Free Republic

Teenager bludgeoned his father to death after GP prescribed him Prozac By ANDREW LEVY 06th February 2009. Edward Belben bludgeoned his father to death and attempted to murder his mother A teenager bludgeoned his father to death with a hammer and crowbar weeks after a GP prescribed him the controversial anti-depressant Prozac. Edward Belben, 15, battered his father Gary at least 30 times with the weapons before plunging a knife into his head. He then attacked his mother, Tanya, 43, with the bloody crowbar and stabbed her in the face with some scissors before she managed to escape.

Such sexual symptoms have long been known side effects of the popular Prozac class of antidepressants, but a growing body of research suggests that they are far more common than previously thought, perhaps affecting half or more of patients. And a handful of recent medical and psychological journal articles document a small number of cases in which sexual problems remain even after a patient goes off the drugs. "This is such an upsetting issue," said Aline Zoldbrod, a Lexington psychologist and sex therapist. "There are people for whom SSRIs are really life-saving, I think, but the idea that someone would...

A parrot is taking Prozac for depression following the death of its owner. Fred, an African Grey parrot, was owned by George Dance, who had rasied him from a chick. After Mr Dance died nine months ago, Fred became depressed and bit off all of his neck feathers. He also began to bob his head up and down all day as a result of his low mood. The bird has now been prescribed a twice-daily liquid dose of a bird-friendly version of Prozac, called Clomicalm. George's widow Helen, from Somerset, told The Sun: "He has been in quite a state...

Had to go to the doctor yesterday and there I was, stuck in a small waiting room with no way to escape. See, there was this flatpanel on one wall tuned into CNN and I couldn't change the channel or sound, and unfortunately, McCain was speaking. I expect blather, falsehoods, socialism, innuendos, garbage and BS from BO but there is McCain with blather, falsehoods, socialism, innuendos, garbage and BS. I was looking for the nearest chair to put thru the screen. Decided it probably was not the best thing to do. If he had half a brain, and I'm sure...

LONDON -- May 6, 2008 -- The selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) fluoxetine (Prozac) may help to curb disease activity in patients with the relapsing-remitting form of multiple sclerosis (MS). That's the finding of preliminary research published ahead of print in the journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. The research team randomly allocated 40 patients with the relapsing-remitting form of MS to treatment with either 20 mg daily of fluoxetine (Prozac) or placebo for 24 weeks. All patients underwent magnetic resonance imaging every 4 weeks to check for new areas of neurological inflammation, a hallmark of active disease. In total,...

By her husband’s logic, Michelle Obama must be a heavily armed xenophobic religious zealot, because boy is she bitter. This C-SPAN video of a speech delivered by Mrs. Obama in North Carolina last Friday is characteristic of her peculiar recent performances on the stump. It is an hour-long talk to supporters who just want something to cheer about, and who get some opportunities at the outset, but then find themselves treated to a profoundly and relentlessly negative vision of American life.

once had a conversation with an eminent professor, of great and even intimidating erudition (though, of course, erudition is not quite the same thing as talent), about the degree of man’s self-understanding. I maintained that it had not increased in any fundamental way, notwithstanding our startling technological progress, and that, in this respect, the neurosciences were greatly oversold, as in the past physiognomy, phrenology, social Darwinism and other doctrines had been oversold. This was not to deny, of course, the very real achievements of science, but for the great majority of the time, and for the great majority of people,...

The government yesterday released details of its £170m plan to train 3,600 more psychological therapists in the wake of a study showing that antidepressant drugs such as Prozac are no more effective than a placebo.About 900,000 more people will be treated for depression and anxiety under the plan, according to the Department of Health, which predicts that 450,000 of them will be completely cured. The department also believes that 25,000 fewer people will claim sick pay and benefits because of mental health problems.

Suicidal pets get anti-depressants By staff writers February 25, 2008 02:19pm PETS at risk of self-harm are increasingly being prescribed anti-depressants because they cannot discuss problems in their lives with others, a leading veterinarian says. Zoo and wildlife medicine specialist with the UK’s Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, Romain Pizzi, told the Telegraph that more pets were being prescribed Prozac. ***** “Firstly, we will change the environment of the animal and make sure it has more stimulation and toys,” Mr Pizzi told the newspaper. "When we have ruled out underlying medical problems, we try to break the cycle by using...

Steven Kazmierczak had been taking three drugs prescribed for him by his psychiatrist, the Northern Illinois University gunman's girlfriend told CNN. Jessica Baty said Steven Kazmierczak was irritable but not erratic before his shooting rampage. Jessica Baty said Tuesday that her boyfriend of two years had been taking Xanax, used to treat anxiety, and Ambien, a sleep agent, as well as the antidepressant Prozac. Baty said the psychiatrist prescribed the medications, a fact that made her so "nervous" that she tried to persuade Kazmierczak to stop taking one of the drugs.

Steven P. Kazmierczak stopped taking Prozac before he shot to death five Northern Illinois University students and himself, his girlfriend said Sunday in a remark likely to fuel the debate over the risks and benefits of drug treatment for emotional problems. A funeral on Monday in Cicero, Ill., for Catalina Garcia, 20, who was one of five students killed in a shooting Thursday in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University. Over the years, the antidepressant Prozac and its cousins, including Paxil and Zoloft, have been linked to suicide and violence in hundreds of patients. Tens of millions of people...

Northern Illinois University police said the gunman in Thursday's campus shootings had stopped taking prescribed medications and had begun acting erratically in the days before he walked into a science lecture and opened fire. Police said the suspect identified as 27-year-old former student Stephen Kazmierczak killed five students, wounded at least 15 others and then killed himself. It was reported that a sixth student had died Friday morning, but Coroner Rusty Miller told the media that there was a communication error between his office and the hospital. About The Shooter Police have yet to uncover a motive. Kazmierczak was an...

The Loss of Sadness: How Psychiatry Transformed Normal Sorrow into Depressive Disorder by Allan V. Horwitz and Jerome C. Wakefield Oxford University Press, 287 pp., $29.95 Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness by Christopher Lane Yale University Press, 263 pp., $27.50 Let Them Eat Prozac: The Unhealthy Relationship Between the Pharmaceutical Industry and Depression by David Healy New York University Press, 351 pp., $18.95 (paper) 1. During the summer of 2002, The Oprah Winfrey Show was graced by a visit from Ricky Williams, the Heisman Trophy holder and running back extraordinaire of the Miami Dolphins. Williams was there to...

When a dog is looking a little down in the mouth the traditional remedy is to take it for a walk. But the makers of Prozac reckon some dogs are so depressed they need to be medicated to get them through the day. They have now launched a special canine version of Prozac on the pet market which comes in a chewable form and tasty beef flavour.

On her popular blog, Arianna Huffington stopped just short of blaming antidepressant medications for Cho Seung-Hui's lethal rampage at Virginia Tech this week. Anti-pharmaceutical demagogues love to blame drugs for all society's ills. Yet if antidepressants had anything to do with the massacre, it's likelier that it was the premature cessation of medication that led to Cho's violently disturbed state of mind. That's one conclusion that can be drawn from a new analysis on the benefits and risks of antidepressants for children and adolescents published by the Journal of the American Medical Association. The analysis found that the risks of...

How to stop the next campus killing There are lessons to be learned from the Virginia Tech massacre, says alexander cockburn Since there undoubtedly will be a next time, what useful counsel on preventative measures can we offer faculties across America?Arm teachers and students. There have been the usual howls from the anti-gun lobby, but it's all hot air. America is not about to dump the Second Amendment giving people the right to bear arms.A better idea would be for appropriately screened teachers and maybe student monitors to carry weapons. This is not as outre as it may sound...

BLACKSBURG, Va. - The gunman suspected of carrying out the Virginia Tech massacre that left 33 people dead was identified Tuesday as an English major whose creative writing was so disturbing that he was referred to the school's counseling service. News reports also said that he may have been taking medication for depression, that he was becoming increasingly violent and erratic, and that he left a note in his dorm in which he railed against ''rich kids," ''debauchery" and ''deceitful charlatans" on campus. Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old senior, arrived in the United States as boy from South Korea in 1992...

CONFIDENTIAL drug company documents appearing to suggest a link between a popular anti-depressant and suicide and violence have been handed to authorities in the United States, it emerged today. The British Medical Journal (BMJ) received the documents concerning the drug fluoxetine (Prozac) from an anonymous source and has now turned them over to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

BE HERE, OR BE NOWHERE!

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The economy is stumbling at the end of 2006, setting off alarm bells that growth might not just slow next year but that the nation could tumble into a recession. The recent trend of slower growth is not expected to be reversed any time soon. Home building and the broader real estate market are both already in a recession by most accounts and are expected to stay there well into next year. Manufacturing could soon follow, according to some recent readings. The details See more More on 2007 Stocks: What to expect On balance, prospects look...

Is Putin Being Set Up? by Patrick J. Buchanan Posted Nov 27, 2006 PARIS—Whoever poisoned Alexander Litvinenko had two goals: a long and lingering death for the KGB defector and pointing a finger of accusation for his killing right in the face of Vladimir Putin. Which leads me to believe Putin had nothing to do with it. In an assassination, one must ask: Cui bono? To whose benefit? Who would gain from the poisoning of Litvinenko? Certainly not Putin. Litvinenko's death puts him, the Kremlin and the KGB, now the FSB, under suspicion of having reverted to the terror tactics...

Parents do a lot of guessing on what could be troubling a fussy baby.  If he's crying, he may be hungry or tired. But could he be depressed?  Any parent knows that young children have to be protected from a mind-boggling number of risks, but many will be surprised to learn that infant depression could be one of them.  "Babies can be depressed," said Dr. Jess Shatkin, director of education and training at New York University's Child Study Center. "It's not a terribly common phenomenon. We think maybe one in 40 or so — but it can certainly happen."Although it's...

I looked around when I heard someone crying, and there was Pollyanna bawling her eyes out. That's how depressing was the one-two punch of pessimism in Paul Krugman's and Bob Herbert's New York Times pay-to-peruse columns of today.Just in time for the elections, the pair paint a picture of America so dreary you half-expected the Google logarithm to place Prozac ads on the page. Krugman tries to talk down the economy, while Herbert sees a more deep-seated malaise. Annotated excerpts:Krugman: "Bursting Bubble Blues" "The housing boom became a bubble . . . the question now is how much pain the...

by Mark Finkelstein September 29, 2006 - 06:54 Rejection is painful. Spurned suitors often-if-contradictorily condemn the very object of their affection, while reserving a good measure of bile for their successful rivals. Democrats have suffered a lot unrequited political desire in recent years, and the strain is really starting to show. We all know about Bush Derangement Syndrome. Yesterday I described a new strain, Gas Price Derangement Syndrome, and mentioned an even more insidious disease afflicting many on the left - Controlled Demolition Dementia. Today comes more evidence of the left's painful struggle to deal with its diminished standing and...

Health and Science Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Suicide rates among the youngest and oldest Americans have steadily declined since the late 1980s, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday in a finding that contradicts popular conceptions that rates were rising. The study suggests that new antidepressant drugs may not raise the risk of suicide after all, the researchers said, but they acknowledge they are mystified by what might be causing the decline, because it is not affecting people aged 25 to 64. "For 40 years adolescent suicide rates rose," said Dr. Robert McKeown, a professor at the University of South Carolina's school...

Chris Wallace (FOX TV) just stated on the Monday morning news segment of Fox TV (aired in the 7:00 a.m. EST hour) that, not only did Bill Clinton retain his anger at Wallace after the interview was over and the cameras were off (despite Wallace trying to part on friendly terms), Clinton absolutely fumed at his own personal staff, right then and there while still on the Fox TV premises, for getting him into the interview with Wallace where he had earlier lost his head.Wallace said Clinton's blow up at his staff for this mistake was very visible and...

Iranian military commander, General Atalla Salahi, said Friday that "we don't have a need to produce unconventional weapons like chemical weapons. We produced conventional weapons with enough power to defeat the enemy in any situation. We have no doubt that we will defeat the enemy in any area it attack us," he said. During a military march in Tehran, Salahi addressed the war in Lebanon, and said: "We are not telling you to be frightened of us, but to pay attention and learn a lesson from your last defeat." (Dudi Cohen)

FALMOUTH, Ky. - Used boots fetch $3 and old salt-and-pepper shakers bring in a buck at a makeshift flea market along Highway 27, presumably not what President Bush and Republicans have in mind when they herald a vibrant economy. ADVERTISEMENT Times are "very good for the rich and very, very bad for the poor" who "can't afford to live," laments Larry Mitchell, 43, a now-and-then merchant peddling his wares recently in a submarine sandwich shop parking lot. He says the middle class is "having a hard time." In the Ohio River Valley, where people decry high gas prices, stagnant wages,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers will question some leading government and industry economists about the perils of a possible 'housing bubble' in a Wednesday hearing. Lawmakers wanted the session "because we've heard a great deal about the possibility of a housing bubble for several years now," said Sen. Wayne Allard, a Republican from Colorado. The hearing, "The Housing Bubble and its Implications for the Economy," will be held in an open session of the Senate Banking Committee at 10 a.m.. Next week, the same committee will hold a hearing on the growth of innovative mortgage products that have mushroomed along...

Get used to it ¡ª the seller's market is closing up shop. The days of fat, fast home value increases are gone. Pack away those flipping fantasies. "The boom is definitely over, there's no debate about that," said Mark Zandi, chief economist of West Chester, Pa.-based research firm Moody's Economy.com. "Now the question is more how hard is it going to land, if it lands at all." The answer? Depends who you ask ¡ª and what location you're talking about. How to feel about it? Depends which side of the market you're on ¡ª and what location you're talking about....

He, of all people, should have known better. The president of the National Association of Realtors, Thomas M. Stevens of Vienna, admits he didn't follow his agents' advice when the real estate market started to cool. That, he says, is why his old house in Great Falls has now been on the market for a year at the price of $1.45 million. "What I should have done," confessed the senior vice president of NRT Inc., parent of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, "was listened to my agent and cut the price by $50,000 to $100,000 early on, and the property would...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investment bank HSBC has revised downward its forecast for 2007 economic growth and cautioned that the risk of an outright recession is growing as a retreat in housing threatens household balance sheets. ADVERTISEMENT The company argues that while corporate profits have remained sky-high, the incomes of most Americans have effectively fallen over the last 18 months. That, say economists Stephen King and Ian Morris, could be a recipe for hard times in an economy that relies on consumers for over two-thirds of its strength. "Never before have households been so hard hit at a time companies...

Falling prices have created a new twist in the suburban Boston real estate market: More homes are selling for less than their assessed values. Massachusetts house prices slumped 3.5 percent in July, the biggest monthly drop since 1993, as a slowdown in sales brought about by rising interest rates created a glut of homes on the market. which are the estimated values communities place on homes to determine property taxes, their primary source of revenue. State law requires communities to assess properties at ``full and fair cash value." * * * But for the past five years, most homes sold...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. home sales will be a good deal weaker this year than earlier thought as potential buyers remain on the sidelines waiting for better deals, a national real estate group said on Thursday. ADVERTISEMENT The National Association of Realtors said sales of existing homes were likely to drop 7.6 percent this year to 6.54 million. A month ago, the group thought existing homes sales would fall only 6.5 percent to 6.61 million. The association, which said housing prices were likely to dip temporarily below year-ago levels, also revised lower its forecasts for new homes sales and housing...

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BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- It is becoming increasingly obvious that financial advisers, real estate experts and parents will someday point to what is happening in the mortgage market today and use it as a cautionary tale of what can go wrong when a buyer stretches to get too much house during a market that seems invincible. Real estate has been booming in most markets over the last five years or longer, fueled by interest rates that reached four-decade lows and by consumers who used new mortgage products to extend their buying power. Many home buyers stopped worrying about buying a home...

If the pursuit of happiness was once an ideal in American life, the entitlement to happiness may now have replaced it. Since the late 1980s, when psychotropic drugs first came on the market, grateful Americans have been lining up at the counter. Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Wellbutrin and a host of other antidepressants have been embraced as practical solutions to everyday unhappiness. More than 15% of Americans now use one of the above. Needless to say, they are not all clinically depressed. Whereas Sigmund Freud once described the goal of psychotherapy as "transforming hysterical misery into ordinary unhappiness," many doctors now...

Come get your SAVAGE take on the news!!!!

This has not been a good week for the Democrats. First, word came that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most recent “Butcher of Baghdad,” had been killed and now the liberals must deal with the decision of special prosecutor Fitzgerald not to charge Karl Rove in the Valerie Plame “leak” case. All things considered, there has not been much good news for the far-left bloggers to crow about. The death of Zarqawi left some liberals trying to walk the tightrope of attempting to appear happy while maintaining their theme of doom and gloom for the Republicans. There were a couple of...

One of the most widely used treatments for the eating disorder anorexia nervosa, the antidepressant Prozac, works no better than dummy pills in preventing recurrence in young women who have recovered from it, researchers are reporting today. The study, the most rigorous to date to test the use of medication for anorexia, should alter treatment for an illness that is often devastatingly chronic and that has a higher mortality than any other psychiatric disorder, experts said. Fewer than a third of the study's participants, who also received regular psychotherapy, remained healthy for a year or more, whether they received drug...

Borders, Culture, Language, Morals, SAVAGE, Truth! Happy Tuesday everyone!

Conservative columnists have a case of congressional crankiness. Take Peggy Noonan at the Wall Street Journal, for example. She wrote last week that Republicans on the Hill are so far off track it might take losing in November to unlearn the lessons of power. Media critic Howard Kurtz of The Washington Post found her mood so foreboding he suggested only Prozac might lift conservatives' gathering gloom. Frustration among conservatives is both palpable and understandable. Many believe -- accurately, I might add -- their pens played a role in promoting the emergence of the Republican majority in Congress. ---snip--- Frustrated conservatives...

History has not dealt kindly with imperial ambitions, and America, however benevolent her intent, cannot hope to be an exception. Something remarkable happened on the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Commentators began to declare, in somewhat exultant tones, that America had at last become a true empire. America was of course also a benevolent empire, they insisted, but that nod to altruistic tradition could not hide their excitement that America had at last joined the greatest empires of the past. Implicit in these giddy declarations was the assumption that empire was an exalted state of power and...

Gettin' ready!!!!

Startin' off good today!

An October Surprise? by Patrick J. Buchanan President Bush says Iranians are behind the more lethal IEDs, the roadside bombs killing our troops in Iraq. Rumsfeld warns the Iranian Revolutionary Guard may now be in Iraq. Cheney says Iran will not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. McCain says, “the military option is on the table.” And Israel is getting impatient. Writes Yaakov Katz in the March 10 Jerusalem Post, “The United States has until now not done enough to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, a senior Defense Ministry official has told the Jerusalem Post ...” Katz quotes...

Question: Who’s afraid of Jews in the boardroom? Freemasons in the basement? Reds under the bed? Black helicopters in the sky? Answer: A surprising number of otherwise sensible people. Even under the new shadow of terrorism, old fears live on, breeding bogeys that knot together in a vipers’ tangle of menace. Regrettably, Catholics do their share of worrying about the Judeo-Masonic-Communist conspiracy and/or the imminent arrival of the Antichrist to rule over the New World Order. Their anxieties are often fueled by anti-Semitic screeds, polemical histories, eccentric economics, and even heavenly messages. Fear-mongering is standard fare in the pages of...

If you are single and live in SAN ANTONIO,TX---BEWARE of one greedy, self-centered @#$!$ !! Believe me I know...Back in August of 2002 I was married to "IT". I went to CA to work, sending her $1000.00 a week to pay bills. In December of 2002, she told me we were divorced. I got no notice of divorce papers or even a phone call. She claims she had no idea where i was...Yeah right!! She had some guy living in my house 2wks after I left (I found this out later on..)and he was wearing MY clothes. With my money,...

Wonder drugs of the 1990s, Prozac and its kin have been prescribed to tens of millions of people. But a growing backlash may portend the end of an era. (Photo: Phil Toledano) Can Prozac make you want to die? The idea seems strange, given that the drug and similar antidepressants are supposed to do just the opposite. Yet that is what Kimberly Witczak believes happened to her husband. Two years ago Tim "Woody" Witczak killed himself at age 37, soon after going on Pfizer's Zoloft—the top-selling member of Prozac's class of drugs, known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs....