!! Please Distribute Widely: SSRI Symposium !!

[Guest guest]

September 20, 2002

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

http://ahe6.tripod.com/ssriseminar/id21.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Peter Breggin & Dr. Loren Mosher

to speak at

Landmark Scientific Symposium

 

The Dark Side of SSRI Antidepressants:

Suicide, Homicide, Seizures and Dependency

 

 

October 4-5, 2002

Philadelphia, PA

http://ahe6.tripod.com/ssriseminar/

 

Extant Medical Legal Consulting LLC

210 Lorna Square, PMB 192

Hoover, Alabama 35216

Voicemail: 1-603-372-4813

Fax: 1-603-372-4813

Email: DHMarks

 

 

 

 

 

SSRI Victims to Speak Out

 

 

 

 

On October 4-5, 2002, victims of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI)

addiction and withdrawal, and their families, will finally have an opportunity

to give voice to their experiences for an independent gathering of journalists,

activists, researchers, drug-injury lawyers, and medical professionals whose

careers have been built around telling the dark side of the SSRI story. Personal

accounts of central nervous system (CNS) adverse events caused by the SSRIs are

being actively collected for study, including experiences of psychosis,

seizures, homicide and suicide. Dependency issues will also be discussed.

 

Worldwide, severe SSRI adverse effects are being reported anecdotally to

doctors, lawyers, bulletin boards, forums, self-help chats, on-line petitions,

and on websites dedicated to victims and survivors of SSRI antidepressant use,

including Prozac, Paxil, Effexor, Zoloft, Celexa and Luvox. The numbers of SSRI

adverse events are growing exponentially, and the scientific community has begun

to respond, despite heavy political and financial pressure from the medical

establishment and the pharmaceutical industry.

 

The role of SSRI antidepressants has been increasingly suspect in this last

decade of " unexplainable " school violence, matricide, patricide, infanticide,

homicide, suicide, and psychosis. The purpose of this symposium is to begin to

reveal the magnitude of the problem, to help medical and legal professionals to

recognize the SSRI adverse effects profile, to develop strategies for defending

victims, and to give SSRI victims and/or survivors a chance to be heard.

 

If you or a loved one has suffered due to an SSRI, please take the time to share

your story. Help us document the overwhelming numbers of people who have

experienced SSRI adverse effects. We need your story to be heard and counted.

 

Please submit your story in writing to:

 

 

 

 

Preponderance of Evidence

PO Box 661

Williamstown, MA 01267

 

OR

 

extant_truth

 

 

 

 

A self-addressed, stamped envelope should accompany the written material if

return of originals is desired. Two photographs are allowed. Emailed stories

may contain .jpg photos only, no other attachments will be permitted. Emails

should be written in your browser as plain text. All material collected by

September 28, 2002 will be used at the October conference to illustrate the

overwhelming numbers of adverse events. Anonymity of all respondents will be

protected.

 

 

 

 

 

Featured Speakers

 

 

 

 

Peter R. Breggin MD - Dr. Breggin began in the full time private practice of

psychiatry in 1968. Dr. Breggin has been informing the professions, media and

the public about the potential dangers of drugs, electroshock, psychosurgery,

involuntary treatment, and the biological theories of psychiatry for over three

decades. He is the author of dozens of scientific articles and more than

fifteen professional books about psychiatric medication, the FDA and drug

approval process, the evaluation of clinical trials, and standards of care in

psychiatry and related fields.

 

In 1972 he founded The International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and

Psychology (ICSPP) as a nonprofit research and educational network. The Center

is concerned with the impact of mental health theory and practices upon

individual well-being, personal freedom, and family and community values. He

also founded the peer-review journal, Ethical Human Sciences and Services.

 

For thirty years Dr. Breggin has served as a medical expert in many civil and

criminal suits including product liability suits against the manufacturers of

psychiatric drugs. His work provided the scientific basis for the original

combined Prozac suits and for the more recent Ritalin class action suits.

 

Dr. Breggin's background includes Harvard College, Case Western Reserve Medical

School, a teaching fellowship at Harvard Medical School, a two-year staff

appointment to the National Institute of Mental Health, and a faculty

appointment to the Johns Hopkins University Department of Counseling.

 

 

Loren R. Mosher MD - Dr. Mosher, a Harvard trained psychiatrist, has been

concerned about the overuse and misuse of psychotropic drugs for several

decades. In the 1970's he designed and implemented a unique psychosocial

treatment for schizophrenia that proved as effective as " usual treatment " with

antipsychotic drugs (the Soteria Project) in a random assignment study. In his

role as Chief of the NIMH's Center for Studies of Schizophrenia he attempted to

maintain a balanced perspective in the face of the biological juggernaut that

was taking over thinking and practice with regard to " schizophrenia " .

 

More recently, in the face of the explosive growth of the pharmaceutical

industry in the 1990's, he has become a vocal critic of their research methods

and marketing practices. His letter of resignation from the American Psychiatric

Association has been widely circulated as revealing the2 truth " about organized

psychiatry's having been bought out by Big Pharma. Presently he directs a

consulting firm " Soteria Associates " and practices family therapy in San Diego.

He is also a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California,

School of Medicine in San Diego.

 

 

Nathaniel S. Lehrman MD - Dr. Lehrman's psychiatric career began in 1947 at

Bellevue, a year after he graduated from medical school. Following his year

there, and two years ofarmy psychiatry, he finished his training at Hillside and

then at Creedmoor, where he spent almost two years as Chief of the Female

Admissions Service.

 

In 1953, Dr. Lehrman, who is certified in both psychiatry and psychoanalysis,

opened a full-time private psychotherapy practice in Great Neck NY. In December

1963, he was voluntarily hospitalized for three months for paranoid

schizophrenia, and the following July he returned to the New York state system

at Kings Park State Hospital. By 1973, he had risen, via civil service

examination, to the Clinical Directorship of Kingsboro Psychiatric Center

(formerly Brooklyn State Hospital). 5 1/2 years later, he retired to take a

half-time position at Creedmoor, caring directly forpatients. His personal

success with over a hundred patients during his 2 1/2 years there was described

in his 1982 Paper, " Effective Psychotherapy ofChronic Schizophrenia. " After then

holding a variety of part-time psychiatric positions, he retired from practice

in 1991 but has continued to write on the subject.

 

His more than a hundred publications in professional, lay and religious journals

range from his 1960 statistical follow-up of " A State Hospital Population Five

Years after Admission, " and his discussion of " The Family: A Bio-social

Hierarchy, " to his 1994 " Public psychiatry's destruction of therapeutic trust: a

negative lesson for general medicine, " and his forthcoming " If I Were

Commissioner: The Rational Organization of Care for Disabling Psychosis. " Dr.

Lehrman has been married since 1944, and is the father of three and grandfather

of two.

 

 

Ronald W. Maris MD - From 1973 to 2001, Dr. Maris has been a Full Professor and

Chair of Sociology (1973-84), Professor of Family Medicine, and Professor of

Psychiatry at the University of South Carolina. Maris has been continually

appointed in medical schools from 1968 to the present; where he teaches and

supervises residents, medical students and pre-medical students. In 1979-80,Dr.

Maris was a Yale Foundations Fund Fellow in psychiatry at the medical school in

Vienna, Austria (where he studied with Dr. Erwin Ringel).

 

From 1980-81, Dr. Maris was the national President of the American Association

of Suicidology. In 1981, he received the Russell Research Award for his

research monograph, Pathways to Suicide. >From 1981 to 1996, Maris was the

Editor-in-Chief of the scientific journal, Suicide and Life-threatening

Behavior.

 

From 1977 until 2002, Dr. Maris has consulted on 118 forensic cases (52% for the

plaintiff and 48% for the defense,including both civil and criminal cases).

 

For a full list of Dr. Maris' forensic cases, see his curriculum vitae. Some

recent high profile cases in which Dr. Maris has testified include:

 

2002 Coburn v. GlaxoSmithKline (Vickery, attorney) Perry, Utah. Product

liability (Paxil). For plaintiff.

 

1998 Phil Hartman v. Pfizer (Vickery) Los Angeles, CA. Product liability

(Zoloft). For plaintiff (on 20/20 news).

 

1998 Trentadue v. USA (Schlossman, lead US attorney) Oklahoma City, Ok. Suicide

or homicide. For defense (on the Leeza Gibbons Show, 3/3/98).

 

1998 Antwan Sedgwick case. HBO documentary: " Death by Hanging. " Murder or

suicide. For the plaintiff (10/19/98).

 

1997 Forsyth v. Eli Lilly (Downey) Honolulu, HI. Product liability (Prozac).

For the plaintiff (2nd Prozac case to be tried).

 

1996 State of Ohio v. Sutorious (Croswell) Cincinnati, OH. Murder. For the

defense (on Court TV, 6/5/96, as " Trial Story " ).

 

1996 State of South Carolina v. Susan Smith (Bruck) Columbia, SC. Murder. For

the defense.

 

1995 State of New Jersey v. Jesse Timmendequas (Lependorf). Murder/rape. For

the defense (the " Meagan's Law case.

 

Donald H. Marks MD PhD - Dr. Marks specializes in Internal and Pharmaceutical

Medicine. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine, licensed

to practice medicine in four states, a Fellow of the American College of

Physicians, and also has a PhD in Microbiology. He has over 14 years of

experience in pharmaceutical medicine, and is a member of the American Academy

of Pharmaceutical Physicians and the Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society.

His specialty areas of practice are internal and pharmaceutical medicine,with a

concentration in the area of adverse effects of medications and vaccines.

 

Harry Danawi PhD - Dr. Danawi specializes in epidemiology. Dr. Danawi is an

expert in Epidemiology and medical litigation. He has earned his Ph.D. in Public

health Sciences with concentrations in Epidemiology, Toxicology, and

Biostatistics from the University of Texas, School of Public Health; He also

holds a Masters degree inEnvironmental Health. Dr. Danawi has conducted several

epidemiologicalstudies for law firms. He is currently a senior research

director at EpiConsults, Inc.

 

Keith Altman, Fibonacci Group - Keith L. Altman, a Medical Adverse Effects

Database Expert, is co-founder and vice president of The Fibonacci Group, Inc.

Mr. Altman has spoken at several Mealeys conferences, including the American Bar

Association on topics of electronic discovery and litigation technology. He was

on the faculty of the Judicial College for the state of New Jersey in November

2001. Mr. Altman has been instrumental in such multi-district litigation against

Fen-Phen, Rezulin, Baycol and PPA.

 

George " Skip " Murgatroyd III - Skip Murgatroyd has been a leading attorney in

the antidepressant field for over a decade. He has extensively investigated

internal documents of the major SSRI manufacturers archives regarding the issue

of SSRI induced violence and suicide. He broke legal ground by filing the first

major Paxil side effects, withdrawal syndrome class action, causing sweeping

global reaction by thousands of victims of the drug. Skip graduated from UCLA

(B.A., magna cum laude) in 1980 and received his law degree, cum laude, from

Southwestern University School of Law in 1983. He is also listed in the Bar

Register of Preeminent Lawyers, Who's Who in American Law and Who's Who in the

World.

 

James O'Donnell PharmD- Dr. O'Donnell has Bachelors and Doctorate degrees in

Pharmacy from the Universities of Illinois and Michigan respectively, and earned

a Masters degree in Clinical Nutrition from the Rush University. He completed a

residency in Clinical Pharmacy at the University of Illinois Research Hospitals,

and currently is an Assistant Professor of Pharmacology at the Rush Medical

College, involved in the teaching of New Drug (and Device) Development and

Regulations, and a Lecturer in the Department of Medicine at the University of

Illinois College of Medicine Rockford. Dr. O'Donnell is a pharmacology

consultant to the State of Illinois Department of Public Health, the Founding

Editor of the Journal of Pharmacy Practice, a Diplomate of the American Board of

Clinical Pharmacology, a Diplomate of the Board of Nutritional Specialties, a

Fellow in the American College of Nutrition, and member of several professional

societies. Dr. O'Donnell is a co-author of Pharmacy Law, and the author of Drug

Injury: Liability, Analysis, and Prevention.

 

George Seiden MD, PhD - Dr. Seiden is board-certified in both general psychiatry

and forensic psychiatry. He is in private practice, doing both clinical

psychiatry and forensic psychiatry. Dr. Seidens PhD is from the University of

Cincinnati in physiology, with research in neuroendocrinology. His MD and

psychiatric residency were done at LSU Medical Center in Shreveport. Dr. Seiden

is a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at LSU School of Medicine in

Shreveport.

 

Morris Westfried MD- Dr. Westfried is a dermatologist and graduate of Yale

Medical School, and completed his internship, residency and chief resident at

SUNY DMS Brooklyn NY, where many of the original Accutane studies were done. He

completed a fellowship in chemosurgery at Henry Ford Hospital and was an

assistant clinical professor of dermatology and chief of chemosurgery at NY

Medical College, Valhalla NY. Dr. Westfried as been in private practice since

1981 and currently consults for medical companies and also on litigation,

including four casesinvolving Accutane.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Additional Information:

 

 

 

 

Current lawsuits:

 

GlaxoSmithKline/Paxil:

http://www.baumhedlundlaw.com

Eli Lilly/Prozac:

http://www.justiceseekers.comNLPP00000/060.PDF

 

Petitions for Class Action Lawsuits:

 

Eli Lilly/Prozac:

http://www.petitiononline.com/lilpro

Wyeth-Ayerst Labs/Effexor

http://www.petitiononline.com/effexor

GlaxoSmithKline/Paxil Petition

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?oky71

 

 

SSRI-Research / A Resource

ssri-research

 

SSRI Antidepressant psychotropic drugs are " Selective Serotonin Reuptake

Inhibitors " . Trade names include Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Luvox and Celexa. SSRIs

are highly addictive and cause severe withdrawal, commonly mistaken for relapse.

Withdrawal side effects can include drug-induced psychosis, suicidality,

violence and loss of conscious behavior.

 

http://www.drugawareness.org

http://www.prozactruth.com

http://www.quitpaxil.org

http://www.prozacspotlight.org <http://www.prozacspotlight.com>

http://prozacspotlight.org/lilly/lilly_suicides.pdf

http://redflagsweekly.com/editor/2002_july17.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gettingwell- / Vitamins, Herbs, Aminos, etc.

 

To , e-mail to: Gettingwell-

Or, go to our group site: Gettingwell

 

 

 

 

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