TeenScreen - New York Times - Danger Signs

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By Evelyn Pringle (about the author) Page 4 of 8 page(s)

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Shaffer and Flynn, the self-proclaimed prevention "experts," forgot to tell the reporter that the majority of kids who have committed suicide, or other violent acts, in recent years were already on the lethal SSRIs.

When discussing the issue, Flynn suggests that school violence is caused by a lack of drugs. "While national awareness of the pressures our kids face today has been raised in the wake of recent school violence," she said in NAMI E-News, July 6, 1999, Vol 00-1, "the far greater difficulties children with serious mental illnesses and their families confront each day, every year, are being overlooked. They are trapped inside a system of horrors."

The children who went on out of character killing sprees were trapped inside a system of horrors all right but not due to lack of drugs. The FDA's warning about SSRI behaviors known to be associated with these drugs, include anxiety, agitation, panic attacks, insomnia, irritability, hostility, impulsivity, akathisia (severe restlessness), hypomania, and mania, according to court-certified expert on SSRIs, Dr Peter Breggin, on PBS Frontline.

"Each of these reactions," Breggin advises, "can worsen the individual's mental condition and can result in suicidality, violence, and other forms of extreme abnormal behavior."

Evidence from many sources confirms that SSRIs commonly cause or exacerbate a wide range of abnormal mental and behavioral conditions, according to Breggin, International Journal of Risk & Safety in Medicine 16 (2003/2004).

At the FDA hearings in February 2004, dozens of devastated parents testified that their children had committed suicide, or other violent acts, as a direct result of being prescribed the same drugs that TeenScreen is pushing.

A factor that stands out when reviewing the testimony is that the conduct by children on these drugs is extremely violent, regardless of whether the behavior involves homicide or suicide. A bizarre pattern emerges when listening to parents describe the acts of their children that is totally unheard of.

For instance, Sara Bostock described how her daughter, Cecily, a recent Stanford University graduate, stabbed herself to death in the chest with a kitchen knife two weeks after she was prescribed Paxil, while her mother slept in the next room.

"The only noise was a slight yelp and a thump when she fell on the floor," Sara said. "To die in this violent, unusual fashion without making a sound ... Paxil must have put her over the edge," she pointed out.

Glenn McIntosh told the panel, "I would like to introduce you to my daughter, Caitlin Elizabeth McIntosh," he said, "it is actually only a two-dimensional image of her, but it is all I have left."

"She died of suicide at age 12 years, 3 months," her father explained, "just eight weeks after being put on Paxil and then Zoloft." On January 5, 2000, Caitlin hung herself in the bathroom at school, Glenn said.

Mark and Cheryl Miller described the strange suicide method of their son Matt after he was put on Zoloft. Matt was told to take the pills for a week and then call the doctor back, but he never made it a week, he hung himself from a bedroom closet hook, barely higher than he was tall.

'To commit this unthinkable act," his father said, "he was actually able to pull his legs up off the floor and hold himself that way until he lost consciousness."

Lisa Van Syckel told how her daughter, Michelle, was placed on Paxil after being diagnosed with depression and anorexia nervosa, when as it turns out, Michelle actually had Lymes Disease.

"My daughter self-mutilated, became psychotic, became violent, attempted suicide twice," Lisa told the panel.

Her friends at school call Michelle Psycho, Lisa said, "all because she was misdiagnosed and all because everyone has withheld from the public the adverse effects of Paxil."

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