Pringle - SSRIs - Nightmares by the Dozen

[Guest guest]

SSRI-Research@

Wed, 8 Feb 2006 08:37:23 -0500

[sSRI-Research] Pringle - SSRIs - Nightmares by the Dozen

 

 

 

 

Violence caused by SSRIs has been well known, but hidden from the

public for many years. Only in recent years has there been even a

hint of this problem. Here is gang member Evelyn Pringle's article

written for a legal service organization.

 

 

 

http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/articles/ssri_nightmare.html

 

SSRIs - Nightmares by the Dozen

February 6, 2006.

By Evelyn Pringle

 

Gail and Rhonda Schmidkunz describes their 20-year-old son Zach as an

" All American Boy, " with no criminal record and no history of angry

outbursts or losing his temper. However, this non-violent, law-abiding

" All American Boy " is now serving a 35-year prison sentence for

killing a friend after he abruptly stopped taking the SSRI, Zoloft.

 

In an all too familiar story by now, a family doctor sent Zach home

with samples packs of Zoloft because he was depressed, without

advising Zach about any of the adverse events he might experience. He

took the pills for 21 days and then stopped because he felt the drug

was not helping.

 

" Zach stopped taking the Zoloft on a Friday, " Gail notes. " By

Saturday, there were symptoms of discontinuation syndrome, " he

recalls. " They continued to intensify through Monday when the murder

happened, " he said.

 

Without knowing about the problems with the drug, Gail explains, Zach

missed the signs that might have warned him that he was having a

withdrawal reaction from Zoloft.

 

During a chat session on the internet with a friend, Zach said that he

was depressed and saw no reason to live and was considering suicide.

The friend was a girl and offered to come over and talk. During the

visit, she said that depressed people usually kill themselves which

apparently set Zach off.

 

He drove off in a rage, and three hours later when his head began to

clear, he thought he remembered shooting someone.

 

Zach went and turned himself in to police, Gail said, but he did not

know that he had murdered the girl until he was charged.

 

The rage that he felt was like nothing he ever felt before, Zach told

his father and mother. " The intensity was indescribable, " he told Gail.

 

Like so many other people who have committed violent acts while on

SSRIs, Zach said, " it was like watching himself in a movie going to

get the shotgun. "

 

" He had this over-powering urge to shoot something and tried to stop

himself but was powerless to do so, " he told his parents.

 

At the criminal trial, Dr Maureen Hackett, a forensic psychiatrist

from Minneapolis, who had evaluated Zach, testified that abruptly

stopping the drug had lead to " a discontinuation syndrome rage and

insanity that caused the homicide. "

 

However, with the help of a Zoloft manual provided by Pfizer, Gail

says, the " prosecutor convinced the jury my son was a monster and that

Dr. Hackett was a hired gun bought for a price and would tell the

court whatever we wanted her to say. "

 

" What is important in this case, " he points out, " is that we had an

expert that proved that discontinuation syndrome is real and

established in the medical community. "

 

Gail urges everyone who has had an adverse reaction to an SSRI to

contact their lawmakers and tell their story.

 

" Somehow, " he says, " we need to pressure the FDA and the drug

companies to come clean about the dangers of these drugs and make them

responsible for the lives their drugs have destroyed. "

 

Joyce Storey's son, Brian, was also called an " All American Boy " in

the media, and according to Joyce, he was.

 

This mother's " All American Boy " is now serving life in prison without

the possibility of parole for a murder he committed while on Zoloft

 

Brian was 17-years-old when the family doctor diagnosed him with

depression and put him on Zoloft. Once again, the family was not

warned about any side effects of the drug and in fact, the doctor told

Joyce, " even if a person is drinking or doing drugs, that Zoloft works

well with them. "

 

Brian killed a woman five days after he began taking the drug.

Authorities found no illegal drugs in his system, only Zoloft.

 

The psychiatrist that examined him after the crime, a faculty member

at Yale University, Dr James Merkangis, testified that Brian had

suffered a manic reaction to Zoloft.

 

Like so children who commit violent crimes while on SSRIs, Brian told

Dr Merkangis that his recollection of the crime " was like being in a

dream. "

 

Six months after Brian's arrest, another boy at his high school, Jeff

Franklin, attacked his parents and three of his brothers and sisters

with an ax while on Prozac.

 

" Both of his parents died and Jeff is now serving two life sentences, "

Joyce said. " This is not a coincidence, " she warns, " there is a common

denominator, teenager, severely depressed, on an SSRI antidepressant. "

 

According to Joyce, " there are 6 to 8 million children on these drugs. "

 

" The question is why are we handing these drugs out like candy, " she

wants to know.

 

" The answer is a $17 billion a year business, " she says.

 

In Washington state, on April 15, 2001, 16-year-old Cory Baadsgaard

took a hunting rifle to school and held a teacher and 23 classmates

hostage for 45 minutes.

 

A few months earlier, Corey had been diagnosed as having a social

anxiety disorder, and was prescribed Paxil by the family doctor. When

Paxil did not seem to work, the doctor upped the dose.

 

A few months later when Paxil still did not seem to work, the doctor

took Corey off the drug and placed him on another SSRI, Effexor, with

instructions to gradually increase the dose to 300 milligrams over 3

weeks.

 

The day that Corey took the first full 300 milligram dose, he did not

feel well so he stayed home from school and went back to bed. That

evening he woke up in a juvenile detention center.

 

Corey had no idea what he had done. " I asked one of the members of the

juvenile detention center and I found out that I had taken my

high-powered rifle that I use for hunting to my third period class,

took 23 of my classmates hostage and teacher hostage, " he said.

 

Cory has no recollection of his actions that day although he had

plenty of time to try and remember as he sat in jail for 14 months

before being released based on testimony by psychiatrists explaining

the adverse effects of Paxil and Effexor.

 

Before this incident, Corey had never been violent and he has never

been violent since.

 

One of his friends who watched Corey at school that day described his

actions to his father, Jay. " Cory was yelling " he said, " and then he

just stopped, looked down and saw the gun in his hand and woke up. "

 

Delnora Duprey is a grandmother who mourns the loss of the years since

she has seen her grandson Christopher play ball, ride a bike, talk on

the phone, or run in to ask, " hey, grandma, what's for dinner? "

 

According to Delnora, Chris is a tall, thin quiet boy, well-liked and

respectful to everyone, " who loved his family dearly, and had hopes

and dreams for a future. "

 

The family's nightmare began when at 12-years-old, Chris was diagnosed

with depression, and " placed on medication that was never tested on

children and never meant for their use, " according to Delnora.

 

After Christopher became depressed and threatened to commit suicide,

he was hospitalized and put on Paxil. A short time later his father

sent him to South Carolina to live with his paternal grandparents. By

all accounts, Christopher liked living there and truly loved his

grandparents.

 

When it came time to refill the Paxil prescription, his grandparents

took him to their family doctor who had no Paxil and sent Christopher

home with a bag of sample packets of Zoloft instead, and wrote the

instructions for use on the outside of the bag.

 

For the record, in Pfizer's 2004 Annual Report, under product

description, it says that Zoloft is not approved for treating

pediatric patients. Christopher was a 12-year-old child at the time he

was sent home with a bag of Zoloft.

 

He was never weaned off Paxil before the drugs were switched and Paxil

has a well-documented history of side effects itself. When Christopher

complained about how the medication made him feel, the doctor upped

the dose to 200 milligrams

 

About 48 hours later the 6th grader shot and killed his paternal

grandparents as they slept and burned the house down around them.

 

Christopher was tried as an adult, and despite testimony by two

psychiatrists that he was " involuntarily intoxicated " on Zoloft at the

time of the crimes, the jury found him guilty.

 

Prior to being placed on SSRIs, Christopher " was a sweet boy who never

hurt himself or anyone else before, " she added.

 

A child like Christopher could not have possibly known what he was up

against in the courtroom, when it came to convincing members of the

jury of his guilt or innocence depending on their understanding of the

adverse effects of Zoloft.

 

Realizing how costly it would become if a jury were to blame Zoloft

for the crimes, Pfizer got involved behind the scenes and provided the

prosecutor with guidance on how to cross-examine expert witnesses like

Dr Anne Blake Tracy and Dr Peter Breggin, who were scheduled to appear

and testify on Christopher's behalf.

 

State Prosecutor, John Justice, admitted during a court hearing that

Pfizer had provided him with information to help him prepare for the

trial. As it turns out, the company had provided FDA reports along

with instructions for their interpretation and presentation in court,

in addition to records of previous testimony given in other cases by

Christopher's expert witnesses.

 

South Carolina has a minimum 30 year prison sentence for adults who

commit murder. Christopher's aunt, Melinda Pittman Rector, the

daughter of his murdered grandparents, appeared at the sentencing

hearing and begged the judge for leniency, saying that her parents

would want the court to show mercy toward their grandson.

 

Even after listening to his aunt's plea for mercy, the judge sentenced

Christopher to the full 30 years in an adult penitentiary.

 

In a letter written in jail, Christopher describes the same

recollection about the night he killed his grandparents that so many

other children on SSRIs have described when committing violent crimes.

 

" Through the whole thing, it was like watching your favorite TV show, "

Christopher wrote, " you know what is going to happen but you can't do

anything to stop it. "

 

Last summer the South Carolina Supreme Court agreed to hear

Christopher's appeal and needless to say, his family members, as well

as advocates from all over the country are hoping for a reversal of

the guilty verdict.

 

But the headlines with stories about children committing violent acts

due to the adverse effects of SSRIs seem like they will never end.

 

On January 26, 2006, a psychologist on Court TV reported that Cody

Posey, the 14-year-old child who killed his parents and his sister in

the summer of 2004, was on Zoloft at the time that of the murders.

 

Cody started taking Zoloft on April 20, 2004 and killed his family

members on July 5, 2004. His father was the range manager for the

well-known TV reporter Sam Donaldson.