Guest guest Posted August 22, 2004 Report Share Posted August 22, 2004 > SSRI-Research > Sun, 22 Aug 2004 11:45:07 -0400 > [sSRI-Research] Depressed over Prozac - > Deseret News/Aug 22/04 > > http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,595085602,00.html > > Sunday, August 22, 2004 > > Close monitoring urged for antidepressants > > > > -- > > Depressed over Prozac > > Antidepressants dangerous and should be banned, > crusader says > > By Elaine Jarvik > Deseret Morning News > > Ann Tracy knows hundreds of grisly stories: the > professor on Prozac who bit her mother to death; the > Stanford graduate on Paxil who stabbed herself in > the kitchen while her parents slept; the mother who > bludgeoned her son and then drank a can of Drano; > the 12-year-old girl who strangled herself with a > bungee cord she attached to a plant hanger on the > wall. > > Sit with Tracy for an hour and pretty soon your > head is swimming in details: the shooting at > Columbine, a study of violent mice, the conversation > she had with Rusty Yates, whose wife drowned their > five children in a bathtub. Andrea Yates was on > maximum doses of Effexor and Remeron, she reminds > you. The world according to Ann Tracy is a place > full of people who were put on antidepressants and > then went on to do horrible things. > > Tracy is executive director of the > International Coalition for Drug Awareness, which > she operates out of her home office in West Jordan, > a home she has mortgaged twice to pay for her > 15-year crusade against antidepressants and the > pharmaceutical companies who make them. > > She is heartened by recent scrutiny of the > drugs. Last year, the British version of the FDA > banned all antidepressants other than Prozac for use > in children under 18. In March, the Food and Drug > Administration issued a Public Health Advisory about > antidepressants urging doctors and families to > monitor adult and child patients on the drugs and > then appointed a panel of experts to reanalyze the > incidence of suicide attempts during clinical trials > of teens. > > In June, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer > sued the makers of Paxil for consumer fraud, and 30 > Utahns joined a nationwide class-action suit > charging that GlaxoSmithKline " concealed, suppressed > and downplayed " severe withdrawal reactions in > people trying to go off the antidepressant. > > But Tracy won't be happy until the drugs are > banned altogether. They cause people to become > violently suicidal and homicidal, she argues. They > cause cancer, she says, and heart disease and > diabetes and divorce. > > Some people call her a visionary. Others roll > their eyes and call her misinformed and worry that > she is hurting the very people she wants to help. > > Panacea or Pandora? > > In 1991, Tracy wrote an 80-page pamphlet called > " Prozac: Panacea or Pandora? " Three years later she > expanded it into a 424-page book that she published > herself. She wrote a lot of it longhand, while > sitting in the Salt Lake LDS Temple: the one place, > she says, where she was sure Satan didn't have a > foothold. > > Hers was one of the first books to criticize > antidepressants, but others followed: Dr. Peter > Breggin's 1995 " Talking Back to Prozac, " Dr. Joseph > Glenmullen's 2000 " Prozac Backlash, " Dr. David > Healy's 2004 " Let Them Eat Prozac. " As the titles > suggest, Prozac has become shorthand for > antidepressant, the way Kleenex is shorthand for > tissue, because Prozac was the first of a new class > of antidepressants called SSRIs (selective serotonin > reuptake inhibitors). But there are now plenty of > others, including Paxil, Effexor, Zoloft and Luvox. > > According to IMS Health, a market research > company for the pharmaceutical industry, sales of > antidepressants worldwide in 2003 reached $19.5 > billion, up 10 percent from 2002. Some of this > growth, according to the IMS Web site, can be > attributed to the use of antidepressants in > " lifestyle disorders, " which now include or could > feasibly include, according to IMS, premenstrual > dysphoric disorder, smoking cessation, weight loss > and shyness a list that causes some people, like > Jim Harper of prozactruth.com, to complain that > antidepressants are now prescribed " if you bite your > nails. " > > Tracy started the International Coalition for > Drug Awareness in 1997. The coalition has a Web > site, www.drugawareness.org, volunteer directors in > 30 states and board members in Bulgaria and > Singapore. The most celebrated member of her board > is Dr. Candace Pert, the Georgetown University > School of Medicine neuroscientist who a generation > ago helped discover and map the kind of receptors > that regulate mood and health. > > On the case > > Distraught parents of suicidal teens, and the > relatives and attorneys of people accused of murder, > call Tracy asking for her help. But Tracy also keeps > her antennae up for stories about violent deaths > that might possibly be linked to antidepressants. If > she reads a newspaper account about a man, say, who > has gone on a shooting rampage at work as happened > in July at a ConAgra Foods plant in Kansas she > will immediately get on the phone to flesh out the > details, trying to find out if the assailant had > been on an antidepressant. > > Occasionally the victims are famous, and sometimes > the assailants become famous for their horrific > crimes, but either way Tracy is not afraid to insert > herself into their lives or their deaths. > > The day after she heard that Brynn Hartman had > shot her husband, comedian Phil Hartman, and then > herself, Tracy called up Phil Hartman's brother, > whose number she found on the Internet. Tracy had > just returned from being an expert witness at the > trial of a Wyoming woman on Paxil who had shot her > husband and later reported that she didn't remember > anything about the murder except standing there with > the smoking gun. So Tracy told the Hartmans: " Don't > you stop till you find one of these drugs. " Brynn > Hartman, it turned out, had been on Zoloft; > drugmaker Pfizer settled an eventual wrongful death > case for an undisclosed amount. > > After reading about Mark Barton, the Atlanta > day trader who killed his family and then drove to > work and killed nine more people before also turning > the gun on himself, Tracy phoned his mother. It > wasn't until six months later that Atlanta police > reported that Prozac had been found in Barton's car, > so Tracy was operating on instinct when she urged > Barton's mother to have his body tested for > antidepressants. " Not all coroners check for these > drugs, " Tracy explains. " It requires a few extra > tests, and not all states will pay for it. That's > why you need to get to the families right away. " > > But things don't always work out the way Tracy > would hope. In the Atlanta day trader case, she > says, she had his body ready to be shipped to an > independent forensic toxicologist in Oklahoma City, > but Barton's mother changed her mind. Maybe, Tracy > says, the coroner told Mrs. Barton that Tracy was a > Scientologist. > > The Scientology charge still surfaces > occasionally, because Scientologists are famous for > their opposition to psychotropic drugs and in fact > to psychiatry in general. ( " Psychiatry is seeking to > create a world where man is reduced to a robotized > or drugged, vegetablelike state so that he can be > controlled, " Church of Scientology founder L. Ron > Hubbard once wrote.) > > Vicki Cottrell, executive director of the Utah > chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally > Ill (NAMI), is sure Tracy has Scientology ties. " She > says she's not a Scientologist, but she has the same > philosophy, " says Cottrell. " Of course I don't have > the thing on paper, in writing, but I believe they > finance her. " Tracy denies any connection to > Scientology and says in fact that Scientologists > don't like her because she won't go after > psychiatrists. She says her war against > antidepressants has put her $100,000 in debt (mostly > from phone bills and publishing her book). Tracy > accuses NAMI of getting money from drug companies. > > Cause and effect > > Emotions run high because, on both sides, there > is a belief that lives are at stake. Mental-health > advocates argue that antidepressants have helped > millions of people, and they worry that crusades > like Tracy's will convince the very people who need > drugs to go off them. The stories of people who have > committed suicide or crimes while on antidepressants > are sad and regrettable, they agree, but anecdotes > aren't scientific proof. > > Did Mark Barton, for example, kill his family > and co-workers because he was on Prozac or while he > was on Prozac? > > " It's a cause-and-effect issue, " says Dr. > Meredith Alden, president of the Utah Psychiatric > Association. " People make assumptions about cause > and effect when there is only an association. " > > Yes, sometimes people on antidepressants kill > themselves or act violently, she says, but that's > because " you're already dealing with people who are > prone to violent behavior. " And, she says, " people > who are depressed are going to be at greater risk of > hurting themselves. " > > Sometimes, concedes University of Utah > psychiatry professor Dr. David Tomb, " some people > will briefly feel more suicidal " when they're first > put on antidepressants, but that happens when they > first go into psychotherapy, too, he argues, " or > just because they're getting better by tincture of > time. " Tomb, like a lot of people in the field, > offers this explanation: A really depressed person > may not have the energy to kill himself; then he > starts taking medication, still feels depressed, but > suddenly has enough energy to follow through with > his suicidal thoughts. > > But what about the people who weren't suicidal > until they took the drugs, Tracy asks. What about > the people who had no history of violence but then > killed their own children? > > FDA weighs in > > The FDA, in its Health Advisory issued in > March, asked drug companies to add stronger warnings > to their package inserts, cautioning physicians and > families to " closely monitor " both adults and > children for suicidal thinking, and " certain > behaviors that are known to be associated with these > drugs, " including mania and hostility, especially at > the beginning of treatment, or when the doses are > increased or decreased. The FDA stopped short of > requiring the companies to issue these warnings, > though, and made it clear that the matter of cause > and effect has not been settled yet. > > The FDA appointed a panel of independent > experts to review clinical trials of antidepressant > use in children and teens, trying to determine if > these studies report more suicide attempts in > patients prescribed the drugs compared to those > given a placebo pill. The review follows allegations > that GlaxoSmithKline failed to report trials that > showed an increase in suicide attempts, as well as > those trials that showed that Paxil was no more > effective than a placebo for younger patients. > According to the Wall Street Journal, which obtained > a draft of the panel's review last week, the > clinical trials show children and teens on the drugs > were indeed more likely to have thoughts that > appeared to be suicidal. > > Earlier this month, Health Canada, the Canadian > version of the FDA, issued a warning that newborns > may suffer withdrawal and other possible symptoms > (seizures, constant crying, etc.) when pregnant > women take SSRIs during the third trimester of their > pregnancies. > > In June, the National Association for the > Mentally Ill (NAMI) Policy Research Institute issued > a report urging that psychotropic drugs should be > prescribed for children " only when the anticipated > benefits outweigh the risks. " Next month, a > congressional committee will hold hearings about the > safety of antidepressants and the FDA's alleged > censoring last winter of a staff member who argued > that the drugs are dangerous for young people. > > " From those who have seen the internal company > documents, " says Tracy, " we know that there is no > distinction in age groups with these suicidal > reactions. These reactions are the same across the > board, no matter the age. " > > Utah cases > > Tracy argues that the perpetrators of some of > Utah's famous violent crimes Margaret Kastanis, > who stabbed herself and her three children in 1991; > Sergei Babarin, who shot five people at the LDS > Family History Library in 1999; Lenny Gall, who > killed his mother with an axe in 2001 were violent > because they were either on antidepressants or had > gone off them too abruptly. > > Lenny Gall's father, Len, contacted Tracy six > months ago, before his son's sentencing hearing. > Tracy then went through Lenny's medical records, > Gall says, and found that " he had a very significant > reaction to Paxil when he was 16 " and was put on the > antipsychotic drug Zyprexa " shortly before " the > murder. " He's never had a shred of violence in him, " > Gall says. > > Tracy has served as an expert witness in a > dozen criminal cases most recently a Maryland case > against a teenage boy who fatally laced his best > friend's soda with cyanide and has been hired as a > consultant in several civil cases against drug > companies, including one that tried to implicate > Luvox as the reason why Eric Harris shot students at > Columbine High School. She estimates that the number > of people she has consulted with about > antidepressants how to safely get off them, how to > find alternative methods for treating depression, > what to do when a family member is suicidal or manic > is now in the thousands. > > Jason Atwood, who will be a senior this year at > Copper Hills High School, credits Tracy with helping > him get off antidepressants, first prescribed for > him when he was 12. He tried suicide at least 15 > times before reading Tracy's book and listening to > her tape. It was then, he says, that he discovered > that odd symptoms persistent dreams of gouging his > eyes out, for example might be side effects of the > drugs that were supposed to be making him feel > normal. > Following Tracy's advice, he slowly tapered off > Remeron and now tries to avoid sugar, meat and dairy > products. " I still have my moments of depression, " > he says. " But I haven't attempted suicide for over a > year. " > > Ann Blake Tracy, according to the International > Coalition for Drug Awareness web site, has a > doctorate in health sciences with an emphasis on > psychology. There is no mention of the institution > that awarded her this degree George Wythe College, > in Cedar City. Tracy explains that the Ph.D. was > awarded for " lifetime experience, " specifically for > the writing of " Prozac: Panacea or Pandora? " which > she says she has been told is the equivalent of, or > " far beyond, " a dissertation. > > Self-published, the book contains spelling and > punctuation errors and incomplete sentences > (although Tracy says an edited version will be > published in the next few weeks). It also contains > page after page of references to studies that seem > to cast a cloud over the safety of antidepressants. > > Tracy argues that the whole hypothesis of SSRIs > is " backwards. " She maintains that the drugs > increase serotonin while decreasing the metabolism > of serotonin, especially in the 7 to 10 percent of > the population she says that studies have shown > don't have the proper enzyme to metabolize SSRIs in > the first place. The drugs, she charges, can also > cause REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD), which can > cause people to act out their vivid, violent dreams > while in a dreamlike state. > > Deconstructing Tracy > > " It's hard to know where to begin to detail the > cognitive errors she's making, " says psychiatrist > Tomb about Tracy's book. " She is really taking > license with the scientific method. " Yes, Tracy is > passionate about the evils of antidepressants, Tomb > says, " but passion has very little place in the > scientific method in terms of deciding what is > accurate and truthful. " The book is full of > vignettes, but vignettes don't tell the whole story, > he argues. " You could take aspirin and do the same > thing: comb the literature and find horrible things > that have occurred with aspirin. " > > But Dr. Donald Marks, an internal medicine > physician from Alabama who was director of research > at two large drug companies and now often testifies > as an expert witness against the drugs, calls Tracy > " in many ways a visionary. " She " has observed a > phenomenon that is now being validated, " he says. > > " I do think there are some people who don't > understand Dr. Tracy and don't understand her > passion and don't understand how smart she is, " says > Jennifer Tierney, a North Carolina mother whose > teenage daughter was put on Effexor to treat her > migraine headaches. > > In her darkest hours when her cheerful, > straight-A daughter first became " a monster " and > later, in an effort to wean herself from Effexor, > had withdrawal symptoms that left her unable even to > walk Tierney called every antidepressant expert > she could find on the Internet. Only Tracy called > her back. > > " Dr. Tracy never got one dime from me. She > never mentioned money to me at all. When she first > called me back and I said, 'What can I pay you?' she > said, 'No. No.' You have to think that's pretty > pure. And she helped me more than anyone else. " > > " An unsung hero, " says Cassandra Dawn Casey, a > Utah County woman who started an antidepressant > group called Aspire after her son's death two years > ago. " None of us would have known what was causing > these problems in our lives if it hadn't been for > trailblazers like Ann. " > > The beginning > > Tracy's interest in antidepressants began in > 1989 when, she says, she watched two LDS friends > turn into alcoholics after being put on Prozac. > After that she started reading about the drugs, and > soon she was hunting down scientific studies, and > then she got a button made that said " Just Say No to > Prozac. " After that she'd be at the grocery store or > church and people would come up to her and start > telling her their stories. > > " There's great power in those stories, " says > Texas trial attorney Andy Vickery, who has been > involved in more than 50 cases related to > antidepressants. " They have a power to persuade and > even change the bureaucratic forces of our country. " > > And that's just what Tracy expects to > eventually happen. " I think these drugs are > history, " she says. Eventually, the stories told by > parents, and the investigations into the clinical > trials that the drug companies have suppressed, will > add up to public outrage and then antidepressants > will be pulled from the market, she predicts. > > " What is sad, " she says, " is that so many have > had to die or have their lives ruined while we have > learned that this was yet another terrible mistake > in our hope of 'Better Living Through Chemistry.' " -- > > E-mail: jarvik > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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