[drugawareness] Special Report-Prescription Drugs May Trigger Killing

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atracyphd wrote:

 

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Once again Kelly O'Meara of Insight Magazine has given us a GREAT article,

this time on the school shootings and the Columbine wrongful death suit.

 

This article appeared in the September 23, 2002 issue of Insight which came

out while I was on the road again for court cases so I am getting it to you

now. It is one of the most in depth articles I have seen to date on the

school shooting incidents and on the Columbine lawsuit.

 

Kelly should be commended for her determination to expose what is happening

in this country as a result of these serotonergic antidepressants. Her work

reminds me of Morton Mintz, the Washington Post reporter, who was given one

of the highest awards in journalism for keeping Thalidomide out of the US via

his in depth reporting on that most dangerous drug.

 

Dr. Ann Blake Tracy, Executive Director,

International Coalition for Drug Awareness

www.drugawareness.org and Author of " Prozac:

Panacea or Pandora?-Our Serotonin Nightmare "

(1-800-280-0730)

 

 

http://www.insightmag.com/news/264851.html

 

Special Report

Prescription Drugs May Trigger Killing

 

Posted Sept. 2, 2002

By <A

HREF= " http://www.insightmag.com/news/main.cfm?include=displaystaffbio & authorid=3\

5278 " >Kelly Patricia O'Meara</A>

 

 

 

Media Credit: Mark Leffingwell/AFP

 

Students flee Columbine

High School in April 1999.

 

 

The kid spoke unsteadily: " I was sitting on a hill outside the school eating

lunch with my best friend when Eric Harris came over and started shooting me.

I was shot between seven and 13 times. No one really knows the exact number

because there were so many bullet tracks. Most of the bullets just went right

through me. After I was shot I just lay there, playing dead, and could see

others being shot. "

 

These are the recollections of 19-year-old Mark Taylor, who spent nearly two

months in the hospital and has endured three years of follow-up operations

for the gunshot wounds he received during the murderous 1999 rampage of Eric

Harris and Dylan Klebold at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.

 

Taylor slowly is recovering from his wounds and, in an effort to bring

attention to what he believes was the cause of Harris' deadly rage, has filed

a lawsuit against Solvay Pharmaceuticals Inc., the manufacturer of Luvox

(Fluvoxamine), the antidepressant that Harris had been prescribed and was

taking at the time of the shooting spree. Despite the deadly assault against

him, Taylor's perception of the young men who nearly killed him is

surprising.

 

Taylor tells Insight, " I'm suing Solvay because I believe that Eric Harris

did what he did because of this drug. I didn't personally know Eric, but I

knew him as one of the 'Trench Coat Mafia.' Everybody thought Eric and Dylan

were the nicest people. My cousin, who was in Eric's class, told me that Eric

and Dylan used to bring her flowers and cookies. Eric was forced onto these

drugs and I feel sorry for him, like so many other kids who are put on these

drugs. I don't have ill feelings against him since I don't think you can hold

him accountable, because he didn't know what he was doing. " Taylor's lawsuit

against Solvay claims that the mind-altering drug Luvox was the cause of

Harris' rampage — that the drug made Harris manic and psychotic.

 

Luvox is in a class of antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake

inhibitors (SSRIs) that interact with the serotonergic system in the brain,

as do Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil. Street drugs that interact with the

serotonergic system include LSD and Ecstasy. The Food and Drug Administration

approved Luvox in 1997 for treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder in

children, but not for treatment of depression.

 

The Physicians Desk Reference (PDR) records that, during controlled clinical

trials of Luvox, manic reactions developed in 4 percent of children. Mania is

defined as " a form of psychosis characterized by exalted feelings, delusions

of grandeur … and overproduction of ideas. " Court records show that the

prescription for Harris had been filled 10 times between April 1998 and March

1999, and that three-and-a-half months before the shooting the dose had been

increased — a common thread many experts say they are finding prior to

adverse reactions to psychotropic drugs. The autopsy on Harris revealed a

" therapeutic level " of Luvox in his system.

 

Other school shooters on antidepressants at the time of their attacks include

15-year-old Kip Kinkel who, while on Prozac, killed his parents and then

proceeded to school where he opened fire on classmates, killing two and

wounding 22 others; 14-year-old Elizabeth Bush, on " antidepressants " when she

wounded one student at Bishop Neumann High School in Williamsport, Pa.; and

18-year-old Jason Hoffman, on Effexor and Celexa when he wounded one teacher

and three students at Granite Hills High School in El Cajon, Calif.

 

The medical histories of scores of " school shooters " have not been revealed,

allegedly to protect the minor child. Ann Blake Tracy is a consultant in

Taylor's lawsuit and director of the International Coalition for Drug

Awareness. She holds a doctorate in biological psychology and is a specialist

in what she believes are the adverse reactions to SSRI medications. She says

Luvox caused Harris to go on the Columbine shooting spree and thinks the

medical history of children who commit violent acts in school should be made

public.

 

" Suing Solvay for the injuries Mark Taylor suffered is one of the biggest

SSRI suits we'll ever see, " Tracy says. " It's a pivotal case because what

happened at Columbine was so big. It's really crazy when you think about it.

All you have to do is read the Luvox package insert to see that Eric's

actions were due to an adverse reaction to this drug. Show me a drug anywhere

that has listed mania and psychosis as frequent adverse reactions. That is

what the insert says for Luvox. There is no doubt in my mind that Luvox

caused Eric Harris to commit these acts. "

 

The PDR lists adverse reactions of Luvox to the nervous system as:

 

" FREQUENT: amnesia, apathy, hyperkinesis, hypokinesis, manic reaction,

myoclonus, psychotic reaction;

 

" INFREQUENT: agoraphobia, akathisia, CNS depression, convulsion, delirium,

delusion, depersonalization, drug dependence, emotional liability, euphoria,

hallucinations, hostility, hysteria, incoordination, increased salivation,

increased libido, paralysis, paranoid reaction, phobia, psychosis, sleep

disorder, stupor, twitching, vertigo. "

 

Tracy continues, " Beyond the adverse reactions listed about Luvox, one of the

first clues I had that these boys were on antidepressants was when it was

made public that Eric [Harris] and Dylan Klebold had both been in

anger-management classes. Anger-management classes equal antidepressants.

Unfortunately, Dylan Klebold's medical records have been sealed, so there's

no way of knowing what if anything he was on, but it makes sense that if he

was in anger-management classes he was prescribed some antidepressant. "

 

The problem, Tracy concludes, " is that this is a public-safety issue. So why

is everything kept so secret, under lock and key? This information should be

made available to the public so that people can learn from it and maybe we

can stop this kind of tragedy from happening in the future. We've got a

nightmare on our hands with these drugs, an absolute nightmare. We've got

kids on these drugs that are ticking time bombs in every school in America.

Most of these drugs are not approved for children, but it doesn't stop

doctors from prescribing them. Laws should be passed requiring that this

medical information be made public. And states should demand toxicology

reports for drugs of this kind in all murders and suicides. "

 

Donald Marks specializes in internal medicine, has a doctorate in

microbiology and has worked in pharmaceutical research for more than a decade

in the area of drug safety and clinical research. Marks was brought into the

Solvay lawsuit as an expert by Taylor and is not surprised that there may be

a causal relationship between Luvox and Harris' murderous behavior. Marks

also testified in a Wyoming case last year involving a murder related to the

SSRI Paxil in which the defendant won an $8 million judgment against

GlaxoSmithKline, maker of Paxil.

 

As part of the Columbine lawsuit, Taylor claims that Solvay failed to warn

adequately of the risks and adverse reactions associated with Luvox, and

Marks provides a preliminary expert opinion to the court stating that Solvay

" acted in an unreasonable manner " by failing to provide adequate warnings of

the adverse reactions to the drug. The Marks opinion continues: " In view of

the evidence of a strong and likely causal relationship between SSRI

medications, of which Luvox is one, and akathisia/suicide/homicide, Solvay

should only have marketed this drug with prominent warnings and cautionary

statements. "

 

U.S. District Court Judge Clarence Brimmer has accepted Marks' preliminary

report, allowing the case to go forward and giving the expert access to

information that has been held under lock and key in a vault in Denver since

the Columbine shooting. Marks tells Insight that " the preliminary report was

based on what I know from past cases, because I haven't been allowed to

examine information about Mr. Harris or anyone who knew him. The information

has been locked in a room in Denver, and I haven't been allowed in the room

until now. "

 

According to Marks, " The real problem is that physicians, of which I am one,

are not told that there is a potential for a causal relationship between

these drugs and homicide and suicide. Therefore we're not educated to look

for the kinds of adverse reactions that could herald this kind of event.

That's why proper warnings about such drugs are so essential. I'm in the

process of updating my report for the court, but my preliminary impression

from looking at the material is that there very well could be a causal

relationship here, that this drug could have been a factor that tipped Harris

from being a troubled teen to a murderer. "

 

Marks says, " In the report, I talk about the adverse-event profiles of other

SSRI medications and how, in the context of rules of evidence, a statement of

general causation could be made for all SSRI medications and how it could be

applied to Luvox. The neuro-psychiatric-event profiles of the SSRI drugs are

clearly associated with seizures and psychosis. Some have been associated

with hypoglycemia, suicide and homicide. So it's not entirely implausible

that one additional member of this class, like Luvox, would have those same

effects. "

 

The fact that the court has allowed the case to go forward is a good sign for

Taylor, but there have been some very strange developments. Lincoln, Neb.,

attorney John DeCamp, who now represents Taylor against Solvay, tells Insight

that " two days after I took the case, Solvay pulled Luvox from the market. I

don't know if my coming on the case had any bearing on them pulling the drug,

but it is interesting. " Solvay announced that the drug was being removed

temporarily from the U.S. market to revise data about how Luvox is

manufactured.

 

Another interesting twist involves families pulling out of the lawsuit. " I am

very reliably informed, " DeCamp says, " and I'm satisfied that the people

telling me this aren't lying, that at the settlement conference families were

informed that a Colorado law that applies both in federal and state court

says: 'If you lose, you pay.' These families were told that if they continued

to sue and lost the case they would be sued in return and they'd lose their

homes, cars and everything for the rest of their lives. So if you were one of

these families what would you do? "

 

According to DeCamp, " My client is basically judgment-proof. In other words,

Mark doesn't have anything. The other families didn't settle, they just

dropped out of the suit — they were basically told that they were going to

lose and, when it was over, the pharmaceutical companies were going to own

their lives. It's fair to say that my client was presented with this

argument, but he doesn't have anything. "

 

The lawyer continues, " It's also interesting in this case that there's more

security to keep related evidence from surfacing than there is to get into

the White House or Fort Knox. I have never, in 35 years practicing law, seen

its like. There's been more evidence gathered than you can even imagine —

things that I hope one day will be made public. I stated in court that if

ever there was a monumental event this is it and the information that is

locked in this room should be made public. History will be very unforgiving

if that doesn't happen. "

 

But the foremost question in the minds of experts on adverse reactions to

SSRIs is whether history is just repeating itself. Recent court decisions,

however, may be useful in Taylor's case against Solvay.

 

In April 2001, then 16-year-old Cory Baadsgaard took a rifle to Wahluke High

School in Washington state and took 23 classmates and a teacher hostage.

Baadsgaard was held in jail for 14 months. Based on expert testimony by

psychiatrists about the adverse reactions to the drugs he was taking, he

finally was released from jail under community supervision for five years.

Baadsgaard has no memory of his violent actions toward his classmates, which

took place exactly 21 days after he had been cold-turkeyed off Paxil and

switched to a high dose of Effexor (an SSRI) to treat " situational

depression. "

 

Cory's father, Jay Baadsgaard, says, " The morning that Cory went to school

and did what he did, my wife and I just knew that it had to be something with

the drugs. That morning he had taken about 300 milligrams of Effexor, and I

thought it was something about him going off one of the drugs and then the

high dose of the other. One of Cory's friends told us that Cory was yelling

and then he just stopped, looked down and saw the gun in his hand and woke

up. "

 

There is no doubt that Cory is lucky not to have gone further, says his

father, " and I guess I could blame myself for having the gun available, but

if I'd known then just what these drugs could do it would have been the drugs

that would not have been in our home. They always talk about how the kids who

do these things are the ones who get picked on by the jocks and stuff, but

Cory was a jock. He was on the varsity basketball team, played football and

golf, and was very popular in school. I pray every night that the media will

get ahold of this issue. If Cory had been on PCP the media would say 'Oh, he

needs drug rehabilitation,' but because these were prescribed medications

they say 'Oh, it can't be that,' but now we know it can be. "

 

Taylor hopes his lawsuit against Solvay will make people aware of the

dangerous side effects of such drugs. " Someone, " he says, " has to do

something about these drugs, because too many people are dying. "

 

Kelly Patricia O'Meara is an investigative reporter for Insight magazine.<A

HREF= " komeara " >

email the author</A>