The average citizen is told that when a person is depressed the best thing to do is talk to your doctor and get a prescription for an antidepressant. This is to make you feel better and better able to function in this society. It is also told to us that antidepressants are good for managing ADHD, ADD and a myriad of behavior problems in children and adults.

What I want to do first is show you what the medical professionals have to say about antidepressants. The consensus is that the benefits outweigh the side-effects. They could be right. You have to make the decision. Here is an excerpt from a Reuter's article.

Antidepressants' benefits exceed risks: study
Wed Apr 18, 2007 11:40AM EDT
By Julie Steenhuysen

"The benefits seem to be much stronger than the risks," said Dr. David Brent, a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, whose study appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said there is no reason for a change in the labeling and said doctors are still free to prescribe the drugs to young patients.

The FDA introduced the warnings on the most popular antidepressants in October 2004 after studies in the United States and Britain suggested the drugs may raise the risk of suicide in children and adults.

According to data from Medco Health Solutions Inc., the number of children 19 and under taking antidepressants fell by 13 percent from 2004 to 2005.

Brent noted that suicide rates in adolescents have, at the same time, begun to rise. "That is after 10 consecutive years of a decline in the rate," he said.

He pointed to a February study in the journal Pediatrics that found deaths from suicide in 10 to 19-year-olds rose 18.2 percent in 2004 from 2003. No other causes of child death increased during that period.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSN1740045520070418?feedType=RSS

What I am going to do now is show you the real story behind antidepressants. Many people have gone to a lot of trouble to create websites that document what the truth is. I was surprised at my findings.

The little known truths that I am going to present to you I found while doing research into the FDA. This topic about antidepressants is more important to the United States citizen and it will, in a round about manner, prove that the FDA needs a complete overhaul if not charges brought against it for "violating the public trust" and as an "accessory to assault." That is my opinion. You must decide for yourself.

What I am going to show you is why guns do not kill people. It is the person holding the gun that kills because that person is in a frame of mind that is drug induced.

NOTE: I am not going to get into gang violence because if a gang member wants to have a gun he will get it illegally. These stories reflect normal people doing abnormal violent acts while they were on antidepressants.

On the site SSRI stories, http://www.ssristories.com they have gone to the trouble of documenting stories that they found in the general media.

I downloaded the reports to an excel spread sheet in order to do a proper analysis and to prove or disprove their claims that there were over 1800 incidents that are listed. Here are some of the stats from that site.

In fact there are 1846 incidents they have reported. Out of those 1846 there are:

29 reports that deal with a student. 3 of those incidents did not result in violence or death of other students or faculty. (NOTE: Columbine and Virginia Tech are part of the incidents that ended in death and violence.)

9 reports a shooting spree by an adult.

12 reports a stabbing incident.

22 reports stand off with the police.

450 reports of suicide or attempted suicide.

68 reports of violent behavior, thoughts or threats.

17 reports of workplace violence.

47 reports of road rage violence.

655 reports of murder, attempted murder and murder/suicide

This is but a tip of the iceberg. I would suggest that you go to http://www.ssristories.com and look for yourself.

What you will find is that quite a bit of the violent behavior involved a fire arm. Some people would say that taking away all guns would solve this problem. WRONG! These people would just find some other means to hurt and kill people. (You must remember that they are not in their proper frame of mind.) They would use a knife, baseball bat, fireplace poker or some other means to do harm. Personally, I do not think that the person is at fault here. The antidepressants they were taking altered their thinking from passive to aggressive to psychotic.

I am not saying that this happens to everyone. What I am saying is that some people are very sensitive to these types of mind altering drugs.

Let me give you some more stats about antidepressant use in Australia. I am taking parts of a PDF presentation that was given in Sidney, Australia. May, 2005 by Yolande Lucire PhD, MB BS DPM FRANZCP, Forensic Psychiatrist.

Akathisia is a subjective desire to be in
constant motion.
A manifestation of drug sensitivity, it
may be confused with psychotic
agitation, and incorrectly treated by
increasing the dose of the offending
medication.
The symptom subsides when the
offending medication is discontinued
and replaced by another one, better
tolerated by the patient.
Source: Modern Synopsis of Psychiatry
lll, Kaplan and Saddock.
1981 edition. And all since.
SSRI-induced akathisia is in the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual (DSM IV TR ) at 333.99

Teicher, Glod and Cole (1993) suggested 9
"clinical mechanisms" by which SSRIs can
induce or exacerbate suicidal tendencies by
causing the following:
(a) energizing depressed patients to act on
pre-existing suicidal ideation;
(b) paradoxically worsening depression;
(c) inducing akathisia with associated selfdestructive
or aggressive impulses;
(d) inducing panic attacks;
(e) switching patients into manic or mixed
states;
(f) producing severe insomnia or interfering
with sleep architecture;
(g) inducing an organic obsessional state;
(h) producing an organic personality
disorder with borderline features;
(i)exacerbating or inducing (EEG) or other
neurological disturbances.
Teicher MH, Glod CA, Cole JO. The emergence of
fluoxetine- induced suicidality. Drug Safety
1993;8(3):186-212

What is Akathisia? These excerpts were taken from Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akathisia

Akathisia, or acathisia, is an unpleasant subjective sensation of "inner" restlessness that manifests itself with an inability to sit still or remain motionless, hence its origin [Ancient Greek α (a), without, not + κάθισις (káthisis), sitting].

Akathisia is most often seen as a side effect of certain drugs. It is by far most commonly seen in the use of antipsychotic medications, as well as other neuroleptic drugs.

• Non-sedating antipsychotics such as haloperidol (Haldol), droperidol, pimozide, trifluoperazine, amisulpride, risperidone, and aripiprazole (Abilify). Much less common in sedating antipsychotics such as olanzapine (Zyprexa®) or chlorpromazine where anticholinergic and antihistaminergic effects counteract akathisia to a degree.
   
• SSRIs, such as fluoxetine (Prozac).[7] It has also been documented with the use of paroxetine (Paxil).[5] Akathisia has been studied as the mechanism by which SSRI-induced suicidality occurs.[7]
   
• Other antidepressants, such as the tricyclics and trazodone (Desyrel).
   
• Certain anti-emetic drugs, particularly the dopamine blockers, such as metoclopramide (Reglan) and prochlorperazine (Compazine).
   
• Certain drugs of abuse, such as GHB, methamphetamine and MDMA when administered in excessive doses.
   

The 2006 U.K. study by Healy, Herxheimer, and Menkes observed that akathisia is often miscoded in antidepressant clinical trials as "agitation, emotional lability, and hyperkinesis (overactivity)."[5] The study further points out that misdiagnosis of akathisia as simple motor restlessness occurs, but that this is more properly classed as dyskinesia. Healy, et. al., further show links between antidepressant-induced akathisia and violence, including suicide, as akathisia can "exacerbate psychopathology." The study goes on to state that there is extensive clinical evidence correlating akathisia with SSRI use, showing that approximately ten times as many patients on SSRIs as those on placebos showed symptoms severe enough to drop out of a trial (5.0% compared to 0.5%).

Now back to the document by Dr.Yolande Lucire.

She goes on to state that,

SECOND GENERATION ANTIPSYCHOTICS MAY ALSO BE CULPABLE.

David Healy analyzed the FDA trials that got the atypical antipsychotics licensed. They are now publicly available on the FDA website.

The regulator, the FDA, just did not notice, in the late 1980's that 1 in every 145 subjects that entered the trials for olanzapine, risperidone, and ziprasidone died.

Most, but not all by suicide. Strokes were very common. Coroners have not been told there is an FDA advisory about sudden death in elderly patients.

Zyprexa (Olanzapine) trials had the highest rate of suicide in clinical trial history. 84, i.e. 1 in 35 — had serious side effects.

Suicide and Suicide Attempts in Clinical

Trials of Antipsychotic Agents

submitted to the FDA
 

Only 5 Zyprexa trials were undertaken to underpin its use in Schizophrenia 50% of enrolled participants did not complete six week trials because of side effects.

1 in 208 committed suicide.

There were 3 Risperdal trials.
50% did not complete.
1 in 250 committed suicide.

Trial 1:160 patients , 6 weeks
50% did not complete
FDA: "equivocal"
Trial 2: 523 patients — 45% did not complete.
FDA:'multiple doses of risperidone compared with a single dose of haloperidol -biased)
Trial 3: 1557 subjects 5 countries

To get psychotic patients for $10-$25,000 each, Borison and Diamond took their schizophrenics off Haloperidol to generate active psychosis, then compared one dose of haloperidol to many of the atypical. They went to jail for ripping off a university. Their work is still cited.

All clinical trials ( with strategic information omitted) are now available on FDA website.

12 suicides but no other suicidal acts?
Whom are they kidding?
EVERYONE, and very successfully.
Enter: ENDORSEMENT SCIENCE

5 trials of Zyprexa for schizophrenia generated 234 ghost-written articles by prominent opinion leaders and many company summaries.

None of these publications yields a true picture of the drop out rate, side effects or risk of suicide or suicidal acts on Zyprexa.

RISPERDAL and ZYPREXA were promoted on the cover of Time Magazine, The Post, Washington Times and New York Times.

The Dopamine Theory of Schizophrenia was alive and well in those endorsements.

from David Healy, unpublished.Details from Professor Clive

Adams of the Cochrane Centre for Schizophrenia, Leeds, October 2004.

From 1990 to 2002, antidepressant use increased by 352%, to reach 51.5 DDs/1000/day

In this same period, 1990 and 2002, Suicides of persons under Mental Health Care (in NSW alone) increased from 24 to to over 156. Just about 350%

This becomes an empirical question for coroners who will have toxicological results from all of these deaths.

'Separations' for suicide attempts increased from 3211 to 8090 in NSW from 1989 to 2002.





As you can see by all the charts taken from this presentation violent behavior increased with the increase in antidepressant prescriptions. So, of course, violence using a firearm is going to increase along with physical violence, road rage, self-mutilation, and stabbing. I forgot to tell you that there were 12 stabbings reported by SSRI stories.

My opinion is that the public is being fooled into believing that it is guns that kill like with Columbine and Virginia Tech. With what I presented to you today my hope is that you realize the major problem that we have in this country. We need to stop prescribing antidepressants to children now.

Here are some other websites that have information about antidepressants and violence.

http://ssri-uksupport.com

http://www.ssri-uksupport.com/AdverseEffectsOfPharmaceuticalsReportIreland.pdf

This is taken from page 18 of the report. (ADR is adverse drug reations.)

3.3 The consequences of ADRs are significant. In the US it has been estimated that
44,000 to 98,000 deaths occur annually as a result of medical error of which about 7,000
are attributable to ADRs15. Another US study reported that about 6.7% of patients suffer
serious adverse drug effect while in hospital resulting in a fatality rate of 0.32%. In the
US context that translates into 2.2 million serious ADRs in hospitals and 106,000
deaths.16 Another US study reports another 350,000 serious adverse events in nursing
homes. The number occurring outside the hospital system is unknown.17

3.7 In Ireland the current rate of reporting of ADRs is as shown below. Reporting of
ADRs has increased by about one third in the last five years. This is somewhat
less than might have been expected on the basis of the increase in consumption of
medicines in the same period.


* ADR means Adverse Drug Reactions

This next document comes from http://www.ssri-uksupport.com/files/Swedishmpaamphetaminekids.pdf

The title of the report is "The Swedish Medical Products Agency (MPA) and its retrospective study about prescription of stimulants to children." Written May, 2004.


As you can see the increase in prescribing antidepressants is not only happening in the United States. This is a world wide problem and needs to be stopped. There are so many reports that it would take me years to read them all. I will leave all that up to you because you need to do your own due diligence in order to see what I am saying here is true.

I am going to end with one of Dr. Yolande Lucire final statements. She made the point very simply.

The World Health Organization, bearing information that psychiatric services increase suicide rates in developing countries, has been trying to tell the west for decades that problems occur when people take psychotropic drugs for too long or come off these drugs suddenly and not gradually.

Why isn't the United States listening? Have we put a deaf ear to the truth because of profit? I do not know, do you?

You need to contact your elected officials to have them convene a Congressional Investigation into the FDA and their practices against children. The rights of the child to live a normal and happy life are being threatened by these drugs.

You can find your State Representative and State Senator at Legislative Action Center. Then click on "My Elected Officials." You can then enter your address to find your State Representative and State Senator.

www.renewamerica.com/columns/janak/070921