Brian says he decided to "test the test," and chose "not at all" for all of the behaviors except for "poor appetite or overeating," and he said that statement applied to him for "several days." On the second section, he stated that the problem made it "not difficult at all" for him to function in daily life.
Upon clicking on the results, Brian was told: "Your screening results are consistent with minimal depression ... You are advised to see your doctor or a mental health professional for a complete evaluation as soon as possible."
As for the inventor of this particular screening tool, Brian reports that the fine print at the bottom of the page of the survey reads: "Copyright 1999 Pfizer, Inc."
The NFC also recommends screening for all pregnant women that will predictably lead to the use of SSRIs, even though a study as far back as the February 2, 2004, American Journal of Pediatrics, said that pregnant women who use SSRIs "to combat depression could be damaging the brains of their unborn babies."
According to the study, direct evidence of a link between fetal exposure and disrupted neurological development was apparent in a study of American mothers and their infants.
"Abnormal sleeping patterns, heart rhythms and levels of alertness," the study found, "were linked by researchers to drugs called selective-serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs)."
The study leader, Philip Zeskind, a psychologist and research professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina, noted that SSRIs disrupt the neurological systems of children, and said "this is more than just a possibility, we're talking about hundreds of thousands of babies being exposed to these drugs during pregnancy."
"These babies are bathed in serotonin during a key period of their development and we really don't know what it's doing to them or what the long-term effects might be," he advised. The Professor warned that "these drugs are being given away like smarties, and this is a big problem."
Drug makers have also been successful in getting lawmakers to set up mandatory mental health screening for pregnant women the minute their infants leave the womb. On June 16, 2006, Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Richard Durbin (D-IL) announced legislation "that aims to eradicate the devastating effects of postpartum depression on American families."
According their press release, the "MOTHERS Act was introduced in response to a recently passed, first-of-its-kind New Jersey law requiring doctors and nurses to educate and screen expectant mothers about PPD."
"Many women have successfully recovered from postpartum depression with the help of therapy, medication, and support groups," Senator Menendez said in the press release.
"By increasing education and early treatment of postpartum depression," it said, "mothers, husbands, and families, will be able to recognize the symptoms of this condition and help new mothers get the treatment they need and deserve."
Anyone interested in a quick course on the potential dangers of this program, and the lethal effects of the most commonly prescribed drugs for women with PPD, need only go read the transcripts of the Andrea Yates' trials and check out the drugs they were feeding her for PPD, at the time she drowned her 5 children in the bathtub in November 2004.
Dr Anne Blake Tracy, is the author of "Prozac: Panacea or Pandora?" and a well-known expert on SSRIs and has served as a consultant for many high-profile cases involving SSRI induced violence, including cases of mothers who have killed their babies, and often themselves, after being placed on SSRIs.
According to Dr Tracy, investigators found Zoloft in the apartment of Emiri Padron, after she smothered her baby on June 22, 2004, and then stabbed herself in the chest twice.
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