I saw this drug dramatically affect two people close to me in the early to mid nineties- more if you include the people murdered by one of them. Prozac was mothers milk in everyone's eyes then. I saw the doctors reaction to the agitation side effects in one of them. (An immediate diagnosis of bipolar type II, upping of the SSRI dose, additon of Tegretol with the intent to try others and the final addition of lithium. This to someone who a few weeks before was mildly depressed. Was told by the preening bastard that this person was mentally ill and doomed to a life of misery if she wasn't treated properly. That person is stable and well without drugs now.) As a result I started studying this drug class and was horrified by what I saw.
I am pretty hands off as far as business goes but the Pharmaceutical Industry and especially the marketing side is out of control and doctors don't seem to be able to think independently on this issue.
Thanks for the wwww bit - that was probably down to being too tired to take care with the typing :-)
No, Kara wasn't related to me - but her mother is a friend and the site was 'dedicated to Kara and other children...' almost three years ago and some time before Kara's story became well known. Despite the mother's intense grief she helped many people who were struggling with withdrawal, as have other mothers in the same circumstances, and to do so shows outstanding concern for others above themselves.
At the time I started the website, her mother wanted to ensure that people were aware of the effect it could have on children, and that by doing so other children's lives might not be lost and Kara's death wouldn't be in vain.
I personally had a LOT of help and support from her too, and without her 'being there', along with another grieving mother and some other caring parties, I'm quite certain I wouldn't be here now. The awful tragedy is that she she wouldn't have been there for others had Kara not died, and that lives that WERE saved came about by the loss of a little child. Kara was given Paxil at the same age as Christopher was given Zoloft, both of which children suffered devastating effects in different ways.
Just like you, in a way - you looked into the class of drugs because you witnessed harm to and loss of friends, and now have the information and means to help other people as a result. You just being here is helping to bring awareness of what drugs can do, and that more people becoming aware might even help Christopher, but if not - certainly others in the future.
I didn't lose anyone, I simply had an horrific experience from the drug (and I wasn't described it for depression initially, just a couple of days of 'post-op blues') and have been left with some long term damage 3 years on from being taken off them cold turkey. The doc who took me off them that way would have done so because the pharmaceutical industry lied and stated at that time, on that SSRI, that in RARE cases "mild flu-like symptoms" could occur but these would last at most for 2 weeks. How was the doc to know any different 3 years ago? The doc believed the "scientific" evidence from the "scientists" in the industry - there was no "withdrawal" because "seroxat is NOT addictive". Unfortunately that doc CONTINUED to believe it for quite some time afterwards and so exacerbated what was happening by her dismissal of the symptoms and by her lack of understanding and support.
Had the facts been available at the time, then the doc would have known to have prescribed them again and overseen a tapering down regime, which may well have saved long-term damage - though maybe it wouldn't, there's no way of knowing really as tapering didn't happen.
So though I didn't lose a relative, I still don't want other people to suffer from the effects of these drugs, promoted by lies and corruption, and like many others, try to 'warn' in an attempt to at least SLIGHTLY balance out the mass of misinformation put out by the industry and their 'allies'.
And round it all goes..
Now I'm late, but hopefully I'll be back this evening to look at the articles you posted and maybe transport them back to my site with THREE, not FOUR, www's :-)
Paula