580....@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
Your Drug May Be Your Problem
Presentation at Speaking Tour - May/June 2005
With Angela Bischoff
gree...@web.ca
http://www.greenspiration.org
I'm a suicide survivor. My soul mate of 17 years, Tooker Gomberg,
suicided March, 2004. My life was turned upside down - I lost my best
friend and the world lost a warrior - but I've managed to do some
research since then, and it's that research that I want to share with
you today.
First off, I'm no expert. I'm not a scientist. I'm an activist who's
been reading what the experts are saying about the connection between
drugs and suicide.
Much of what I'm about to share with you comes from the writings of two
experts: Dr. David Healy from England (1), and Dr. Peter Breggin from
the US (2), both distinguished physicians of high academic standing and
international credibility. Much of what they published in their books
comes from years in the courts as medical experts, pouring over company
data made available through court injunctions, previously unavailable
to the public, such as unreported clinical trial data, internal memos
etc.
My brother called last week. His take is that Tooker had a choice to
live or to die, and that this choice trumped any possible adverse drug
reaction he may have suffered. But I assert that in fact the
anti-depressant drug Tooker was taking KILLED him. I realize that's a
bold statement, so with an open mind, let's look at the facts around
antidepressant drugs and suicide.
First, the personal story - Tooker Gomberg, nationally renowned
environmental, peace and justice activist, suicided Mar. 3, 2004 (3).
His was a classic textbook case of Adverse Drug Reaction. That isS
- Tooker was in an excellent relationship for 17 years; he had skills
and friends; he was kind, humorous, courageous, a fighter, a leader, an
environmental and social justice advocate; and he had fame and respect
around the world.
- His first depression was in 2001-2 following the FTAA police clamp
down and horrific mass poisoning (tear gas etc.) in Quebec City. Tooker
was discouraged and exhausted, and his depression hit hard. It lasted
nine months. He tried many holistic alternatives to pharmaceutical
drugs as well as an SSRI antidepressant drug. Nothing seemed to help,
but in time, he climbed out of his despair.
- When his second depression hit a year later after moving to a new
city and unemployed, he sought help through counseling and
pharmaceutical drugs. He was prescribed Remeron, an antidepressant drug
in a class of its own, but sometimes referred to as an SNRI.
- His anxiety and agitation went through the roof - clearly an adverse
reaction - however his psychiatrist didn't perceive it as such, and
encouraged him to stick with the program, increasing the dosage. After
just five weeks on the drug, Tooker's agitation sent him over the
railing of the MacDonald Bridge in Halifax.
- He wrote in his suicide note that he was anxious, felt like a zombie,
and couldn't think.
- His doctor never once in those five weeks asked him if he had
thoughts of self-harm. They even saw each other the day he jumped and
aware of his increased agitation, the doctor prescribed a tranquilizer,
but still never asked him about thoughts of self harm, nor perceived
that the drug might be driving him nuts.
- After Tooker's passing, the doctor did submit an Adverse Drug
Reaction Report to Health Canada, but that recognition was too little
too late.
- I have since begun an official complaint process through the College
of Physicians and Surgeons against the doctor for not doing a suicidal
assessment at any time during the five weeks that he saw my husband,
for not perceiving the adverse reaction, and for not warning Tooker of
the risks associated with the drug.
- I have also formally requested that a judicial "fatality inquiry" be
undertaken by the Chief Medical Officer in Nova Scotia, to ascertain if
the medical profession adequately prescribes and administers
antidepressant drugs.
Some might think that as a grieving widow, I need to lay blame. Let's
look at the factsS
Typically one in four patients feels worse when beginning any
antidepressant drug and "drops out" or quits use of the drug within the
first month (almost half quit within three months). Furthermore, in
clinical trials, it is rare to find more than 40% of people continuing
to take their antidepressant after four weeks. In other words, SSRIs
may not suit up to 60% of those put on them! A 25-40% dropout rate is
off the scale for all other drugs. That is to say that while
antidepressant drugs may help some people, they are not RELIABLE, not
even close.
That might not be such a problem if drug companies were straight up
about this, but that wouldn't be good for sales. Check out this
GlaxoSmithKline (makers of Paxil) propaganda (show paper copy) (4).
Doctors are instructed to "reduce" patient drop out by "managing" the
side effects and encouraging patients to stick with the program.
Nowhere in this propaganda does it articulate which adverse reactions
to take seriously; rather, it encourages doctors to keep patients on
the drug and gives them all the arguments to do so.
Perhaps if Tooker's doctor had been better informed about the adverse
reaction of agitation, Tooker would be alive today.
Agitation is a very common side effect of antidepressant drugs,
primarily during the early stages of treatment or shortly after a
change in dosage (up or down). Extreme agitation is known as akathisia,
an internal unrest, turmoil, or torture.
In clinical trials for SSRIs (the most commonly prescribed family of
antidepressants), the companies code the general problem as
"agitation". This reaction has been well recognized and documented
since the early '80s. Prozac's own clinical trials, prior to its launch
in 1988 and post-launch, recorded rates of agitation and akathisia from
between 5 and 25%.
Conservatively speaking then, one in 20 patients becomes agitated on
antidepressant drugs - 5% is a significant adverse reaction that
doctors need to be informed about and need to warn patients about, but
they don't.
Agitation is also a very potent predictor of suicide and violence. The
physiological mechanisms by which this happen are relatively well
understood. Of the hundreds of cases that have gone through the courts
in the US charging drug makers of inducing suicide and violence in
patients, only one case has come down in favor of the company; all the
rest have either been won by the patient or their advocate, or have
been settled out of court.
By extrapolating from clinical trial data and multiplying by numbers of
users, Dr. David Healy figures that at least 250,000 people have
attempted suicide worldwide because of Prozac alone, and that at least
25,000 have succeeded. Furthermore, he claims that one in 500 users of
antidepressant drugs will complete suicide BECAUSE of the drug. That's
100,000 tragic and unnecessary deaths.
Clearly drug companies have a lot to lose if this information becomes
public and well understood since there are 40-50 million people world
wide on antidepressant drugs, and growing - there was an 80% increase
in antidepressant prescriptions in Canada from 1999 - 2004.
Incredibly, there is little evidence that antidepressant drugs actually
produce benefits (5). There is plenty of evidence that antidepressants
may do some good in the short term, but almost no evidence that things
turn out better in the long run, and there are many reasons to believe
that we may be making things worse. Remember, they are not reliable.
For everyone helped by a drug treatment, there may be another harmed.
And then there's the disturbing and very real issue of dependence on
antidepressants. When you try to stop taking these drugs, you can
suffer an emotionally distressing withdrawal that includes 'crashing'
with depression, fatigue, and feelings of hopelessness, and often
involves painful physical symptoms such as flulike syndrome, muscle
cramps, and shock-like headaches (6).
The US FDA (Food and Drug Administration, US drug regulatory agency)
weighed in on this issue late March, 2004, two weeks after Tooker's
death, by issuing warnings to the public about the association between
suicide and antidepressant drugs for children and adults (7). Then in
Sept. 2004 they demanded that drug companies warn consumers with Black
Box labels on all product sales and ads (8). And in June of 2005 they
focused on the association of suicidality and antidepressants within
the adult population (9). These drastic steps were taken only after FDA
public hearings wherein hundreds of families testified that they're
loved one suicided after taking an antidepressant drug (10).
Health Canada followed suit and in June of 2004 issued a public
advisory stating that makers of antidepressant drugs would be changing
their product monographs to warn consumers and physicians of the
potential for increased anxiety, agitation and suicidal ideation (11).
In Feb. 2005 an incredible study authored by Dr. Dean Fergusson was
published in the British Medical Journal (12). Dr. Fergusson is a
scientist with the Ottawa Health Research Institute, and teaches in the
Dept. of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. His meta-analysis
reviewed data on 90,000 patients from some 700 clinical trials. His
team found that patients are TWICE as likely to attempt suicide on
antidepressants than on sugar pills.
Similar conclusions were made in 2000 and again in 2001 upon analyzing
the clinical trials submitted to the FDA in the early '90s as part of
the license applications for 5 antidepressants - here again
antidepressants were twice as likely as placebo to be associated with
suicide attempts.
Huh? Patients are put on anti depressant drugs to lower suicide risk,
not raise it!
A causal relationship between antidepressants and suicide has been
established since the early '80s; why did it take till 2004 before
regulatory agencies requested of drug companies to warn consumers and
physicians? How many people needlessly died in that time, and still
are?
And then there's the issue of suicidal assessment. This is the
physician's responsibility - both the CPS (Compendium of Prescription
Specialties) and DSM IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders) clearly articulate that physicians must properly access
patients that are severely depressed for suicidal ideation, especially
when mind-altering drugs are being prescribed and when dosages are
increased or decreased.
However, a study published in March of this year (13) claimed that 41%
of 1,400 people who committed suicide had contact with a health-care
professional in the month prior, and suicidal intent was discussed at
only a fifth of those meetings. In other words, doctors are not
speaking to their severely distressed patients about thoughts of
selfharm.
It is also the physician's responsibility to know what all potential
adverse reactions to antidepressant drugs are, and it is her/his legal
and moral responsibility to inform patients of all potential side
effects and controversies surrounding these drugs (14) - in reality
however, doctors are not sufficiently up to date on adverse reactions
to drugs.
So, what's to be done?
- I believe physicians' professional bodies need "standard practice"
for suicidal assessment.
- I believe physicians need to take seriously their legal and moral
responsibility to inform patients of all adverse reaction potential.
- I believe doctors need to be professionally penalized when they put
patient's health at risk.
- I believe government needs to fund comprehensive post-marketing drug
data collection.
- Reporting adverse reactions to Health Canada's Adverse Drug Reaction
Monitoring Program should be mandatory and convenient for all
physicians and the public.
- I believe Health Canada needs to enforce their directive to drug
companies, pharmacists and physicians to inform patients of all
potential adverse reactions - black box labeling for patient awareness
would be a good start.
- I believe government needs to fund continuing education of both
physicians and the public of the potential risks of antidepressant
drugs and of alternatives to a biomedical model of treatment.
- I believe provincial Health Care plans need to broaden their scope to
include not just psychiatrists and pharmaceutical drugs for the
treatment mental health, but also alternative and complementary
medicines and therapies.
- I believe Health Canada needs more stringent regulatory surveillance
prior to drugs being approved.
And I believe it's better to light a candle then curse the darkness.
With intelligence and integrity, and with the intention of patient
safety rather than a profit motive, we can save lives.
We're all making a difference. Thank you for all the work each of you
are doing to raise consciousness and to support those in needS
---
In upcoming weeks/months I'll be circulating complementary information
on withdrawal from antidepressant drugs, big-pharma marketing and
profiteering, alternatives to pharmaceutical drugs to treat depression,
and more. Stay tunedS
---
(1) Let Them Eat Prozac, 2003 http://www.healyprozac.com/
(2) The Anti-Depressant Fact Book, 2001
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/073820451X/103-8297792-9358227?v=glance
(3) http://www.greenspiration.org
(4) Is patient non-adherence with antidepressants getting you down?
Author: Dr. M. Berber, GlaxoSmithKline
(5) For more info, check out these meta-analyses:
Listening for Prozac But Hearing Placebo
http://www.journals.apa.org/prevention/volume1/pre0010002a.html and - -
Emperor's New Drugs
http://www.journals.apa.org/prevention/volume5/pre0050023a.html and -
Efficacy of Antidepressants in Adults, July 16, 2005, British Medical
Journal http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/bmj;331/7509/155
(6) See The Antidepressant Solution, 2005, by Dr. Joseph Glenmullen
http://www.prozacbacklash.com/antidepressantSolution.html)
(7) http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/antidepressants/AntidepressanstPHA.htm
(8) http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/news/2004/NEW01116.html
(9) http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/advisory/SSRI200507.htm
(10) http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/04/transcripts/4006T1.htm and
http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/04/transcripts/2004-4065T1.htm
(11)
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/english/protection/warnings/2004/2004_31.htm
(12) http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/330/7488/396
(13) March 2005 issue of Psychiatric Services Magazine, by Dr. J.
Pierre Loebel
(14)
http://www.stacommunications.com/journals/cme/2005/January/PDF/080.pdf
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