Fwd: [drugawareness] ELI LILLY FINALLY AGREES WITH DR. TRACY ON WITHDRAWAL?!!!

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drugawareness

atracyphd2

Sun, 7 Mar 2004 14:29:36 EST

[drugawareness] ELI LILLY FINALLY AGREES WITH DR. TRACY ON

WITHDRAWAL?!!!

 

 

 

A March 5 Associated Press article reports:

 

" Eli Lilly and Co. has doubled the time used to wean people off an

experimental antidepressant an Indiana college student had been testing before

she

committed suicide.

 

" Lilly also decided to extend from four days to eight the period allowed for

participants to withdraw from the drug. Study participants take the drug in

gradually increasing dosages over 20 days. Their dosages then are gradually

reduced until they come off the drug. "

_____________________________

 

So after 20 days on the drug patients are now given almost half that amount

of time to withdraw - exactly what I have stated over and over and over again

for years now to be the safest method for withdrawal from these antidepressants

given their strong steroid effect!

 

So why do these companies not put out pills that are 1 mg, 2 mg, 3 mg, and so

on in order for the patients to be able to more easily go through a safe

withdrawal - especially with the time release pills that are so hard to decrease

in dose?

 

Could it be because they are STILL in denial?

 

And why are doctors be made more aware of the necessity of these extended

withdrawal periods so that they better understand how to safely withdraw

patients

from these drugs?

_______________________________

 

" Hayes said that in duloxetine testing on 8,500 people, Lilly has not seen

evidence of suicide as a withdrawal symptom.

 

" We don't have reasons to believe at this time that duloxetine is dangerous

to people in terms of precipitating some suicidal event, either in its taking

or its discontinuation, " Hayes said.

________________________________

 

The only reason they have not seen suicide during use of these drugs or the

withdrawal is that they still have blinders on and refuse to see it. Nothing

has ever changed when it comes to that. These companies continue to protect

profits over the patient's health. After all, if they do not protect those

profits

the company may fold and then they would not have a job.

 

You see, if a company were to admit to doctors how serious a withdrawal their

patients would suffer and that it would jeopardize their own practice as

their patients suffer from the addiction and withdrawal from these drugs, how

many

of them would prescribe them?

 

Despite the manufacturers' continual denial of the role of the withdrawal of

these antidepressants in producing both homicide and suicide, it is very real

and there is solid scientific data to prove that in a court of law. [Refer to

my book Prozac: Panacea or Pandora? to find that evidence.] That is precisely

why these companies continue to settle out of court so that " gag " orders can

be placed on victims and their families.

 

And as much as I respect Dr. Glenmullin and his work and appreciate his

support in sounding an alarm about these antidepressants, I must disagree that

only

" some " of these antidepressants produce an increase in suicidal thoughts

within 10 days. EVERY ONE of them have the potential to do this! What is

confusing to so many about SSRI withdrawal is that in withdrawal from some of

these

antidepressants suicidal thoughts can show up within 10 days. But with others

the most serious period of withdrawal can hit ONE MONTH, TWO MONTHS or MANY

MONTHS later. It all depends on many things: the length of time the patient has

been on antidepressants, the accumulation rate of the drug within brain tissue,

the patient's liver function, the patient's thyroid function, the patient's

pancreatic function, etc.

 

The plain truth is that Traci Johnson's death is evidence that over a decade

and a half AFTER the SSRIs have been on the market we still have no idea what

the dangerous potential of these drugs are. Yet we continue to use them six

years after Dr. Candace Pert, the discoverer of the serotonin binding process

which made them all possible, called them " monsters. " She went on to say that

she is alarmed to admit she had anything to do with their development and to

witness their widespread use when we know so little about them long-term

effects.

 

How much longer and how many more deaths will it take for the whole truth to

come out? Will Traci Johnson be the last? As always I urge all of you to get

this information to those who need it so that the deaths of all of these

individuals will at least save the lives of others and not be in vain.

 

 

Ann Blake Tracy, PhD

Executive Director, International Coalition For Drug Awareness

Author: Prozac: Panacea or Pandora? - Our Serotonin Nightmare

& audio tape or CD on safe withdrawal: " Help! I Can't Get

Off My Antidepressant! " (800-280-0730)

 

Website: www.drugawareness.org

 

 

 

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11079213 & BRD=2212 & PAG=461 &

dept_id=465812 & rfi=6\\

 

 

Lilly alters procedure in drug trial

 

The Associated Press March 05, 2004

 

Eli Lilly and Co. has doubled the time used to wean people off an

experimental antidepressant an Indiana college student had been testing before

she

committed suicide.

 

 

Lilly made the change after some participants in the same study complained

that they were sleepless, anxious or nervous during their withdrawal from the

drug, duloxetine, The Indianapolis Star reported Friday.

 

 

Some participants in the study made the comments in mental health evaluations

required after the suicide last month of 19-year-old Traci Johnson.

 

 

No other participants reported any symptoms that indicated a risk of suicide,

according to a new consent form that Lilly issued Feb. 24.

 

 

" I don't want to have that interpreted as being I was afraid that the drug

was a problem. If I thought it had been, I would have stopped the study, " said

John Hayes, a clinical psychiatrist who leads Lilly's development team for

duloxetine.

 

 

Johnson, a Bensalem, Pa., resident who had attended Indiana Bible College

last semester, hanged herself Feb. 7 at Lilly's hotel-like research lab at the

Indiana University Medical Center at IUPUI.

 

 

She had been participating in a study of the effects of high doses of

duloxetine, an ingredient in Cymbalta, a drug for depression and incontinence

that

Lilly hopes to bring to market this summer.

 

 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is reviewing her death.

 

 

A Marion County coroner's report released this week did not cite the drug as

a factor in her suicide.

 

 

A board that reviews all Lilly drug trials at IUPUI said Wednesday that it

was satisfied with the changes Lilly made in response to Johnson's death, which

included questioning test subjects about their mental health daily for two

weeks after their last dose and having a psychiatrist evaluate each subject

after

the last dose.

 

 

Lilly also decided to extend from four days to eight the period allowed for

participants to withdraw from the drug. Study participants take the drug in

gradually increasing dosages over 20 days. Their dosages then are gradually

reduced until they come off the drug.

 

 

Hayes said that in duloxetine testing on 8,500 people, Lilly has not seen

evidence of suicide as a withdrawal symptom.

 

 

" We don't have reasons to believe at this time that duloxetine is dangerous

to people in terms of precipitating some suicidal event, either in its taking

or its discontinuation, " Hayes said.

 

 

Dr. Joe Glenmullen, a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School, suggested that

Lilly's tried to wean people off the drug too quickly. Glenmullen, who wrote a

book criticizing the use of antidepressants, said suicidal thoughts can

increase within 10 days after the last dose when someone suddenly stops taking

some

antidepressants.

 

 

Side effects of antidepressants, particularly in children, have drawn

increasing scrutiny in recent months.

 

 

Effexor maker Wyeth Pharmaceuticals wrote doctors in August to warn that

while a cause-and-effect is not certain, its studies show more suicide-related

thinking in children taking the drug than those given dummy pills, including a 2

percent incidence of hostility.

 

 

Shortly after Johnson's suicide, Lilly disclosed that four participants who

were depressed committed suicide during previous trials of the drug, a number

the company said was below the level of those who were not taking the medicine

and lower than suicide rates for another class of antidepressants, which

includes Paxil, Zoloft and Prozac.

 

 

Dr. Fred Cohen, president of Crownstone, a pharmaceutical investment research

firm in Pennsylvania, said it was not uncommon for a manufacturer to change

the protocol in a drug trial.