NYTIMES---Another brainless psych meds report. Lyme Disease, according to the NIH, is the first rule out for "bipolar."

[Chuck Hearts Foley]

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Subject: NYTIMES---Another brainless psych meds report. Lyme Disease,
according to the NIH, is the first rule out for "bipolar."

Date: Feb 1, 2008 6:44 AM

Now, have we ever examined the medical cause of "bipolar?"

People with diabetes can have apparent "bipolar," as can people with
undetected
autoimmune diseases of the thyroid.

The real deal is that never has there been a "medical study of
bipolar. And
this is very dangerous, especially since the first rule out for
bipolar, according
to the NIH is LYME DISEASE:
http://www.actionlyme.org/PsychMisdiagnoses.htm


These matters have to be addressed medically first, but would
BigPharma ever produce
a single scientifically valid study of any mental illness?

They haven't yet. Not since arsenic was used for syphilis and emptied
the asylums.

Lithium is both neuroprotective and prevents early dementia in long
term "bipolar,"
(which *everyone* *has* since this is the diagnosis du jour, according
to BigPharma,
and that effects polypharmacy, and as long as Uncle Sam is paying for
it (billions
of dollars in annual billing to Medicare for Zyprexa).

The real question is what is the magic formula- what is the magic
bullet - to get
all MDs to stop thinking inside the BigPharma box?
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=17406176


Can we plain old regular former BigPharma chemists offer an
independent view?
Wouldn't that be what is expected of us, we we actually give a shit
and want
to HELP PEOPLE?

Remember those days? When some of us took the Kennedy Challenge?
When some of us thought the idea was simple and appealing?
Since it matches FIRST DO NO HARM?

Duh.

WHY DO PHYSICIANS REFUSE TO LEARN HOW TO THINK??

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=DetailsSearch&Term=(%22lithium%22%5BMeSH+Terms%5D+OR+lithium%5BText+Word%5D)+AND+neuroprotective%5BAll+Fields%5D&WebEnv=0K75ApkzroJ-370QiGq80di-CnuEyx9aU1SN0ycfhVAP5hBD_r4yIgO3nPdsxsUIy_naRRcize8q-J7%4025631EEC6FE066A0_0067SID&WebEnvRq=1


Kathleen M. Dickson

===============


The New York Times
February 1, 2008
F.D.A. Finds Increase in Suicide Symptoms for Patients Using Seizure
Medications
By GARDINER HARRIS and BENEDICT CAREY

Drugs for epilepsy, bipolar illness and mood problems double the risks
of suicidal
thoughts and behavior, and patients taking them should be watched for
sudden behavioral
changes, drug regulators have said.

The increased risks, while double in relative terms, are small. The
Food and Drug
Administration undertook a combined analysis of 199 clinical trials
with 43,892
patients and found 4 suicides and 105 reports of suicidal symptoms
among the 27,863
patients who were given the drugs compared to no suicides and 35
reports of suicidal
symptoms among the 16,029 patients treated with placebos.

Taken together, the risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior was 0.43
percent for
those on drug therapy and 0.22 percent for those given placebos.

These medications are primarily used to help epileptics control
seizures and to
calm the surges in energy and mood that, along with bouts of
depression, characterize
bipolar disorder. The drugs, which include Depakote, Lamictal,
Topamax, Keppra,
Lyrica and Neurontin, are sometimes prescribed for chronic pain and
headaches, as
well.

Doctors said Thursday that the increased risk did not outweigh the
benefits of the
drugs.

"What's really important to say is that bipolar disorder is very
difficult to treat,
the burden is enormous, and these medications help keep people free of
mood and
anxiety symptoms and allow them to function," said Andrew A.
Nierenberg, medical
director of the bipolar clinic and research program at Massachusetts
General Hospital.

The increased risks began as early as the first week of therapy and
never seemed
to leave, the drug agency said. The risks were higher among epileptics
than among
those given the drugs for psychiatric or other problems.

The agency will convene a panel of experts to discuss the findings and
add risk
information to the drug labels.

A spokeswoman for the agency, Sandy Walsh, said she could not comment
on the label
changes. "Those discussions will take place between the F.D.A. and the
drug manufacturers,"
Ms. Walsh said.

She said all anticonvulsant drugs had increased risk of suicidal
symptoms, meaning
each would have similar warnings.

A spokesman for Pfizer, Jack Cox, said its review of Neurontin and
Lyrica found
"no evidence of an increased risk of suicide-related events in either
product."

A spokeswoman for GlaxoSmithKline, Mary Anne Rhyne, said its analysis
of clinical
trials of Lamictal found "general trends that were similar to those
seen in the
F.D.A. analysis."

Laureen M. Cassidy, a spokeswoman for Abbott, which makes Depakote,
said, "This
is important information for care-givers to monitor patients, but this
shouldn't
change how epilepsy is treated."

The new finding, a result of a two-year study, is a coda to the
finding three years
ago that antidepressants also doubled the risks of suicidal symptoms.
With antidepressants,
the risks of suicidal symptoms, rose to 4 percent for children and
teenagers compared
to 2 percent among those given placebos, risks 10 times higher than
those found
in the trials of anticonvulsants.

The agency, in a major change for experimental medicines, requires
drug makers to
study closely whether patients become suicidal in clinical trials of
different medicines.

The finding on antidepressants led to a label warning that many
psychiatrists say
has caused more harm than good by dissuading some patients from
finding needed care.

Ann Marie Thomson, of Lindenhurst, N.Y., said her husband, Peter, was
prescribed
Keppra in 2002 for a seizure disorder. Within days, Mr. Thomson became
moody and
violent, Ms. Thomson said, and when he stopped taking the drug, his
behavior and
mood immediately improved.

Dr. Cynthia Harden, a professor of neurology at Weill Cornell Medical
College, said
she would monitor her epilepsy patients taking the drugs more closely
but would
not end their treatment.

"The consequences of seizures are dire," Dr. Harden said. "There's a
risk of injury,
even brain injury from a prolonged seizure, a loss of awareness and
tremendous anxiety
as these episodes can come without warning. It's a very difficult
illness to live
with, and these drugs are well worth trying."

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