SSRI Citizen group: Announces Unsafe At Any Dose national awareness campaign

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> SSRI-Research

> Thu, 12 Aug 2004 01:18:39 -0000

 

> [sSRI-Research] SSRI Citizen group:

> Announces " Unsafe At Any Dose " national awareness

> campaign

>

> SSRI Citizen announces antidepressant " Unsafe At Any

> Dose " national

> awareness campaign. Dangers of Paxil, Zoloft, Prozac

> and Effexor are

> targeted by group.

>

>

http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2004/8/emw148258.htm

>

> In a bold move reminiscent of Ralph Nader's 1960's

> " Unsafe At Any

> Speed " campaign a consumer activist group which

> calls itself " SSRI

> Citizen " has launched a national awareness campaign

> designed to

> educate the general public about the serious health

> risks associated

> with the use of popular antidepressants such as

> Paxil, Zoloft,

> Effexor and Prozac.

>

> (PRWEB) August 11, 2004 -- In a bold move

> reminiscent of Ralph

> Nader's 1960's " Unsafe At Any Speed " campaign a

> consumer activist

> group which calls itself " SSRI Citizen " has launched

> a national

> awareness campaign designed to educate the general

> public about the

> serious health risks associated with the use of

> popular

> antidepressants such as Paxil, Zoloft, Effexor and

> Prozac.

>

> The group's web site (see

> http://www.ssriCitizen.org) sells bumper

> stickers emblazoned with drug names followed by the

> warning `Unsafe

> At Any Dose'. " Our hope is the proliferation of the

> stickers will

> help raise public awareness of the dangers these

> drugs present and

> encourage people to visit our web site where they

> will discover drug

> safety information and other resources which

> heretofore have not been

> readily available to the consumer, " said Rob

> Robinson, the

> organization's founder and spokesperson.

>

> " Given the lengths we know pharmaceutical companies

> will go to guard

> the commercial profile of multi-billion dollar

> profit generators like

> Paxil, Zoloft, Effexor or Prozac it is surprising we

> haven't been

> contacted by one of these companies. "

>

> The group is also challenging SSRI drug company

> promotions which

> position celebrities such as actress Delta Burke

> (Effexor) and former

> NFL star Terry Bradshaw (Paxil) as drug

> spokespersons. " These

> individuals, who are paid handsomely for the use of

> their name and

> influence, are not spelling out for the public the

> extraordinarily

> serious risks associated with their drug of choice, "

> Robinson

> said. " Its `Trojan horse' marketing … get the pills

> into medicine

> cabinets of America using glitzy ads and slick

> Hollywood stars. But

> don't tell the public what really might be

> lying-in-wait for them

> inside those innocent-looking pills. "

>

> " The bottom line is these drug companies are driven

> by shareholders

> to increase sales of these drugs and thus increase

> profits, " Robinson

> said. " In the case of GlaxoSmithKline its `If we can

> make three

> billion dollars a year off Paxil … why not four,

> five or more?' Its

> that kind of rationale that led to GSK's pivotal

> role in the creation

> of another `Trojan horse' marketing stratagem called

> `TMAP' or the

> Texas Medication Algorithm Project. Through TMAP,

> GSK and other drug

> companies methodically compromised the decision

> making of elected and

> appointed public officials to gain access to captive

> populations of

> mentally ill individuals in prisons and state mental

> health

> hospitals. " For more information see

> http://www.ahrp.org/infomail/04/07/07.html

>

> In another marketing ploy GlaxoSmithKline is using

> Terry Bradshaw to

> lead the Paxil marketing charge in a program called

> `The All-Stars at

> Work' which targets `mental health in the

> workplace.' " The `program'

> is supported by an unrestricted `educational grant'

> from

> GlaxoSmithKline, " Mr. Robinson said. " We considered

> sending Mr.

> Bradshaw a complimentary case of bumper stickers

> that say " Terry

> Brashaw Says Eat More Paxil " to hand out to workers.

> Maybe it would

> make him think twice about his continued promotion

> of the drug. At

> least, we'd like to think so. "

>

> Mr. Bradshaw is also traveling throughout the

> country under the aegis

> of GSK to promote the use of Paxil through a series

> of speeches,

> albeit without his former Paxil sidekick Ricky

> Williams. (Mr.

> Williams, another football star, parted company from

> GSK last year

> and was recently quoted in the press as saying

> `Marijuana is 10 times

> better for me than Paxil.') The web site GSK

> formerly maintained for

> the duo at www.rickyandterry.com has vanished and

> been replaced by

> another dubbed www.terryinyourtown.com All mention

> of Mr. Williams

> has been expunged from GSK's web site at www.gsk.com

>

>

> " Although Mr. Bradshaw claims his GSK-backed

> `depression tour'

> is `the coolest thing he's ever done in his life'

> his tour schedule

> is not posted at his web site. If you contact GSK or

> the public

> relations firm responsible for coordinating Mr.

> Bradshaw's

> appearances all you get is an answering machine

> asking you to leave

> your contact information. But no one ever calls

> back, " Robinson

> said. " If Mr. Bradshaw's promotion of Paxil is, as

> he puts it ­ `so

> cool' ­ wouldn't GSK want everyone in the world to

> know where Mr.

> Bradshaw is going to be, and when, so the public can

> have an

> opportunity to hear him talk about Paxil? "

>

> SSRI Citizen is demonstrating against Mr. Bradshaw

> who is slated to

> speak in Chattanooga, Tennessee at the Trade Center

> on November 18th,

> 2004 from 6:00 p.m. E.S.T - 8:30 p.m. E.S.T. His

> topic will be " Why

> Not Be Your Best: The Winning Strategy of Conquering

> Depression. " For

> more information contact Marianne Edwards at (423)

> 763-4626.

> Individual tickets are $65. A table for eight is

> $500. Paxil victims

> as well as families who lost a loved one to a

> Paxil-induced suicide

> are encouraged to attend and participate in the

> protest. Concerns

> over the planned protest have already caused the

> sponsor to cancel a

> book signing session that was to follow Mr.

> Bradshaw's speech.

>

> The group's public awareness campaign follows the

> announcement of a

> suit filed in June, 2004 by New York Attorney

> General Eliot Spitzer

> which alleges Paxil's manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline,

> engaged in

> repeated and persistent fraud by concealing and

> failing to disclose

> to physicians critical information about Paxil's

> safety and efficacy

> relative to its use in the pediatric population.

> " Doctors should have

> access to all scientifically sound information so

> that they can

> prescribe appropriate medication for their

> patients, " Spitzer

> said. " By concealing critically important scientific

> studies on

> Paxil, GSK impaired doctors' ability to make the

> appropriate

> prescribing decision for their patients and may have

> jeopardized

> their health and safety. "

>

> Other states may soon follow Spitizer's lead.

>

> But Spitzer is late bringing Glaxo (et al) to the

> bar of justice.

> Previously, over 5,000 individuals in the United

> States and more than

> 2,500 in Britain have sued GlaxoSmithKline after

> they became addicted

> to Paxil ­ and then suffered what in many cases were

> severe and

> sometimes life-threatening drug withdrawals. " But

> for every

> individual represented by counsel there are probably

> a minimum of a

> hundred or more people who are not … but who should

> be. Many victims

> addicted to Paxil never grasp what has happened to

> them until they

> tried to stop taking the drug ­ and then could not

> do so without

> suffering severe withdrawal symptoms. And if they

> contacted

> GlaxoSmithKline for help they were advised the drug

> was not the

> problem, " Mr. Robinson said. " Yet in Britain GSK has

> dropped the

> claim on its patient leaflet saying Paxil is not

> addictive.

> Logically, one can only conclude the company knows

> and concedes that

> Paxil can be addictive. Why else would they drop the

> claim? "

>

> In July, 2004 in another civil action involving

> SSRIs a suit was

> filed in California by attorneys Karen Barth-Menzies

> and Ronald

> Goldman on behalf of Roberta Madison, a nurse and

> doctor of Public

> Health, acting as a Private Attorney General. That

> suit alleges

> Zoloft's maker, Pfizer, misled physicians and the

> public regarding

> Zoloft's safety and efficacy, particularly with

> regard to suicidality

> and withdrawal symptoms caused by the drug. Ms.

> Barth–Menzies

> said " We have been trying for years to raise public

> awareness about

> these issues. We believe that the truth has been

> suppressed for too

> long and as a result there has been an enormous

> waste of money,

> thousands of people have been harmed by these drugs

> and many lives

> have been shattered. We hope this lawsuit will be a

> significant step

> toward exposing the fraud. "

>

> For more information visit

> http://www.ssriCitizen.org

>

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