The day he took the 300 milligram dose, Corey didn't feel well so he stayed home from school and went back to sleep. That evening he woke up in a juvenile detention center.
Unaware of what he had done, Corey said, "I asked one of the members of the juvenile detention center, and I found out that I had taken my high-powered rifle that I use for hunting to my third period class, took 23 of my classmates hostage and teacher hostage."
Corey spent 14 months in jail, "not really knowing why I had been there, not really remembering anything that I had done," he said.
"These drugs are hell," his father Jay said, "look at what they have done to my son."
Joyce Storey's son, Brian, was 17 years old when the family doctor diagnosed him with depression and gave him 14 Zoloft pills. He never warned about side effects and "even said if a person is drinking or doing drugs, that Zoloft works well with them," Joyce said.
Five days later, Brian killed a woman. After his arrest, authorities found no illegal drugs in his system, only Zoloft.
The psychiatrist that examined Brian after the event was Dr James Merkangis, a faculty member at Yale University. At the trial, he said Brian had a manic reaction to Zoloft and testified that Brian told him it was like being in a dream.
"The news media called my son the All-American boy, and he was," Joyce says. He is now serving life without parole.
Six months after Brian's arrest, another boy at his school, Jeff Franklin, took an ax to both of his parents and three of his brothers and sisters while on Prozac. Both of his parents died and Jeff is now serving two life sentences.
"This is not a coincidence," Joyce warns, "there is a common denominator, teenager, severely depressed, on an SSRI antidepressant."
"There are 13 million people on these drugs, 6 to 8 million are children," she said. "The question is why are we handing these drugs out like candy, and the answer is $17 billion a year business." Joyce noted, "It is always about money."
Jame Tierney was 14 years old when he was prescribed Effexor for migraine headaches. After about a year, the drug lost its effectiveness and his doctor doubled the dose.
"For the next 9 months," Jame recalled, "my life as I had known it was gone. I thought daily about suicide and hurting myself. I felt void of normal emotions. I was so belligerent, agitated, and filled with hate - hate for my family, my friends, and most of all myself. Rage consumed me. I felt trapped," he said.
Jame did things totally out of character. "I had little control and little inhibition," he said, "It was as if I was watching a movie and some villain was destroying all the relationships around me."
He spent most his time alone or else fighting with his parents. "They would ask what was wrong and what had happened to me," Jame said, and "I could not answer them because I did not know or understand myself. I was terrified."
He thanks God that his parents continued to search for answers. It was the Effexor. It was not prescribed for depression and he had no history of depression prior to taking the drug.
As the parent of someone who committed suicide within 7 weeks of begining to take an antidepressant, I would like to express my appreciation to Ms Pringle for her in-depth article about a problem so huge we have only begun to scratch the surface. In the decades to come antidepressants will be spoken of as the new holocaust. Our young people are being systematically put on these and other mind-altering drugs, like ADD/ADHD medications, and their minds and spirits are being forever broken and changed. We would love to attend the upcoming protest in DC, but finances will not allow that at this time. Our support and prayers are with those who will take our story with them to Capitol Hill and try to open the eyes of the FDA and congress so these drugs can be banned. It's the only way to stop the suicides and murders being committed by these kids. We trusted the doctors and drug companies to know "what was best" for our son and from the minute he took the first pill, he changed and was on a downhill slide into oblivion...this must stop.
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Terry Bearden (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 2 comments)
on Friday, August 12, 2005 at 4:18:49 PM
If mental health abuse is reported, we can help! If you or someone you know is a victim of abuse by a mental health practitioner, click on the box to the left.
The first step to correcting injustices and mental health abuse is to report them because something can be done about any situation. Your rights can be upheld, as our organization has shown over and over again.
On the left are links to 20 booklets documenting mental health abuse, and the background of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR).
STEVEN SHARFSTEIN President of the American Psychiatric Ass
STEVEN SHARFSTEIN LIED
http://www.cchr.org/lied/liars/sharfstein.htm President of the American Psychiatric Association; Clinical Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland; President of Sheppard Pratt Health System, Baltimore.
The Sheppard Pratt [psychiatric] Hospital conducts clinical psychiatric drug trials, funded by at least 6 pharmaceutical companies. Antipsychotic drug trials on children will be conducted with the view to obtaining FDA approval for pediatric use. The facility also delivers electroshock.
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KevinOwen (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 2 comments)
on Friday, August 12, 2005 at 5:58:13 PM
