"In the case of children," he says, "there are additional risks like failure to grow."
Another serious adverse event with SSRIs is a discontinuation syndrome. Psychiatrist Dr Grace Jackson, author of, "Rethinking Psychiatric Drugs: A Guide for Informed Consent," warns that some patients may not be able to return to living without the drugs, not because they develop a "craving," but because the withdrawal effects they experience during drug cessation are intolerable and are misinterpreted by doctors as "proof" of depressive relapse, for which "lifelong therapy" is mandated.
Over the past several years, many new adverse events related to SSRI use have emerged, including life-threatening birth defects in infants born to mother's taking SSRIs during pregnancy. But because SSRI makers have hidden negative studies for years, experts say patients and doctors were not informed of all the known risks associated with SSRIs.
"Informed consent cannot be obtained for antidepressants---or for any pharmaceutical---unless all of the drugs' risks are known to the prescribers," according to psychiatrist, Dr Stefan Kruszewski, Faculty, Eastern University, Department of Addictions.
"They cannot be known," he says, "if all of the data is not made available to review or made public - as was the case with Paxil."
According to Dr Healy, a bigger issue stems from company efforts to make billions of dollars out of these drugs by having them given to people who have little to gain from treatment and a lot to lose."
Dr Healy says most patients with milder depression would get well if seen by a sympathetic physician or therapist and describes three side effects that have resulted from the SSRI controversy:
(1) Physicians have lost confidence in their own ability to help patients without drugs.
(2) A great deal of the problem stems from the fact that close to all of the literature physicians now read is ghostwritten and the articles overemphasize the benefits of treatment and hide the risks.
(3) Antidepressants might be useful drugs, if primarily used for those with severe disorders, but at the moment the drugs probably pose a greater risk than the illness to the lives, careers and relationships of those to whom they are being given.
Clinical pharmacologist, Andrew Herxheimer, also says doctors should be advised not to prescribe drugs, especially SSRIs, to patients with only mild or moderate depression, and if prescribing is deemed necessary, to use the lowest dose that is effective for the individual.
According to Dr Levine, the SSRI makers are not as unhappy as some might think with the warnings and negative publicity. "Patents have run out or are soon to run on all their big sellers," he explains, "and they are preparing their next generation of worthless, dangerous but patented drugs to replace the SSRIs."
Ms Menzies reports that there is a big push to switch people over from taking antidepressants to antipsychotics under the guise that people aren't depressed after all, they actually have bipolar disorder. "It is a very cleverly orchestrated marketing scheme and it's a continuation of the manipulation of a vulnerable population," she says.
Vince Boehm, another persistent advocate for warnings on SSRIs agrees, "This is all about marketing, and not about safety."
"This latest ploy" regarding the expanded antidepressant warnings, Boehm explains, "is a delaying action on the part of the manufacturers with FDA complicity."
"The FDA just commissioned a series of three year studies to evaluate the adult suicide problem," he notes, "and by the time these studies are done and released, the bulk of the medications listed in this announcement will be either off or going off patent."
Even though my case is only one case and one of the first falacies we learn about in elementary logic is hasty generalization, I find it extremely dificult, in fact virtually impossible, to believe that prozac could have such a dramatic effect in my case and the assertions in this article, despite all the studies it cites, could be true. I've suffered from chronic depression since the age of ten (I will be 67 in September) and it got worse as I got older. The older antidepressants, that this article claims to be so much better than the present ones, did not have much effect. It was only after I started taking prozac that I noticed much benefit, Post prozac, it's wonderful not to be depressed!
This year, prozac finally stopped having any effect and I had to switch to sertraline. Within days, I experienced the same dramatic lifting of depression.
If the effect on me of prozac and sertraline is due to the placebo effect, then it is hard to explain why I did not experience the same placebo effect when the older antidepresants were prescribed.
And I am disgusted and fed up with white coated pontificators who sit behind desk and spout ineffectual, platitudinous "talk therapy."
R. W. H.
by
rhalfhill (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 283 comments)
on Monday, May 21, 2007 at 2:50:36 PM
Prozac made me feel suiciidal within one week of starting it. I was in my 40's. It's about time the FDA stopped lying to the American public who pay their salaries.
by
Alison Hymes (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 5 comments)
on Monday, May 21, 2007 at 3:05:11 PM
2 comments
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