Her autopsy revealed a high blood level of Paxil, which reflects poor metabolization, a feature common in many SSRI suicide cases. "I believe this induced an intensely dissociative state, perhaps even sleepwalking," Sara said.
"From accounts of people under the influence of these drugs," she explained, "I believe SSRIs can alter consciousness in some mysterious and frightening way that is not normally seen even in mental illness. I am certain this is what happened to my daughter."
"Untold thousands have died because of the drug companies and the FDA's failure to heed the evidence over the past years," Sara has discovered.
Cynthia Brockman's described the Zoloft-induced reactions that her son, Chris, had experienced which ultimately resulted in a woman's death and a life sentence in prison for her son. She urges a ban on all SSRI use in children.
Chris described "uncontrollable fits of anger, pitches and voices setting him off, not wanting to be touched, feeling horrible all over his body, not being in reality." His reactions stopped, once he was off all SSRIs for about a year, but restarted when he was put on Zoloft again.
"Prison doctors ignored warnings, forced him to take harmful drugs, drugging him into hallucinating, irrational, suicidal state," Cynthia said.
She finally met with the Texas House Committee on Corrections who ordered prison doctors to correct the crisis caused by the drugs which had triggered severe suicidal and homicidal symptoms for about 2 years while doctors kept starting and stopping her son's medications.
"Medical experts said Chris would not have been suicidal or homicidal had he not been reacting to SSRI drugs," Cynthia said.
Todd and Eileen Shivak's son Michael was 11 when he was given Paxil for depression. They thank God he is alive after he tried to slash his wrists in a classroom at school.
"We thought we were doing the right thing," his parents explain, "the doctors convinced us that taking these drugs was the only thing that we could do for Michael."
"How could all the doctors not recognize what was happening?" Todd asks, "Michael saw three different social workers, two different psychiatrists, and went through at least four different emergency room psychological evaluations in two different hospitals."
"It is impossible to describe the pain and utter helplessness we all felt watching Michael suffer, watch him cry, take up weapons against us, and beg us to let him die," Todd said.
"Our daughter, Catherine, was 5 years old at the time," he noted, "She witnessed firsthand some of the most terrifying sights that I have ever had to deal with."
"Our family is finally getting back to the loving family we once were, but the fear of what happened still haunts us," he added.
Pepper Draper, a Director of the International Coalition for Drug Awareness, reports that her child was put on Ritalin, and says, "we bought into the whole serotonin theory, so we were naturally raising that serotonin, which unfortunately started causing him to become severely depressed and suicidal."
Fortunately, "we were able to finally understand the truth about serotonin, that raising serotonin and stopping the metabolism of it has caused suicide and aggression, and that is well documented," she said.
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.
by
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
