Psychiatric Drugs The Facts
In recent years, there have been dozens of international drug regulatory agency warnings against psychiatric drugs. The following is a small sample.
In recent years, there have been dozens of international drug regulatory agency warnings against psychiatric drugs. The following is a small sample.
2004
March 22: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned that Prozac-like antidepressants (called Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors or SSRIs) could cause “anxiety, agitation, panic attacks, insomnia, irritability, hostility, impulsivity, akathisia [severe restlessness], hypomania [abnormal excitement] and mania [psychosis characterized by exalted feelings, delusions of grandeur].”
June: The Therapeutic Goods Administration, the Australian equivalent of the FDA, reported that the latest antipsychotic drugs could increase the risk of diabetes.
June: The FDA ordered that the packaging for the stimulant Adderall include a warning about sudden cardiovascular deaths, especially in children with underlying heart disease.
October 15: The FDA ordered its strongest “black box” label for antidepressants warning they could cause suicidal thoughts and actions in under 18 year olds.
October 21: The New Zealand Medicines Adverse Reactions Committee recommended that older and newer antidepressants not be administered to patients less than 18 years of age because of the risk of suicide.
December 17: The FDA required packaging for the “ADHD” drug, Strattera, to advise that “Severe liver damage may progress to liver failure resulting in death or the need for a liver transplant in a small percentage of patients.”
2005
February 9: Health Canada, the Canadian counterpart of the FDA, suspended marketing of Adderall XR (Extended Release, given once a day) due to reports of 20 sudden unexplained deaths (14 in children) and 12 strokes (2 in children).
April 11: The FDA warned that antipsychotic drug use in elderly patients could increase the risk of death.
June 28: The FDA announced its intention to make labeling changes to Concerta and other Ritalin products to include the side effects: “visual hallucinations, suicidal ideation [ideas], psychotic behavior, as well as aggression or violent behavior.”
June 30: The FDA warned that the antidepressant Cymbalta could increase suicidal thinking or behavior in pediatric patients taking it. It also warned about the potential increased risk of suicidal behavior in adults taking antidepressants.
August: The Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration found a relationship between antidepressants and suicidality, akathisia (severe restlessness), agitation, nervousness and anxiety in adults. Similar symptoms could occur during withdrawal from the drugs, it determined.
August 19: The European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products warned against child antidepressant use, stating that the drugs caused suicide attempts and thoughts, aggression, hostility, aggression, oppositional behavior and anger.
September 26: The Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco (Italian Drug Agency, equivalent to the FDA) warned against use of older (tricyclic) antidepressants in under 18 year olds. It also determined the drugs were associated with heart attacks in people of any age.
September 29: The FDA ordered that labeling for the “ADHD” drug Strattera include a boxed warning about the increased risk of suicidal thinking in children and adolescents taking it.
October 17: The FDA warned that the antidepressant Cymbalta could cause liver damage.
October 24: The FDA withdrew the stimulant Cylert from the market because of the risk of liver toxicity and failure.
November: The FDA warned that the antidepressant Effexor could cause homicidal thoughts.
2006
February 9: The FDA’s Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee urged that the strongest “black box” warning be issued for stimulants, because they may cause heart attacks, strokes and sudden death.
February 20: British authorities warned that Strattera was associated with seizures and potentially lengthening period of the time between heartbeats.
March 22: An FDA advisory panel heard evidence of almost 1,000 reports of kids experiencing psychosis or mania while taking stimulants.
May 3: FDA adverse drug reaction reports linked antipsychotic drugs to 45 child deaths and 1,300 serious adverse reactions, such as convulsions and low white blood cell count.
May 12: The manufacturer of Paxil warned that the antidepressant increases the risk of suicide in adults.
May 26: Health Canada issued new warnings of rare heart risks for all drugs prescribed for “ADHD,” including the risk of sudden death.
June 2: An FDA study determined that the antipsychotic drug, Risperdal, might cause pituitary tumors. The pituitary gland, at the base of the brain, secretes hormones that promote growth, and regulates body functions. Antipsychotics may increase prolactin, a hormone in the pituitary gland, and this increase has been linked to cancer. Risperdal was found to increase prolactin levels more frequently than in other antipsychotics.
July 19: The FDA said antidepressant packaging should carry warnings that they may cause a fatal lung condition in newborns whose mothers took SSRI antidepressants during pregnancy. Migraine sufferers also need to be warned that combining migraine drugs with SSRIs could result in a life-threatening condition called serotonin syndrome.
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Hooking Your World On Psychiatric Drugs
While billions in tax dollars are paid each year to fight the “War on Drugs,” we have a different kind of drug war affecting the world today, one that is perpetuated by psychiatrists dreaming up new “mental illnesses” to fund a multibillion-dollar legal drug industry. The direct result continues to escalate, worldwide consumption of their addictive, mind-altering drugs.
DRUG FACTS:
Here are some shocking facts about the psychotropic drugs prescribed to children:
While billions in tax dollars are paid each year to fight the “War on Drugs,” we have a different kind of drug war affecting the world today, one that is perpetuated by psychiatrists dreaming up new“mental illnesses” to fund a multibillion-dollar legal drug industry. The direct result continues to be an escalating, worldwide consumption of their addictive, mind-altering drugs.
Consider the following alarming statistics:
In the United States today, more than 6 million children are taking mind-altering psychiatric drugs for the learning and behavioral “disorder,” ADHD. Two million children take antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs.
In Australia, the stimulant prescription rate for children increased 34-fold in the past two decades.
In Britain the rate increased 9,200% between 1992 and 2000; in Mexico methylphenidate sales (the generic name for the drug Ritalin) increased 800% between 1993 and 2001.
In Germany methylphenidate sales increased 400% between 1995 and 1999.
Significant increases are also reported in France, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland.
In 2000, international sales of antipsychotic drugs reached $6 billion. In 2001, antidepressant sales climbed to $12.5 billion. Today, that figure is near $20 billion. These soaring numbers parallel the increases in the number of mental disorders in the American Psychiatric Association’s lucrative insurance billing bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), and the mental disorders section of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). Not one of the DSM’s long list of disorders is supported by any objective, diagnostic observations or criteria.
As psychiatrist Matthew Dumont commented, the APA provides “a 125-word definition of mental disorder, which is supposed to resolve all the issues surrounding the sticky problem of where deviance ends and dysfunction begins. It doesn’t.”
Because of the DSM, psychiatric drugs are now not only used extensively in our schools, nursing homes, drug rehabilitation centers and prisons, individuals personally rely on them to “help” them with everything from weight control, self-confidence, mathematical and writing problems, to anxiety, sleeping and upsets. In fact, they have become the panacea for the stresses of modern living. And they come with serious risks. Protect yourself from potentially dangerous psychiatric drugs by becoming well informed.
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Child Drugging