Sharav -  FIGHTING the MOTHERS Act: Antidepressants Linked to 52 % S

Posted by: "Amy Philo" amyphilo@yahoo.com   amyphilo

Thu Feb 28, 2008 2:38 pm (PST)

URGENT! Sign the petition against the MOTHERS Act at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/stop-the-dangerous-and-invasive-mothers-act
STOP THE MOTHERS Act - A nationwide screening program for psychiatric disorders which encourages drugs to pregnant and postpartum women
URGENT - VISIT http://uniteforlife.org/MOTHERpress.htm and call the HELP Committee and HELP Committee Chair Senator Edward Kennedy. OBAMA is a cosponsor.
Before you take an antidepressant, watch my video on the horrors of Zoloft.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQW23XCmOCw
Before you take an antidepressant during pregnancy, please watch the videos on this youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/jledgi

From: vince <vince_19805@yahoo.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2008 4:04:33 PM
Subject: Sharav - Antidepressants Linked to 52 % Suicides among Swedish women, Antipsychotics linked to 26%

**** note: This is a private list. I send out alerts, useful news items, and comment to a group of mental health professionals, decision makers and activists. (OK to repost and to include this header and comments). If you do not want to receive any of these emails, please let me know. To preserve privacy, I blind copy the entire list. Vince Boehm ****

Vera Sharav

http://www.ahrp.org and http://ahrp.blogspot.com

FYI

Despite the abysmal failure of SSRI Antidepressants to demonstrate
clinically significant efficacy above placebo, and despite the severity of
their adverse effects--including increased risk of suicide--the drugs have
their powerful financially invested advocates who appear to be undeterred by
science, by medicine's "do no harm" principle, or by the mounting
preventable human casualties.

The news headlines garnered by the latest scientific meta-analysis of 38
SSRI trials submitted to the FDA confirms that at best 82% of the drugs'
clinical efficacy is attributable to the placebo effect. In another 9
trials, excluded from the meta-analysis by Irving Kirsch and colleagues, the
antidepressant failed to achieve the efficacy of the placebo.
http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0050045

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/feb/27/mentalhealth.health1?gusrc=rss7feed=worldnews

Though these drugs lack clinical efficacy, they come with severe risks of
harm--most notably, suicide--which is now acknowledged in a Black Box label
warning.

An alarming report by Sweden's National Board of Health and Welfare reveals
that 80% of all adult suicides (18-84) reported in 2006 to the National
Board of Health and Welfare, were committed by persons "treated" with
psychiatric drugs: 50% of those who committed suicide were on an SSRI, 60%
had been on an antipsychotic.

The number of women who committed suicide in 2006, was 377. Of these, 197
(52%) had filled a prescription for antidepressants within 180 days before
their death; and 29 women (8%) had filled a prescription for antipsychotics within
180 days before they committed suicide.

Furthermore, the number of suicide attempts among young people in Sweden is
increasing.

In Sweden, health care providers are required to report all suicides
committed up to four weeks after a patient's last health care visit.
Last year, the Swedish Parliament mandated that the suicide registry include
a detailed record of a victims recent psychopharmaceutical history.

In sharp contrast to Sweden's effort to reduce suicides by documenting the
use of psychoactive prescription drugs by those who committed suicide, to
evaluate whether to encourage reduced use of these drugs, the United States
Congress is in the process of passing a law that would surely INCREASE
women's use of antidepressants and, hence, INCREASE suicides.

The bill, HR 20, incorporating S. 1375, is promoted as "The Melanie Blocker
Stokes MOTHERS Act" ostensibly to combat postpartum depression.
The bill would authorize "screening" and "treating" women deemed "depressed"
after giving birth. The bill's covert intent is to INCREASE use of SSRI
antidepressants and antipsychotics.

What's scary is that HR 20, authorizing appropriations for fiscal years
2008-2010, has already passed the House with ne'er any resistance!

Instead, a grass roots crusader against HR 20, has stepped up to the plate:
Amy Philo, a mother who became homicidally psychotic following ingestion of
Zoloft prescribed by a psychiatrist who kept increasing the dose to
frightening ill effects.

Her experience led her to found Children and Adults Against Drugging America
- www.chaada.org
See her story and videos on YouTube:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=W4B8I_8wz6I and
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=LQW23XCmOCw&feature=related

Sign the petition to stop the "Mothers Act" which will benefit the
pharmaceutical-industrial complex, but cause great harm to American women,
children and their families.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/stop-the-dangerous-and-invasive-mothers-act

For evidence of SSRI-linked suicide and SSRI-linked violence see:

1. Arif Khan, Shirin Khan, Russell Kolts, Walter A Brown. Suicide rates in
clinical trials of SSRIs, other antidepressants, and placebo: analysis of
FDA reports. Am J Psychiatry. 2003 Apr ;160 (4):790-2.

Ignore the misleading abstracts which are belied by the findings. Dr. Arif
Khan conducted exhaustive analyses of FDA data documenting suicides in
antidepressant and antipsychotic drug trials and the suicide and attempted
suicide rates are staggering. See: http://www.ahrp.org/infomail/0902/06.php
Bear in mind that paitnes who are actively suicidal are excluded by protocol
in all such trials. Khan's work demonstrated that the phenomenon of drug
induced suicide is not confined to the SSRI class of medication but can be
shown in an even greater degree in antipsychotics. The suicide rates for
both antipsychotics and the SSRI/SNRI substances were massive (well over
700) as opposed to the rate in the general population which is in the very
low teens (10 - 12/100,000).

2. Dean Fergusson, Steve Doucette, Kathleen Cranley Glass, Stan Shapiro,
David Healy, Paul Hebert, Brian Hutton . Association between suicide
attempts and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors: systematic review of
randomised controlled trials. BMJ. 2005 Feb 19;330:396 15718539

3. Healy D, Herxheimer A, Menkes DB (2006). "Antidepressants and violence:
problems at the interface of medicine and law". PLoS Med. 3 (9): e372
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0030372

Contact: Vera Hassner Sharav
veracare@ahrp.org
212-595-8974

http://www.thelocal.se/9792/20080128/

More Swedes attempt suicide
28 Jan 08

The number of suicide attempts among young people in Sweden is increasing.
The rise among young women has been particularly sharp, although the figure
for young men is also up.

* Baby height linked to suicide (24 Jan 08)
* Young Swedish women kill themselves more often (4 Oct 07)
* Sweat could reveal suicide risk (7 Aug 07)

The figures come in a report published on Monday by the Swedish National
Board of Health and Welfare, which shows that the greatest rise in attempted
suicides in 2006 was among women in the 15-24 age group.

A total of 140,000 people were admitted to hospital in 2006 for 'deliberate
self-destructive action', the official term used in medical registers for
suicide attempts and other forms of self-harm. Overdoses of tablets were
most common.

The number of people who succeeded in killing themselves also increased,
particularly among women aged 15-24. Some 8.4 women per 100,000 in the 15-24
age group committed suicide in 2006, the highest figure since 1979,
according to official records.

"This is a terrible development, and we have no scientific studies that
explain why, although the social climate is tougher these days," Professor
Britta Alin Åkerman at the Karolinska Institute's Institution for Suicide
Prevention told Svenska Dagbladet.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=33878&cat=10

Antidepressants behind 52 percent of all suicides among women
by Janne Larsson

Incredible data have just been revealed that antidepressant drugs were behind 52 percent of all suicides among women (18-84) in Sweden (2006).

United States 1/21/2008 08:04 PM GMT (TransWorldNews)

This is not data from a limited study; it instead concerns information on a national level for ALL suicides (18-84 years) for 2006. The information is unique; registries now exist in Sweden making it possible for the National Board of Health and Welfare to see how many of the suicides were preceded by psychiatric drug treatment.

Among a total number of 377 women who committed suicide, 197 (52%) had filled a prescription for antidepressants within 180 days before their death. And 29 women (8%) had filled a prescription for neuroleptics ("antipsychotics") ONLY within 180 days before the suicide.

This means that 229 women - 60% - of those who committed suicide (18-84) in Sweden (2006) had filled a prescription for antidepressant drugs OR neuroleptics within 180 days before their suicide.

Neuroleptics were involved in total in 97 (26%) of the suicides among women, (68 women, 18%, got BOTH antidepressants and neuroleptics). NOT included in these figures is the percentage of women who got other forms of psychiatric drugs, like benzodiazepines.

The data are revealed just after the news broke that pharmaceutical companies have systematically hidden negative and exaggerated positive results in their clinical trials of antidepressants (see article Antidepressant Studies Unpublished in NYT), thus misleading patients and doctors for many years.

In general, pharmaceutical companies have used a "blackmail strategy" to get doctors and sad patients to believe that they MUST use the drugs - or else. In ads with pictures of gravestones they have proclaimed: "A depression can end unexpectedly fast" (Wyeth for Effexor.) Leading psychiatrists with financial interests in increased sales have been writing endlessly in medical journals about the “protective effect” of antidepressants against suicide. Shamelessly false statements that the psychiatric drugs correct a chemical imbalance (like a lack of serotonin) in the brain are still part of the official drug labels: "In depression the normal access to these [chemical] substances is lowered. Antidepressants can restore the deficits [of chemical substances] and give a normal function of the brain" (label for Remeron; Organon/ Schering-Plough). "These medications help restore the normal levels of serotonin in the brain" (Cipramil/Celexa; Lundbeck/ Forest
Laboratories).

But the new data from Sweden tell the real story: Antidepressants do NOT have a positive effect in preventing suicides - they were part of 52 percent of all cases of suicide among women (18-84) for the year 2006; they did obviously not correct any form of “chemical imbalance” in the brain for those women.

An earlier investigation 2007 of documents, gotten via FOI requests, gave information about suicides (2006) committed IN health care and UP TO four weeks after last health care visit. The information was made available when a new law was enacted making it mandatory to report all such suicides to the National Board of Health and Welfare. 367 suicides were reported per this law for 2006: More than 80 percent of the persons who committed suicide were “treated” with psychiatric drugs; in well over 50 percent of the cases the persons got antidepressants, in more than 60 neuroleptics or antidepressants.

Senior officials at the Board were not interested in revealing anything more about this. They had adopted the marketing lines of pharmaceutical companies and relied on evaluations from well-known Swedish SSRI-proponents, (like psychiatrists G. Isacsson and A.L. von Knorring) who for more than a decade have touted the new antidepressants as “life saving”. A senior official even said that “evidence based treatment of the underlying psychiatric disorder can reduce the risk for suicide”, referring to the “protective effect” that he believed antidepressant drugs had. The data about the large percentage of persons who had committed suicide, after having been “treated” with psychiatric drugs, were brushed aside by the official, saying the data “cannot currently be seen as a representative source for a discussion about these questions” (!). When the agency published its first analysis of cases from 2006, reported per the new law, there was
not a single word written about the most compelling fact: Well over 80 percent of the persons who killed themselves were treated with psychiatric drugs.

A lot of requests have been made to get the Board to publish ALL data about suicides and preceding psychiatric drug treatment. They have been turned down. Decisions have been taken at the very top of the Board not to let the public know.

But now data have leaked out about ALL suicides (18-84) for 2006. For women the results are as above.

For men the figures for 2006 are as follows: Among a total of 878 men (18-84) who had committed suicide, 291 (33%) had filled a prescription for antidepressants within 180 days before their death. And 41 men (5%) had filled a prescription for neuroleptics ("antipsychotics") ONLY within 180 days before the suicide.

This means that 332 men - 38% - of those who committed suicide (18-84) in Sweden (2006) had filled a prescription for antidepressant drugs OR neuroleptics within 180 days before their suicide.

Neuroleptics were involved in total in 119 (14%) of the suicides among men, (78 men, 9%, got BOTH antidepressants and neuroleptics). NOT included in these figures is the percentage of men who got other forms of psychiatric drugs.

Thus it can be said that 561 (45%) of ALL 1255 persons (18-84) who committed suicide in Sweden 2006 had filled a prescription for antidepressant drugs OR neuroleptics (not at all counting other psychiatric drugs) within 180 days before their suicide.

A certain number of the persons killing themselves can be expected to be suffering from drug induced akathisia – an extreme inner restlessness, a feeling of having to creep out of ones skin, a completely unbearable condition. It is CAUSED by the psychiatric drugs, not by any “underlying disease”. Akathisia is a condition that can make a person commit violent acts – against self or others. It is a condition officially recognized and taken up in the warning texts for the drugs. A number of the persons can also be expected to be affected by mania or hypomania – again CAUSED by the drugs; conditions also officially recognized; conditions that can lead to suicide.

Some of the valid questions in an objective investigation of suicides, where psychiatric drugs preceded the tragic event, would be: Was the suicide an effect of an unbearable condition created by the drugs (like akathisia)? Had the drug dose been increased – with a catastrophic result – when the worsened condition in actual fact was caused by the drug (while being blamed on the “underlying disease”)? Had the patient been subject to an abrupt discontinuation (with severe withdrawal symptoms as the result)? Was the catastrophic result very likely caused by concomitant use of psychiatric drugs? Had the patient been informed about all the serious harmful effects that these drugs can cause?

None of these questions are part of the form used when investigation suicides, worked out by senior officials at the National Board of Health and Welfare. These questions would – if asked and the answers used – save lives. But they would also threaten the profits of pharmaceutical companies and the careers of their hired psychiatrists. Therefore they cannot be asked.

The Swedish government has been notified about the concealment of data at the National Board of Health and Welfare (the hiding of data and neglect of analysis of drug induced harmful effects is decided at the very top; despite lower officials at the Board wanting to do a good job and let the public know the real story). The Minister for Elderly Care and Public Health (Maria Larsson) has not at all acted to make the hidden data known to the public. The Minister for Health and Social Affairs (Göran Hägglund) has been asked in parliament, the Riksdag, to start a formal investigation inte the violence inducing effect (against self and others) of different psychiatric drugs, but his answer shows – at best – that he is living far from the real world. This is his view about the effectiveness of medical agencies, the adverse event reporting system and the speed of actions taken to protect the public: “If new data somewhere in the world indicate that a
medical drug in use can have up to now unknown harmful effects, an alarm goes out that reaches responsible authorities over the world. The Medical Products Agency [the Swedish medical agency] fast conveys the information to prescribers and to pharmacies in Sweden.” (Answer in Swedish parliament, the Riksdag, December 2007.)

Well, now “an alarm” goes out, that data buried in the registries at the National Board of Health and Welfare – very close to the Minister – show that psychiatric drugs are behind an incredible amount of suicides. Will doctors and patients be told about it? And what consequences will it have for the “treatment guidelines”?

----------------------

(Very much is NOT KNOWN about the psychiatric treatment preceding the suicides above. For example the use of other psychiatric drugs or ECT in these cases are still completely concealed. The National Board of Health and Welfare has not published any documents about this.

Some persons might want to verify some of the figures above. They can actually do so in a newly published English article. The astonishing data above are made part of a published letter about “ethnic differences in antidepressant treatment”. This subject is of course of relative disinterest – especially as no differences were found – compared to the facts revealed that 52% of all women who committed suicide had gotten antidepressant drugs and 26% had gotten neuroleptics. See article: Rickard Ljung, M.D., Ph.D., Charlotte Björkenstam, M.Sc. and Emma Björkenstam, B.Sc; Ethnic Differences in Antidepressant Treatment Preceding Suicide in Sweden, Psychiatric Services 59:116-a-117, January 2008 http://ps.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/59/1/116-a )

Janne Larsson
reporter – investigating psychiatry

Sweden

janne.olov.larsson@telia.com

FAIR USE NOTICE: This may contain copyrighted (© ) material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. This material is distributed without profit.

The information herein shall not be considered an endorsement of anyone discontinuing psychiatric drugs. If you are stopping taking medication it is advisable to reduce the dose gradually WITH EXTREME CAUTION, as it is difficult to predict who will have problems withdrawing. It is worth getting as much information and support as you can, and involving your doctor wherever possible. You will find withdrawal information here: http://www.mind.org.uk/Information/Booklets/Making+sense/Making+sense+of+coming+off+psychiatric+drugs.htm

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON WITHDRAWAL:: Get Peter Lehmann's book, Coming off Psychiatric Drugs: Successful Withdrawal from Neuroleptics, Antidepressants, Lithium, Carbamazepine and Tranquilizers. This valuable resource comes in US, UK, and German editions.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]