Foxnews and Eli Lilly etc.

Nov3

[Nov3]

Is my TV the only one? I have been watching Foxnews and the media silence has been broken around the SSRI related violence. Fox has been brave here as they will surely lose advertising revenue.

I have seen the side effects of these drugs first hand. A ex-friend of mine shot three people here in Memphis. He was a calm, good looking, basically normal son of an FBI agent, who was mildly depressed when he sought "treatment". He first became manic and then was put on a cocktail of drugs. He became withdrawn and stone faced shortly before the spree. He dropped off his prescription of Zoloft in a strangers mailbox, killed his boss (I forget his name), Fred Bizot a friend of mine who was helping him, and shot a counselor at Central Church. I want to stress he was not a violent person, had never showed signs of mania before the Zoloft and his treatment.

The mania is not classified as a side effect of this class of drugs. A mania resulting from use of this class of drugs is actually used to create a "diagnosis" of bipolar type 2. Note that the person need not ever had shown any syptoms of mania before being given an SSRI. In the medical industry's and psychiatrists mind it is the patient's "bipolar" condition that causes it. This leads to a cocktail of drugs being prescribed turning the person (hopefully) into a Zombie. i have watched this happen to two people close to me. Both have got off the drug cocktail and have curiously shown no symptoms of mania since. I wonder why. (Note I do not advocate ANY SELF adjustment of your medicine. Get a good doctor who won't turn you into a Zombie and trust him. Don't let some GP play with your brain chemicals!)

People evrybody in the world should not be prescribing these drugs. They are very powerful and can be very dangerous. They can change your life. I have seen it happen.

If you start this class of drugs and start spending money wholesale, sleeping with everyone in sight (men consider this a good mania side effect!), experience a great deal of anger go to your doctor. If he wants to stack a bunch of drugs on you, follow his advice and seek another doctor.

These drugs are effective for some but their power is what makes them dangerous.

[Nov3]

I can feel the flames now

[Nov3]

I believe it was more than 7 of the last 12 school shooters who were on SSRI's. As a matter of a fact I can only remember one (Columbine) where one of the shooters was not on an SSRI.

I have been saying this for years and have been mercilessly flamed for stating the obvious.

[Nov3]

fyi

[Tijeras_Slim]

I think one of the Columbine killers was on something which kept him from being considered for the military.

I'm sure some FReeper will know.

[Nov3]

He was on Paxil. The other wasn't on anything as far as I know. The drug companies are changing their tune on these drugs from one of denial to the Eli Lilly commercial that starts off with a woman turned into a bar hopping slut by one of these wonder drugs. (I have seen this happen repeatedly.) It then goes on to talk about bipolar issues.

[Vicki]

My girlfriend was put on Paxil and she ended up in the hospital. She got anxious and more depressed when she was on it. When she stopped taking it she felt better. Another person I knew was put on Paxil and after 2 days stopped taking it. He said it was like having a chemical lobotomy. He felt no emotion. Nothing. He said it was worse than being depressed.

My mom who does admissions at a nursing home says that residents are prescribed all kinds of these drugs and she thinks that many times it makes them worse and it appears that they are nothing more than guinea pigs.

My advice to anyone needing anti-depressants would be to take meds that have been around for many years like Trazadone.

[Nov3]

< sarcasm>The older antidepressants do not seem to "diagnose" bipolar type 2 anywhere near as effectively as the older drugs. < /sarcasm>

The older drugs are definitely safer.

[Nov3]

< sarcasm>The older antidepressants do not seem to "diagnose" bipolar type 2 anywhere near as effectively as the NEWER drugs. < /sarcasm>

[Petronski]

You ought to count how many lives the SSRIs have saved.

[SauronOfMordor]

I've been noting the same thing for a while now.

We've had guns in American homes since the first colonies. We've had troubled teens since the dawn of time. But it's only since we've started Ritalinizing/Prozacing/and otherwise drugging people that we've had these mass shootings by disturbed people

[bpjam]

I'd give $100 to anybody who can prove that there is such a thing as "bi-polar". What a bunch of crap. This new age psycho nonsense has infected the court system, the government and academia. Try eating good food instead of drugging yourself. Nobody ever killed their family from the side effects of a healthy diet.

[bluefish]

Remember that many of these shooters were nuts (or just plain evil) to begin with. Either they, or their parents knew it, and the drugs were an effort to correct it. You may be accurately pointing out correlation, but you cannot conclude causation. Pointing out that someone was not violent before starting on the drugs does not take you any closer, as the indidual could be moving from their "calm, non-violent" state into one that internally, causes them to realize something is wrong. Thus, they seek the drugs. That individual may be moving towards a point of snapping and the drugs are an attempt to intervene. If the drugs fail to help and the person snaps anyway, it is not correct to conclude that the drugs were the cause. They may very well have only "failed to help."

I'm not defending the drugs. I think they are overprescribed. Furthermore, they should not be prescribed by general practitioners who have no understanding as to what and how these drugs do what they do, or what to look for or how to monitor patients who have been given them. Anybody requesting psychiatic medication from a doctor should immediately be referred to a skilled psychiatrist, or perhaps even a psychologist (and better yet, a member fo the clergy). Of course, now they prescribe these same SSRIs of which you speak for PMS under a different marketing name. Sick.

And to think they could have left Tryptophan on the market, which would be a much more natural, self regulating way of increasing serotonin for those that need it.

[Nov3]

You ought to count how many lives the SSRIs have saved.

I will never deny that they are effective FOR SOME. I will just say that everyone should not be handing them out for everything from PMS to anxiety. Only trained psychiatrists should be prescribing these drugs. The drug companies should be upfront and honest with the side effects and not blame the patient for all side effects. They should not be marketing them as they do. The marketing is disgusting

[Nov3]

I'd give $100 to anybody who can prove that there is such a thing as "bi-polar".

Well a mildly depressed person get totally manic on an SSRI, max out their credit cards, sleep with everyone in sight, stay up basically for a week sleeping 2 or 3 hours a day doing things totally out of charachter for them, and then come back to reality. They will be depressed again. I guess this os what they are talking about when they diagnose type 2 bipolar!

[Nov3]

Remember that many of these shooters were nuts (or just plain evil) to begin with.

Mike was not evil or crazy before these drugs. He just wasn't happy. Now he is in prison basically for the rest of his life. May Fred Bizot rest in peace.

[Petronski]

They are proven effective for anxiety, if I'm not mistaken. PMS, I don't know.

One thing that bothers me is giving something that powerful to children/adolescents. It's just too strong for a developing brain, especially in these 'cocktails' of SSRI + OCD stim. + God knows what.

[elbucko]

I'd give $100 to anybody who can prove that there is such a thing as "bi-polar".

Respectfully, I disagree. I don't have time to argue the issue now, but I believe knowledge about the cause, effects and cures for mental illness will solve many of our "social problems" and help preserve the 2nd. Amendment.

[NukeMan]

The older drugs are definitely safer.

If you mean Imipramine, Elavil, etc (the tricyclics); they were NOT safer. The are very easy to overdose upon (many suicides are committed this way). The SSRIs are virtually impossible to OD. Tricyclics had many more drug-drug interactions and side-effects.

[Eva]

They said on FOX that one of the boys at Columbine had been on some kind of psychotropic drug. I don't remember which one.

[Eva]

I think that bi-polar is a very real condition, but I think that drugs are making it worse, not better. I have known some manic-depressives who made their families very miserable. I also think that it runs in families.