prozac madness

[Guest guest]

forwarded to me by a friend - thought the list might appreciate:

 

Prozac Madness

 

By FRED GARDNER

 

The lard-assed cops at Virginia Tech spent two hours interrogating the

wrong suspect and failed to prevent the massacre. Now they're

" investigating. " What is there to investigate - which brand or brands of

anti-depressant Seung Hui Cho was taking?

 

A lonely, picked-on boy was given Prozac (or one of its chemical

analogs) like Kip Kinkel in Oregon, like Eric Harris in Colorado This is

not a scoop, America: Prozac causes horrible, bizarre flip-outs. It is a

fact that has been known for 20 years and that Eli Lilly and the other

manufacturers of " selective " serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) have

relentlessly denied and are still trying to suppress.

 

On the very day after the shootings at Virginia Tech, the Journal of the

American Medical Association published a study challenging the " black

box " warning that the Food and Drug Administration had finally attached

to Prozac in October, 2004. " Antidepressants Get a Boost For Use in

Teens " read the Wall St. Journal headline. " Despite Warnings on Labels,

Study says Benefits Outweigh Risk of Suicidal Tendencies. "

 

The New York Times ran its account of the new pro-Prozac study on the

page facing the obituaries of students and faculty members killed at

Virginia Tech! " Scales Said to Tip in Favor of Antidepressant Use in

Children -A risk of suicidal thoughts is found to be more than offset. "

You'd think that 33 deaths would more than offset it back.

 

Evidence that Prozac induces suicidal ideation and actions emerged when

the drug was in clinical trials in Germany in the mid-1980s. The German

findings were misrepresented to the FDA by a Lilly employee named

Joachim Wernicke. U.S. marketing approval was granted in December, 1988,

with no warning required. After a drug is marketed here in Guinea Pig

Nation, only a very small fraction of the adverse events brought on by

the drug get reported. Patients have to tell their doctors who then have

to file paperwork with the manufacturers who then have to voluntarily

tell the FDA that their products are dangerous.

 

Among the adverse events brought on by Prozac soon after it hit the

market were numerous suicides and homicides, some of which resulted in

legal action by the victims or survivors. Lilly's strategy was to

conceal the trend by settling every case out of court. One of the first

to capture national attention involved Joseph Wesbecker, a Louisville,

Kentucky printing press operator who, on Sept. 14, 1989, killed eight

co-workers with an AK-47 and injured a dozen others before committing

suicide. Wesbecker had been prescribed Prozac five weeks before and his

psychiatrist, noting that Wesbecker had become " very, very agitated, "

told him to stop taking it on Sept. 11. Victims who survived the

shooting, relatives of those who died, and members of Wesbecker's family

subsequently sued Eli Lilly, charging that the company " knew or should

have known that users of Prozac can experience intense agitation and

preoccupation with suicide, and can harm themselves or others. "

 

In February, 1990 psychiatrists Martin Teicher and Jonathan Cole and

nurse Carol Glod published " Emergence of intense suicidal preoccupations

during fluoxetine treatment " American Journal of Psychiatry, It

described six patients who developed " intense, violent suicidal

preoccupations " within two to seven weeks of starting treatment with

Prozac. The authors estimated that between 1.9 and 7.7 percent of Prozac

users would develop suicidal obsessions. Teicher and his co-workers

subsequently reported that Prozac patients were " at least three-fold

more likely to develop new suicidal ideation " than patients treated with

the older antidepressants, and that patients were also more likely to

develop suicidal thoughts for the first time ever while taking Prozac.

 

Lilly responded, " Our experience does not show a cause and effect

relationship between our products and suicidal or violent thoughts or

acts. Unfortunately, these thoughts and acts are part of the disease of

depression. " But the company made its first small concession, noting on

the Prozac label in May, 1990, that " suicidal ideation " and " violent

behavior " had been reported (as had pancreatitis) as side-effects. This

reference appeared in the " Postintroduction Reports " section towards the

bottom of the label. No mention of suicidal ideation was added to the

" Precautions " section.

 

The FDA held a hearing in September 1990 at which its Psychotropic Drugs

Advisory Committee (most of whose members got funding from

antidepressant manufacturers) considered whether SSRIs can induce

violent and suicidal thoughts. They voted 9-0 not to recommend a more

prominent warning and 6-3 not to recommend a warning in small type that

would have read, " In a small number of patients, depressive symptoms

have worsened during therapy, including the emergence of suicidal

thoughts and attempts. Surveillance throughout treatment is

recommended. "

 

Lilly and the other antidepressant manufacturers made more finite,

begrudging concessions in the years ahead as evidence linking SSRIs to

suicide kept mounting. A turning point came in April 2004, when the

British Medical Journal reported that GlaxoSmithKline had concealed data

showing that Paxil more than quadrupled suicidal ideation among

teenagers. A few months later the FDA acknowledged a study showing that

SSRI use induced suicidal thoughts in two out of 100 adolescents and

ordered a black box warning. Prozac sales dipped as a result and Lilly

et al commissioned the study that JAMA published April 18, showing that

SSRI use induces suicidal ideation in only one in 100. Suicidal

ideation, " " Suicide gesture, " " Suicide attempt, " and other such terms do

not accurately characterize the extremely bizarre flip-outs induced by

SSRIs. Carefully planning to annihilate the student body fits the

profile. Biting your mother 57 times. Driving your car around in circles

until you smash into a tree... Years ago, at a meeting of the Prozac

Survivors Support group, I heard Bonnie Leitsch, a flamboyant redhead

from Louisville who sounded like Minnie Pearl, try to explain what

Prozac did to her thinking:

 

" It's hard for people to understand. They say 'you must know what you're

doing,' but you do not. You cannot distinguish reality. I could never

tell if I was awake or asleep. That was the hardest thing for me to

determine. I would lay down in bed and I would think 'Now am I dreaming

this or am I awake and doing this? " My mind constantly ran, it never

would stop. I could be having this conversation with you and the whole

time if I was drinking coffee, I could be thinking about running it on

my hand and wondering what it would feel like. Thinking irrational

thoughts. And yet still able to communicate at what would appear to be a

rational level. That's why I think psychiatrists and psychologists and

doctors who are dealing with people on Prozac are totally oblivious to

what's going on. These people are the best liars in the whole world in

terms of being able to come to you and say 'I'm fine.' But the whole

time they might be thinking 'I wonder what it would feel like to stick

this knife in my hand?' And, 'I can take on a motorcycyle gang and kill

'em all.' Most of these people on Prozac like myself lose all natural

ability to love. It becomes a spiritual dullness. You cease to know

right from wrong. Because there's no wrong and you're right 100 percent

and the hell with the rest of you. "

 

The media just can't fathom Seung Hui Cho's lethal outburst, but Bonnie

Leitsch -may she still be going strong- can fathom it all too well.

 

http://www.counterpunch.org/gardner04212007.html

Caldecott

todd

www.toddcaldecott.com