The eency weency spider went up the water spout,
Down came the rain and washed the spider out.
I did copy it from Mark at Psych Survivor 2.0 . This is the least I can do to celebrate four years of Furious Seasons, Philip Dawdy's blog, that has inspired me to start this blog as many others. Philip Dawdy is dedicating his life and journalistic career publishing valuable data about the severe harms that psych-drugs are causing and to whom it's more profitable to let things stay the way they are.
I have stopped publishing at this blog because it's too damn hard. It's too sad to write about side effects, withdrawal symptoms and all the harms caused by the drugs. I have spent one year and two months at this blog. I've cried and got angry many times till I had to stop.
I don't think twice in classifying as crime against humanity what these drugs are doing and criminals those who are profiting at the expenses of other people's suffering, those who have any kind of emotional problem and those who haven't but were pushed to any of these pills.
I thank Philip Dawdy for his strength to do such a work and I hope that one day what he is bringing to the attention of a few becomes common knowledge and I know he doesn't work to receive any prize. He works because he cares.
I will take the opportunity to thank all my blog friends that keep on the fight. I'm not blogging but I'm doing my best to spread the word.
I hope you visit me at my other blog and can find something to make you smile. I never forget any of you. You are part of who I am.
| 10/30/2006 | 2006P-0442 | Orchid Healthcare/Determine that Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Inc. discontinued its previously-approved formulation of the Reference Listed Drug Zosyn (piperacillin and tazobactam for injection), 40.5 gram pharmacy bulk via | Interim Response 04/23/2007 |
"Phase IV studies, often called Post Marketing Surveillance Trials, are conducted after a drug or device has been approved for consumer sale. Pharmaceutical companies have several objectives at this stage: (1) to compare a drug with other drugs already in the market; (2) to monitor a drug's long-term effectiveness and impact on a patient's quality of life; and (3) to determine the cost-effectiveness of a drug therapy relative to other traditional and new therapies. Phase IV studies can result in a drug or device being taken off the market or restrictions of use could be placed on the product depending on the findings in the study."Taken from the market? If anybody knows of a drug that was taken from the market because FDA studied it and came to the conclusion that it's not a good drug please let me know.
"If a drug is approved, pharmaceutical companies may continue to conduct studies that compare the new drug—in terms of its safety, effectiveness, and cost—to other drugs already on the market or assess a drug's long-term effectiveness and its impact on the quality of a person's life."If anybody knows about any site where I can find FDA real surveillance I would also like to know.
"Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, says the FDA was worse than passive. Investigators for the Senate Finance Committee, which Grassley chairs, met Thursday with FDA researcher David Graham, lead scientist on a study presented in August at a medical meeting in France."
"Graham told the finance committee investigators that the FDA was trying to block publication of his findings, Grassley said in a statement. "Dr. Graham described an environment where he was 'ostracized,' 'subjected to veiled threats' and 'intimidation,' " Grassley said. Graham gave Grassley copies of e-mail that appear to support his claims that his superiors suggested watering down his conclusions."
July 9, 2009
Grassley, Kohl work to bring transparency to biomedical research fundingRead the whole article here.
"WASHINGTON – Today Senators Chuck Grassley and Herb Kohl sent a letter to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), urging the federal agency to take steps to increase transparency of federally funded biomedical research. NIH is seeking public comment as it considers changes to its disclosure policy, and the senators made specific recommendations related to both individual researchers and academic institutions who receive NIH grants."
"The senators suggested that researchers be required to report their outside income to the nearest $1000, and that universities be required to complete a plan to manage the researcher’s potential conflicts of interest. Finally, they maintained that both the disclosures and the plan be available to the public via the NIH website."
"For the past two years, Grassley and Kohl have collaborated to push for increased transparency in financial relationships between physicians and the drug, device and biologic industries. As part of that effort, they have championed the Physician Payments Sunshine Act (S. 301) to require these industries to publicly report payments and gifts to doctors. Recently, identical provisions to those in S.301 were included in the health care reform discussion documents released by the Senate Finance Committee. Similar provisions were included in the House draft bill as well.
Grassley is Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Finance. Kohl is Chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging. Below is the text of their letter to NIH."
My thoughts
"This is a sad and gruesome story, and one that adds fuel to the discussion that has 2 sides. I've witnessed violence and aggression in people loaded up on psychiatric medications and I've seen them become calm and non-aggressive off of medications. Over the last decade, it has been my experience, not because I wanted it---to observe several psych wards and hundreds of people with the dx of Schizophrenia and psychosis. I have no vested interest in a pharmaceutical company and I am not what some people think: a anti-med scientologist. I'm just a mom who witnessed more than the average person, actually more than admittedly by inpatient psychiatrists---most told me they had not been inside state institutions or clinics --just their immediate revolving door psych wards, where indeed the door revolves because these meds cause symptoms as much as they want to believe they don't, people must understand what I witnessed is withdrawal psychosis when people go off of antipsychotics.
I am extremely concerned over the possibility of women and children being medicated by reason of a blanket screening for depression which could end up in wrong diagnosis and medication treatment that can cause extreme situations. It's what happened to my daughter at age 11, and Zoloft sent her running down roads and attempting to jump from cars on the freeway. Psychiatrists confirmed and agreed it was the Zoloft (anti depressant)back in 2001 that caused her extreme agitation and suicidal thinking/and resulting risky behaviors."
_____
"What medication was she taking? antidepressants? antipsychotics? were her medications changed too quickly? increased? decreased? all of these are factors that cannot be ignored. Of course this article is hearsay, but gives food for thought until all facts come out."
Chief executive Andrew Witty denied accusations that the firm was profiteering from the demand for the swine flu drug.
He told the BBC that the firm had invested up to $2.5bn (£1.5bn) in the past three years to ensure that it could meet the government's demand for the drug.
And Mr Witty added that the firm was not charging more than it did for other seasonal flu drugs.
It was reported that the firm was charging the NHS £6 for each dose of Relenza, which cost it £1, but the company said this was "wrong".
Mr Witty would not be drawn on the costs of manufacturing the drug, but said typically the production cost was about 25% of the sale price.
"We are trying to strike a balance between society and our shareholders, who want to see a return on the risks we take.""(emphasis mine)
Liverpool, UK - 22 July 2009:
"Interim results of a study being conducted by scientists at the University of Liverpool suggest that children aged three years and younger, who are born to women taking the anti-epileptic drug sodium valproate whilst pregnant, are likely to have an IQ of six to nine points lower than average.
The research, in collaboration with Emory University in the US and the Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, tested more than 300 three-year-olds in the UK and US, whose mothers took one of four anti-epilepsy drugs (AEDs) whilst pregnant. The preliminary findings suggest that children exposed to the drug sodium valproate had lower IQ results than children exposed to other AEDs, regardless of the mother’s IQ. The results also took dosage, duration of pregnancy and mother’s consumption of folic acid whilst pregnant, into account."
Click to enlarge and see some of the laboratories listed.
Lindens raised as of 8:00 pm SLT, 6/28/09 |
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"That he died of what appears to be sudden cardiac death makes me wonder greatly about what his toxicology results will be."And this article about CNN and Fox criticizing long-term use of antidepressants:
"That said, I want to make it clear that I am not blaming Zoloft and Paxil for Jackson's death. I am not saying that taking either drug will give any specific person a heart attack. But I am saying that, for now, that the two anti-depressants are inextricably entwined and linked to the death of MJ."Read the whole article.
This is from Independent on October, 2006 when Peter Breggin was in Ireland and I've copied it all because he raises many issues related with drugging children that are still not unfold.
I didn't know that Cymbalta, the antidepressant that Traci Johnson was taking in the clinical trial, was being tested for "stress urinary incontinence" and she was not informed that it was also being tested as an antidepressant.
'The greatest child abuse of our time is the mass drugging of our children'
By Gareth O'Callaghan
Sunday October 15 2006
She was healthy, with no history of physical or emotional difficulties, such as depression. Those closest to her described her as upbeat, an active volunteer and someone who loved life.
She had enrolled as a voluntary participant in a trial to test a new drug for "stress urinary incontinence" for which she was paid US$750 a day - the money she intended to put towards her college fees.
She commenced taking the drug in January 2004. Four weeks later, Traci Johnson hanged herself using a scarf in the shower room.
By local state laws, she was not old enough to legally drink a beer; she could not even rent a car. Yet she was deemed mature enough to decide to take an experimental drug on a daily basis.
The drug she was testing is now a widely prescribed antidepressant.
I am talking to the world-renowned psychiatrist Peter Breggin, who is visiting Ireland this week.
"The real child abusers are my colleagues in psychiatry who have led the way," were his exact words. Then he slowly repeats it.
"They are child abusers. The greatest child abuse of our time is the mass drugging of our children."
Having reflected on the words he chooses to describe doctors who prescribe harmful psychiatric drugs to young children and teenagers in order to "cure" depression or Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder(ADHD), I find he makes sense.
His time in court over many years has honed his ability for instant dramatic effect. He has acted as a witness in defence of individuals who took cases against the giant drug companies they claimed ruined their lives and almost stole their sanity and their will to live.
Many of them were awarded large fortunes in what became highly publicised landmark cases in the States. But, more important than money, they got back their dignity and their identity.
"I've had dozens of cases of anti-depressant-induced violence, suicide, psychosis, mania. In one extreme case, a man knocked down a policeman with his car in order to grab the policeman's gun to shoot himself; in another case, a man drove his car into a barrier in an attempt to kill his wife, whom he thought had an alien lurking inside her; in both cases these were clearly caused by the drugs.
"People become victims of the 'Spellbinding Effect', as I call it, leaving them at the mercy of these drugs because they don't realise they're being harmed; and they can even get a false impression that they're doing better than ever before, when in fact they 'The FDA gave a legal rationale for its silence: "Some clinical trial data are considered 'trade secrets', or commercially protected information, and thus are exempted from release under the Freedom of Information Act"'
have an unrealistic euphoria."
Breggin walks his own talk. It would be difficult to contradict the statements that are flying like a professional boxer's jabs and hooks, because everything he says is based on almost 50 years of well-practised research. But is depression not all about common sense?
"The problem is that the common sense approach, which is also the most profound approach to depression, leaves biological psychiatry high and dry, because [psychiatry] treats people as if they're broken mechanical devices that can be tinkered with by a person who knows much less about the brain than the average mechanic knows about your car.
"They take the most complex subtle human problems - how to find meaningful work, how to find love, how to live in a world full of violence and disappointments, how to overcome childhood experiences of abuse and oppression - all of these subtle difficult problems that are human problems can be resolved through a whole range of human alternatives from counselling to philosophy and religion, and they treat them in the most ignorant way as mechanical issues."
Pharmaceutical companies and many of his erstwhile colleagues have not disguised their contempt for him since the day he stepped out from the elite ranks of his closely guarded profession.
He says that new pharmaceuticals are branded as wonder drugs with certain beneficial properties. When rivals catch up and start making the same claims for their brands, the PR changes and even greater claims are made.
"So it's all games with words, played to influence the public," Breggin claims.
Breggin, who turned 70 recently, has spent much of his professional life criticising what his own profession stands for, namely the trigger-happy tendency on the part of many doctors and psychiatrists to prescribe harmful, addictive drugs for depression - a condition that is far more receptive to a loving, expressive, empathic relationship.
"We know now, and it's shown in scientific research that these drugs do cause addiction, and they predispose youngsters when they get into their 20s to use cocaine because their brains have become conditioned by [named brand drugs] which are in the same class of stimulant as cocaine.
"These drugs, for the first few weeks, usually have a flattening effect on the child's behaviour. They replace spontaneous behaviour with compulsive behaviour. It is the suppression of normal brain function."
HE IS the author of 20 bestselling books; one of them, Toxic Psychiatry (1991), made for tough reading. It was the first time we were told head-on about the dangers of some anti-depressants possibly leading to suicide. It took until 2004 for some manufacturers to accept this and include such a warning on the drug's accompanying instructions leaflet.
He says that some drug companies have "led the way in suppressing critics and research. They control the drug market - they've led the way in that regard. I'm not sure what the answer's going to be, because the battle is so lopsided, but then David did bring down Goliath".
So what's all this scientific stuff about chemical imbalances in the brain? I ask.
"There is no evidence whatsoever that depression is caused by a biochemical imbalance. There is none!" He says it is an idea promoted by certain drug companies.
"The only biochemical imbalances that we know of in the brains of people labelled 'mental patients' are the ones caused by psychiatric drugs and electric shock."
Some anti-depressants, he says, have been dubbed "the magic pills". In the States it was hip and trendy to be "popping" these pills and attending "a shrink".
One in five Irish adults takes Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) anti-depressants (CSO statistics, 2006). That's over half a million people. Are you surprised by such a high figure? I ask.
He sighs. "I was hoping that the Irish had more sense than the Americans - but in this regard it sounds a lot like America. It's a great misfortune, because there's actually very little valid scientific evidence for the effectiveness of these drugs. The way they have gotten approval in the United States is by ignoring all the ways they are no better than a sugar pill, while focusing on the small number of very limited studies that show they are only little better than a sugar pill!
"On the other hand, they cause a lot of harm. They call this the Risk Benefit Ratio. The risk of taking these drugs is rather large; all kinds of physical and psychiatric problems result from taking the drugs, while the benefit is usually small "
Drug companies in the US have paid out millions insettlements.
Breggin was one of the medical experts who evaluated cases on behalf of the claimants, including cases in which individuals died of acute diabetic coma or pancreatitis while being treated with a drug. There have also been lawsuits from people who claimed they suffered severe mental and behavioral abnormalities, including mania, suicidal tendencies, violence, and the onset of a condition called Tardive Dyskinesia (permanent drug-induced abnormal physical behaviour, as a result of taking certain prescribed drugs, characterised by involuntary jerky movements of the face, tongue, jaws, trunk, and limbs).
The drug industry says there is a legitimate concern that the fear surrounding their drugs could mean some patients are not prescribed them. They say it is important that necessary anti-depressant treatments are available to all patients who need them, including children and adolescents, and they say: "Information about the safe use of these products is made publicly available."
Is it really? I don't think so. Seven months prior to the international launch of the drug she was testing, the news of Traci Johnson's suicide started to leak out into small local newspapers around the States. Eventually, it made national headlines. Four others, each diagnosed with depression, also died by suicide while participating in the same trials.
According to an investigation by the London Independent newspaper, all five deaths were "hidden" by the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA gave a legal rationale for its silence: "Some clinical trial data are considered 'trade secrets', or commercially protected information, and thus are exempted from release under the Freedom of Information Act."
The FDA has directed the manufacturers of all anti-depressant medications to add a "black box warning" that describes the increased risk of suicidal ideas and fixations in children and adolescents given anti-depressant medications.
Traci Johnson wasn't suffering from depression. She was part of a clinical test into a drug for stress urinary incontinence. Unknown to her, this drug was also being tested as an anti-depressant. I doubt she might have partaken in such tests if she'd known that nine months later the tablets she'd swallowed would carry a "black box" suicide warning.
Peter Breggin, MD, will speak at a day-long conference entitled 'Healing Depression without Drugs or Electric Shocks', next Saturday, October 21, at the Burlington Hotel, Dublin. Contact Ticketmaster.ie for details
- Gareth O'Callaghan
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