An article in the current British Medical Journal explains why the link is stronger than previously thought. Action Alert!
ANH-USA has researched dozens of the most high-profile cases of violent crimes over the last few decades. We found that in just under half of the cases (eleven out of twenty-three), the perpetrator was documented to be taking, or had recently stopped taking, some form of antidepressant or antipsychotic medication.
In another seven cases, the killer had been on these medications earlier. We suspect that number is even higher, but the information is either not publicly available or not known.
Other publications support these findings. Mother Jones looked at all mass shootings from 1982 through 2015—seventy-two incidents altogether. Of these, more than half of the perpetrators (forty-three) had shown signs of mental illness prior to the crime. Given the propensity of conventional doctors to prescribe antidepressants and other antipsychotic drugs (more on this below), it does not seem like a large leap to assume that many of these perpetrators were taking medications.
The FDA recognizes this, and many antidepressants carry “black box warnings,” the most stringent precaution a drug label can carry before being removed from the market. Many antidepressants carry a black box warning of an increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior. Dr. Robert Whitaker notes that there is also a shocking risk of increased violence to others, which is not highlighted in the black box.
Important research has shown major drugs like Paxil and Prozac to be linked with violence at a substantially higher rate than other drugs—users of Paxil are 10.3 times more likely to do violence to themselves or others, while users of Prozac are 10.9 times more likely to commit acts of violence. Other evidence shows that people who have exhibited no propensity for violence or aggression can develop violent behavior soon after beginning antidepressants. (You can find still more evidence of the link between antidepressants and violence in our previous coverage of the topic.)
The FDA relies on studies conducted by major drug companies themselves, which may not be reliable. Even if the data is pristine, the interpretation will almost certainly be skewed in favor of the drug.
Consider the case of Paxil. Fourteen years ago the manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), published a study which was interpreted to mean that Paxil was safe and effective for teens. A new analysis of that same data, published this week in the prestigious British Medical Journal, found the exact opposite to be true—that teenagers on Paxil did no better than a placebo on a standard depression assessment, and that GSK had seriously downplayed the drug’s dangerous side effects!
This reinterpretation was only possible because GSK, to its credit, allowed the data to become public. It should be noted, however, that this was only done once the patent had gotten older and was thus less valuable.
Suicide and violence are just two side effects of antidepressants. There have been a total 134 warnings from regulatory agencies in eleven countries including:
- 30 warnings that antidepressants cause heart problems
- 21 warnings that they cause birth defects
- 6 warnings that they cause anxiety
- 5 warnings that they cause mania or psychosis
- 4 warnings that they cause death
- 4 warnings that they cause hallucinations or delusional thinking
- 4 warnings that they cause involuntary movements
- 2 warnings that they cause sexual dysfunction
There is a great deal we don’t know, partly because so much of drug companies’ research on these drugs is kept secret. But the correlation between violent crime and the use of these legal, mind-altering prescription drugs is too strong to be ignored, while scientific evidence of the connection continues to mount. So why hasn’t the FDA done anything?
The answer should be clear enough. Antidepressants are some of the most commonly prescribed drugs in the US. About 10% of Americans—30 million people—are on antidepressants, which includes 25% of women in their 40s and 50s. Antidepressant use has increased an astounding 400% in recent years. This translates into billions of dollars in profits worldwide for the pharmaceutical industry. And drug company money represent a substantial percentage of the FDA’s operating budget.
What is especially tragic about the wide use of antidepressants and their connection to violence and other terrible side effects is the fact that there are far safer, natural alternatives. We’ve reported before about some of these.
Sometimes depression is triggered by a life event or series of events. But what conventional medicine generally fails to notice is the connection between the brain and the body—how the body, and especially the gut, can have a profound effect on the brain, and vice versa. In some cases, it is a simple nutrient that is missing. It is often B vitamins, or it may be a mineral such as magnesium.
An integrative approach to medicine also addresses the imbalances in the body that may cause our mood to be out of whack. Consider that 95% of the body’s serotonin, the chemical that most depression drugs try to increase, is found in the gut. The standard American diet does not optimize either serotonin or gut health, leading to leaky gut syndrome and sustained inflammation.
Antibiotic use can also lead to gut dysbiosis and leaky gut because they destroy the good bacteria lining the intestines, allowing pathogenic bacteria to colonize. When the lining of the digestive system becomes permeable, toxic substances and bacteria leak into the bloodstream, triggering food sensitivities, inflammation, and autoimmune problems.
Additionally, hormone imbalances caused by hypothyroidism, which often goes undiagnosed, may cause mental health problems. Many people taking antidepressant medications, then, should really be addressing the underlying thyroid issue.
To find an integrative doctor in your area who won’t simply prescribe Prozac but will address the root cause, click here for some helpful links.
This is a life-or-death issue. How many more violent crimes will we have to endure before something is done about SSRIs and other mental health medications?
A recent news story told of new protocols and training at the University of Virginia Medical Center, preparing staff for the possibility of a gunman on a shooting rampage, which the Emergency Manager Coordinator views as an “unfortunate inevitability.” The irony of this is completely lost on the hospital staff. They see no connection whatsoever between the drugs they are prescribing and the “inevitable” shooter they are preparing for.
In 2011, ANH submitted a Citizen Petition to the FDA asking them to expand the current black box warning on antidepressants to include the danger of violent actions toward other people, in addition to the current suicide warning. This request has so far fallen on deaf ears. This time, we are reaching out to Congress to see if they can urge the FDA to act on this crucial issue.
Action Alert! Congress recently observed Mental Health Awareness Month. Write to your legislators and urge them to take meaningful steps towards addressing this serious issue—such as directing the FDA to update their black box warnings of antidepressants to include warnings of increased violent behavior. Please send your message immediately.
My mental problems were inherited through my father’s family. The biggest problem I have now is that Medicare only pays for generic medication. Generics are not as reliable or as effective as the brand name medications provided by the manufacturer to people who can not afford their products. The ‘real’ medications did help me.
Nancy, generic medicines are every bit as reliable and effective as brand names. They have the exact same active ingredients as the name brand. The reason the name brands cost more is because they are recouping the money they spent on research and testing and during their patent years, they alone can sell it for this reason. They do not reduce the price when the patent expires but other companies then can use their formula to make generics which have the same ingredients. The brand name could have sold it cheaply too but wanted to make up the money they spent on research. For years I have used generic birth control pills, diabetic meds, and allergy meds that used to cost a fortune but now are affordable and they work fine.
More LIES, LIES, LIES….
If Pharma is actually “recouping research money spent”, then why is Pharma’s marketing and ad budget several orders of magnitude larger than it’s R&D budget? You’re just a parrot for the Global DRUG RACKET, and pseudo-science called psychiatry. And psychiatry is nothing more than 21st Century phrenology.
You really are an idiot, lady. Sorry, but that’s the TRUTH……………
(c)2015, Tom Clancy, Jr., *NON-fiction
Furthermore, Pharma will sell you “allergy meds” until you DIE, but why is that the ONLY treatment?…..
How much do the drug companies *pay*you* to write this garbage?
LOL oh really FYI: the USFDA is considering an in depth Generic RX investigation into what you just claimed about Generic RX’s =”same ingredients” The FDA have found lack of the so called ingredients, and even found some generics lack as a therapeutic treatment for the type of ill health they claim to treat, coming into this country that are manufactured outside of this country but prescribed from inside the good ole USA.
Try meditation for 6 months and see whether it helps you. Whether yes or no it is well worth the effort to try.
Thank you. I’ve tried that on occasion and have found that it helps with physical pain. I’ll try to do this more often without allowing myself to get off track and think about painful memories. I’ve also found that painting helps, although I’m no real artist. Reading or watching something that makes me laugh helps more than anything.
Good for you that you tried some non-pharma methods! However, meditation only helps if you do it regularly. Yes, laughing is a great medicine. You might also try to do Yoga or Pilates. Furthermore, I recommended that you read Jack Dreyfus’ book (A Remarkable Medicine Has Been Overlooked),it may change your life.
Yeah, and EVERY heroin addict says that heroin helps THEM, too….
just like the meth-addiction clinics claim
Agreed. The local newspaper recently did a multi-part piece on the local
“methadone clinic”. There’s NO oversight or accountability, and the clinic is more SCAM than anything else. And, our State gov’t says they should
“consider” having *SOME* oversight of the clinic….????….
I’m convinced that “terrilynnmerritts” is a fake name, and “she’s” a paid shill for Pharma….
Autumn is STILL my favorite seasoning!…..
Our State Governor tried to implement a 2 year meth treatment medical coverage termination period for persons on the state Medicaid system that get free Meth clinic rides and doses at the tax payers expense and that proposal was defeated by the State House also defeated was his proposal to void State finances being subsidized to cities still financing illegal aliens that was defeated as well.
Any body ever hear of an alcoholic with vodka addiction recovering due to changing to rum, beer, scotch? Hmm me either so methadone addictive RX can stop all the other addictive RX’s and street drugs. Those meth clinic’s should be labeled as stock brokers or banks.
I’m not a heroin addict. I’m not taking any narcotics. I take Cymbalta, which worked until I switched to the generic. I can tell the difference, they are not the same. I take generic Adderall for my ADD. Some of them work, some don’t, some are too strong. Teva Pharmaceuticals recently recalled the 10 mg. tablets for inconsistencies. I also take vitamin D, probiotics and magnesium supplements. My left leg is shorter than my right one, so my lower spine is crooked.
I’d be happy to trade you my problems for your great insight. I’m sure you could handle these issues without medication, but I tried for 56 years and finally felt that I needed help. I talked with my uncle and found out that not only my father, but also my grandmother and cousin were cursed with the same illness, and I’ve passed it along to my son.
I didn’t say you WERE a heroin addict. I’m comparing your own Pharma addiction to heroin addiction. That’s not at all the same thing. So-called “ADD / ADHD” is a 100% BOGUS, FABRICATED “diagnosis”, designed solely to SELL DRUGS. Both Adderall & Ritalin are no more, and no less, that LEGAL SPEED, or crystal meth, just like in the TV show “Breaking Bad”. So, no, you’re NOT a heroin addict, you’re a “speed freak”, or “meth-head”, or “pill-head”. That’s YOUR REALITY. Deal with it.
Look at what YOU are saying about all the DRUGS you’re taking: “SOME work, SOME don’t”…. And NONE of those quacks you see have any idea which ones will, or won’t work, do they? Given your osteo issues, you do daily Yoga, Tai Chi, or other forms of physical exercise, correct? You eat a largely plant-based diet of organic foods, right? Whatever…. I don’t want or need your answers, so just *THINK* about what I’ve said here.
Pharma, the pharmaceutical industry, has paid *MANY* $$$Billions in FINES to the gov’t in the past few years, for various FRAUDS. You don’t know that, do you? It’s NOT “secret”, they just don’t publicize it….
My words here might sound harsh, nasty, even. I’m sorry for that. My intention is to *HELP*YOU*, by telling you the *TRUTH*….
I’m NOT saying you shouldn’t be taking ANY “meds”….
Yes, you ****DO**** need to try medical cannabis…..Carefully….
Your mind, body, and LIFE, have all been POISONED by *DRUGS*,
but you’re the VICTIM of that, not the cause of it.
“You shall know the TRUTH, and the TRUTH shall set you free.”
Truth doesn’t come in a pill. I truly and sincerely wish you well, and I hope and pray that you heed my words, and find some peace and healing. May God BLESS YOU. (Try reading Dr. Peter Breggin’s “Toxic Psychiatry”, for a start. It’s YOUR life, and you CAN take back control of it from “them”…..
Without my antidepressant, which I started taking a few years ago, I would most likely be dead. All medications have bad side-effects in some people. That includes natural substances. If you are saying that doctors should consider the many possible causes of depression, that is certainly correct. If you are saying that artificial medications are all bad, that is patent nonsense. What is needed is a balanced approach to finding what is best for each patient. This article does not meet that standard.
Yes, agreed, doctors should find the best individual solution for all patients. BUT this is NOT what is happening today. Doctors prescribe one of the same 2-3 antidepressant pills to all patients, mostly making the decision based on which drug company pays them the most incentives. Furthermore, natural or “alternative” methods are not even considered by the vast majority of doctors. They may also have some side effects but MUCH less than the pills the pharma industry pushes. Not to mention that many conditions can be significantly improved by better diet and some exercise, not to mention meditation.
Exactly! Thank you!
To be fair We cannot expect students trained in medical universities to be both educated in regular medicine and alternative/complimentary medicine. Both are extensive fields and only some rare doctors study both. It is patients who need to educate themselves and assume responsibility over their lives. We all need to take a stand against the Codex Alimentarius which is killing the alternative/complimentary healing mode worldwide.
I agree, except that it would be rational and reasonable for medical schools to educate doctors to be open minded and be open to learn after graduation, including learning about alternative healing methods. They do not do it because most medical schools are “owned” by the pharma industry. Of course for doctors learning new alternative methods would require some free time and some energy at the end of their day, which most of them do not have because they are expected to see a new patient in every 5-10 minutes by the health insurance industry. Our whole health care system is pretty hopelessly flawed, just like our political system is.
Coulda, shoulda, woulda.The med schools are as corrupted as any other discipline.
Yep. On the other hand if we do not strive (indeed fight) to improve the system it will never change….BTW, not all colleges of every discipline are corrupted. Engineering as one example is not corrupted by the plutocracy, as far as I know.
Until $$$ comes from the wrong sources, special interests, $omeone with $omething to $ell.
A psychoanalyst sees a patient for the 50 minute hour.A doctor prescribes pills in say 15 minutes so they can see 4 in the same amount of time.Not so labor intensive and much more money.Questions anyone?
15 minutes is a long visit. Most of mine I actually see the doc for 5 minutes tops.
ROTFL! 60 /5=12 visits at what $100 a pop.Analysts can never come close to that.
Exactly
There is absolutely no way of telling if you wouldn’t have responded the same way to a placebo. Considering that 15% cannot get off medications such as Paxil and Prozac at all without side effects flaring up and only a small percentage of people do not have any side effects AND the side effects are absolutely horrific if you have ever had a chance to work with the people who have them, you should review your position. Yes, all medications have side effects in some people but it’s a completely different conversation and it has nothing to do with said medications’ efficiency which is something that can be argued, considering that United States is the heaven of medicating while being the sickest country in the world.
I am unimpressed with the typical performance of antidepressants as well, and I know the kind of statistics you’re referring to, but:
As a clinician, I regularly see patients who have tried everything under the sun and are still suffering. Sometimes psychiatric drugs, including antidepressants, do help them. They may have tried quite a few other things first, and if it were all placebo, one or more of those other things would have helped them. Most would rather not take the drugs but they take them because they feel a benefit. My patients are coming to me for acupuncture and herbs, and that is what I would prefer them to use, but I am not going to deny them anything that works.
When you tell someone “you should review your position,” I wonder if you have either ever been IN that person’s position, or ever treated anyone who has. There is so much smug judgmentalism around here. It’s clear that no one can truly feel free to express their opinion or tell their own experience. Why should those of us working in natural health be just as dismissive and supercilious as the worst of those in allopathic medicine? Can’t we do better than that?
My position is based on the fact that there is absolutely no science behind these drugs and on my work with people withdrawing from them, if you’d hear half of the stories I’ve heard about broken lives and mental states, you’d have the same opinion (one can hope) because it is absolutely atrocious what happens to these people and the amount of cases that suffer after it initially “helped” them. It’s so bad that I personally consider it to be a felony and am of the opinion that anyone prescribing this manifest poison to people should get shot. The do not help anyone and they destroy quite a few people with symptoms like wanting to kill self or others, unable to communicate, losing weight, gaining a LOT of weight, having brain zaps every 15 to 30 minutes – 3 thousand people treated in just a couple of years! Yet you can’t get this information out anywhere because there is a conspiracy of silence; the amount of money is too big for anyone to try to dismantle this abomination.
And yes, there is NO science behind any of the drugs used, all the claims of serotonin re-uptake are utter bull, as are the rest of the theories if you actually care to look, not to accept some FDA cooked up bs on authority.
I hope you have had your own head worked on for at least 10 years. Only psychoanalysts are required to go through a lengthy personal analysis and long years of supervision, and some never stop. The present clinical certification crap is pop psychotherapy.If you get some good clinicians consider yourself colored lucky. Read Francoise Dolto’s Dominique or Winnicotts case studies. Recommend the case study titled String with a young boy who was suicidal. Winnicott saw him in the National Health Service of the UK. One visit then 6 months later he saw him again. Big big change.All it sometimes takes is one visit with a master clinician.And Dolto, she is to die for. Read her, changed everything for me.BTW Winnicott was psychoanalytically trained, and was the one describing the transitional object and its importance.I’ll stop.
Well, in my experience alternative medicine supporters are MUCH more open to allopathic medicine than the other way around. It is not the associations of alternative medicine practitioners who had been trying to run doctors practicing alloparthic medicine out of medical practice but the other way around. This is a false equivalence par excellence.
Love your last sentence.Oh Guattari where are you when we need you.Youcould start with Anti-Oedipus. Or go to Freud’s Case Studies in Hysteria.You will all love Breuer’s work with Anna O, the woman who REALLY invented psychoanalysis.
“United States is the heaven of medicating while being the sickest country in the world.” Now UR on way 2 understanding Continental Philosophy.See it’s not gobble de gook at all.
Like surgery, drugs should be a last resort. Our medical establishment is backwards. Make money, “fix” problem. o, and sell another pill later, because you have to take a drug because you’re taking a drug.
It is you who does not meet the standard of education in alternative/complimentary treatment of diseases, including psychiatric ones. Yesterday my friend, who had psychosis in the past, was admitted, had extremely traumatic experiences in an isolationcell, was taking the psychopharma drug Dogmatil, had exactly the symptoms as described above. Some weeks ago she mentioned legcramps and i mentioned she could be low on magnesium. The crisisteam was called and she was diagnosed to have a physical examination in the hospital first, to exclude the delire state. Scared out of her wits, totally blocked she could not speak to the crisisteam psychiatrist, but could to me and another man, she refused either calming medication or voluntary entrance into the ambulance. The endresult was a 58 year old woman put in handcuffs by two young policeman, who had the age her sons could have had, if she had had any, laying on the street out of resistance, determined to keep control over her own life, unable to realize that by law she was already overruled, her selfdetermination taken from her. The handcuffs hurt terribly, but gladly with nice dutchpoliceman they did some adjusting so the pain would be less. And she was right. She ended up in the psychiatric hospital, was drugged against her will into a longlasting sleep. They can keep her up to 3 weeks against her will, depending on the judge. Personally i stabilized my suicidal depressions, often lasting for many months, due to CPTSD/DID with vitamin B3, niacine with flush and rhodiola and some other calming/relaxing herbs. I have learned to love myself enough that on days i feel imbalanced i grant myself some extra Rhodiola capsules. Moreover according to traumaexpert Peter Levine As soon as you start taking psychiatric drugs you deny yourself the opportunity of transforming/transcending your traumas/PTSD/CPTSD. Endprognosis the failure of all organs. And you are wrong regarding negative sideeffects of natural substances, herbs being equal to those of psychiatric or other drugs, regular medicine uses. Just read the instructions that come along with your medications and you could be horrified to what you are exposing yourself to. 900 researches about the risk of death when taking statins, who are hardly of any benefit as the correlation between cholesterol and heartfailures remains unproven, except in a heritary cholesterol imbalance disease. If you are too lazy to inform yourself, just stay off pages like this.
When someone states that they had a certain experience, you have no right to tell them that they did not and that they are not “educated” enough or they are “lazy.” It’s horrible what happened to your friend, but that has nothing to do with the other commenter. Violence was done to your friend, and now you are doing violence to a person who has done no harm to you or anyone here and has simply stated what has happened in his or her life. That is abusive and I am disgusted to see it happening. No one should be slinging insults at other sincere commenters.
Thank you. Insults are a form of abuse. You recognize that, but many people do not. Be well.
Slow down, please. What I said was ” What is needed is a balanced approach to finding what is best for each patient. This article does not meet that standard.” I may be mistaken, but I think you agree with that. I am not advocating any particular approach for all patients and all problems. Personally, I have used dietary supplements, acupuncture, surgery, yoga and powerful drugs to treat a variety of problems. So far, I have been successful.
Why does that make me “lazy”?
Just go to a good medical library and start reading case studies of depressive patients.You will learn something about your malady. The Dark Night of the Soul is not to missed when it arrives. “how can you know who you are unless you burn yourself into ashes.” – Nietzsche
My “malady” no longer affects my life. When it did, I was not aware that I had a problem. I have spent many days in excellent medical libraries, but have no interest in reading about depressed patients. I am a Clinical Chemist with a strong interest in the history of medicine. I suspect you mean well, but I am enjoying life and have no desire to study depression in any form. I wish you well.
I would suggest a good psychoanalyst to free your aggression that you have turned on yourself. However that costs time and money and insurance pays for the meds. Enjoy your life.
I really do not understand what you are talking about. I am not aware of “aggression that you have turned on yourself”. I am certainly assertive, but rarely aggressive. Except in cases of real danger, I find that aggression is usually not productive.
I disagree with the Harvard article that says the main cause of hypothyroidism is Hashimotos. I feel the main cause is the fluoride in our water that binds with thyroid and prevents the iodine molecule from combining with it.
Thanks for the fine article! My experience–and that of quite a few friends and family as well–is that far better than any of the Big Pharma ‘solutions’ to such issues, is the practice of Transcendental Meditation. There has been considerable scientific research conducted on Vets with PTSD, abused women and children, kids with ADHD, etc., which shows that TM practice significantly–and permanently–reduces depression and other symptoms of mental imbalance. The fact is that nearly everyone has faced periods of depression sometime in life. Reaching for the pill is simply not the best answer. Take a look at the David Lynch Foundation website if you are interested–many short videos showing significant improvements in a natural, holistic and safe way.
In fact “reaching for the pill” is the worst answer in most cases, but it is the easiest and the most profitable for the pharma-medical mafia. Hence, this became the standard operating procedure. Natural methods, whether nutrition, exercise, meditation, life style change, etc., work better, but they are not offering huge profits and hence there is no lobbying for them in congress.
What is wrong with depression. If you are not depressed you are not paying attention. We are in a profound mourning over the monetization of all natural resources on the planet and the 6th Great Extinction which is not irreversible.
Clinical depression is quite a different matter. It is an incredibly painful illness and you are insulting the many people who suffer from it by minimizing it.
“Clinical Depression” is a renaming,relabeling,reframing of melancholy so Big Pharma can sell pills.Doctors make $;hospitals flush.
My father used to speak of “contemplating the complete, utter and total futility of any and all human endeavor”, and remain in that state for months at a time. Miltown produced homicidal ideation in him.
Most Americans are completely unaware that undiagnosed or “silent” food sensitivities are one of the biggest causes of depression. More amazing that one gets prescribed a drug (a little bit of toxin) to counter the effect of some food reaction (toxic to the body) or other, whereas more accurate testing for reactions is now become far more accessible.
Please cite the BMJ study you reference in your first sentence!!
It’s an article currently in WIDE circulation….
….and google “Study 329″…..
Then, read Breggin’s “Toxic Psychiatry”, and Whitaker’s “Anatomy of an Epidemic”….
“An article in the current British Medical Journal explains why the link is stronger than previously thought.” <—cut-n-pasted from above….Apparently, you didn't read the HEADLINE above….
Look it up and read it yourself, you brain-lazy stoopid American….
(c)2015, Tom Clancy, Jr., *NON-fiction
(I'm practicing to be Donny Trumpster!….lol….)….
Stating a journal has published an article is hardly “citing” it, which would include a full reference – name of journal, name(s) of author(s), year published, along with volume/number/month published as well as corresponding pages on which the article in question is found.
APA format isn’t even necessary, and neither are ad hominem attacks! ;>)
Your two exclamation marks were similarly unnecessary. And “google “Study 329″” is enough for anyone to find it with even minimal Internet skills.
Obviously you are trying to mislead readers when you have no evidence of the sort. Here is what is wrong with the article:
(1) To prove causation, a scientist would need to run studies using a strict scientific method, double blind. Cherry picking 72 violent crimes and finding that less than half of the people had used or had stopped using an anti-depressant proves nothing other than the person was troubled BEFORE taking anything and mentally ill. Mentally ill people get violent. That is not evidence that the medicine caused them to become violent. Some had come off the medicine and the majority had not even been on meds so this is proof of nothing other than mentally ill people might become violent with or without meds, mostly without haven taken meds.
(2) A person who commits violent crime after starting anti-depressants was already mentally ill with their symptoms growing worse- and hence becoming more likely to commit a first act of violence- BEFORE taking the meds which is why it was prescribed. Also, it takes time for the meds to work.
(3) As for Paxil and teens, the bodies and brains of teens are not fully developed and they may react differently unexpectedly. This is why it is not advised to give aspirin to teens with high fevers as some might develop Reyes syndrome. Most won’t but a few will.
(4) Mother Jones is a “hippie” publication with no medical researchers on staff (people with an MD or research PhD. This is like saying Playboy or Cosmopolitan magazines “did a study.” They are not trained researchers but just writers and English majors. Both you and Mother Jones writers are presuming that the half that had known mental health problems had been given anti-depressants when there is no evidence of that at all. You are guessing. If they had signs they might be mentally ill, that might have been noticed by others and is not proof they ever went to a doctor about it or received any treatment. And half had not shown signs anyone noticed and had not been on meds.
(5) As for the suicidal warnings and the 134 regulatory warnings, everyone of those things can be caused by outside health problems. It doesn’t take an a antidepressant to have them. People often have heart issues for a lot of reasons- they can have a hidden heart problem like basketball player Pete Maravich (who used no antidepressants), high blood pressure, a bad diet, cholesterol problems, and more. Most people with heart problems are not on anti-depressants and most on anti-depressants don’t have heart problems. The mentally ill whether on or off anti-depressants can have hallucinations, are already in many cases psychotic, have anxiety, and depression itself causes sexual dysfunction such as lack of desire and impotence. There is no proof that antidepressants caused any of that. The depressed and mentally ill are already prone to suicide.
Anti-depressants have helped hundreds of millions of people.
Where are all the double blind studies using a strict scientific method in regards to the psychiatric diagnostic axis. LOL
Amen.
Food shall be their medicine Worship the word the true healer and creator of all, who prepares an eternal place for us. So Be It and Amen
Most of the pharma industry run “strict scientific double blind” studies are fraudulent or manipulated. This article points to only one regarding paxil, but most the them are similar. Drug efficacy and side effect studies should be run by an independent publicly funded agency, with strict mandate to look out for the interest of the public only, NOT influenced by the pharma companies’ profit motive/greed.
In the early 1990s I participated in a double blind study on a cholesterol lowering drug being tested on military retirees by Merck, Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine (TCOM) and the Air Force. After 30 days of a miserable low-fat diet (mostly steamed vegetables, ugh!) the participants were given unlabeled bottles of pills and instructions. In less than a week the combination of the low-fat diet and whatever I was taken had degraded my immune system to the point that I suddenly developed a viral sore throat and then Bell’s Palsy. At that point I was dropped from the study and requested to return the unused pills. They refused to tell me what I had been taking and I’m sure that my bad side effect was not noted by the study.
What the orthodox medical racket also hides is the fact that cholesterol lowering drugs, which millions of people are on, increases the risk of suicides similar to antidepressants but they also contribute to the development of autoimmune diseases (you mentioned getting “a viral sore throat”) – explained in a report that you can read by googling “Do Garcinia Cambogia Side Effects Boost Diabetes?” (at supplements-and-health dot com site).
The first thing for the public to recognize is that most of the “scientific” research in favor of cholesterol-lowering statins is flawed and fraudulent. It’s the same story with psychotropic drugs.
In a study they give you the drug and feed you meals guaranteed to push your cholesterol over the roof.Just junk food.
They had to stop certain studies, because of such results. As for statins 900 studies prove they can be deadly, still many patients believe the doctor knows best. No correlations has been found between high cholesterol and heartdisease, unless it is the hereditary genetic for of cholesterol imbalance.
Exactly right but you will not hear this lack of correlation from any establishment/corporate doctor. It is as if they could not read or do not want to read. Maybe the billions of dollars of profits made every year by the pharma industry from largely unnecessary statin drugs made most of the doctors “blind” to the facts.
Get your T-Shirt: QUESTION AUTHORITY
Hope you got paid well for that study.Sounds like a $4000 one to me.I got $4500 from Lilly for the one Traci killed herself in duloxetine test which marketed as Cymbalta. Made 64 mil right away as she died in Feb and drug came out in April. All hush hush.She was a nice religious girl from PA attending a religious college in Indianapolis. Her college friends all quit the study.I stayed and felt like an old lady in a low income retirement hostel. Cymbalta is an awful med for depression.
It’s the guinea pigs who manipulate them. We discussed how to do it. The designs are really and truly awful in how they control variables NOT.
Bullcrap, lady. They’ve made Pharma rich, that’s about all. Your comment about Mother Jones being a “hippie” publication only shows just how self-deluded you truly ARE.
You *can* read, can’t you? Start with Dr. Peter Breggins “Toxic Psychiatry”, then try Whitaker’s “Anatomy of an Epidemic”. You can believe all the DRUG RACKET PROPAGANDA you want – the lamestream media LOVES you for that. But if SSRI’s & etc., are so good, why are there so few real studies that show that?
The LIE of the pseudo-science of psychiatry has done more harm than good.
It’s obvious that you have a serious mental disturbance.
You OBVIOUSLY have a *chemical**imbalance*, and you’re loony-tunes, besides….
But all those people on drugs in those RX commercials lounge around, pick flowers. go on family picnics, they even have bath tubs on the beach wow I want some of that stuff Oh what was it for heartburn, impotency, arthritis, depression, blood pressure, shingles…. Say what those warning studies have shown you may develop rare cancer, death, paralysis, increased suicidal thoughts, stroke, blood clots…. and they ACTED so happy The End
I LOVE Autumn….it’s my favorite seasoning…..
Thanks for spicing up my day!
Giggles …sometimes laughter is the best medicine my like minded friend you are welcome and thank you Autumn is my legal name I like to come as I am : ) supporting the truth with opposition to the fraudulent masks that have the great uncovering approaching on multiple masquerading platforms. and the seasoning is ripe….
harvest time save the wheat and burn the chaff amongst the threshing floors while remaining spiritually salted
If God is for us Who can be against us
Guess how much of your post is science-based? Zero.
And how much of you post above is “science based”?? ZERO.
Your post makes no sense whatsover – my single comment was in reply to “terrilynnmerritts” post about what is wrong with the ANH article, noting that none of what they are stating is referenced. My post doesn’t need to be “science based” as I’m not making any claims, it is however “evidence based” as it notes the complete lack of scientific or medical references.
Based on your reply to their post you seem to be in agreement with me, so I don’t understand your comment. Perhaps you don’t understand how Disqus comments work? Beside my name it shows who I was responding to.
I just wrote a much simpler and less eloquent response saying the same thing. That said, I don’t trust big pharma and believe they often do more harm than good. Your response brings up some very good discussion topics.
(“Agreed. The local newspaper recently did a multi-part piece on the local
“methadone
clinic”. There’s NO oversight or accountability, and the clinic is more
SCAM than anything else. And, our State gov’t says they should
“consider” having *SOME* oversight of the clinic….????….)
I’m convinced that “terrilynnmerritts” is a fake name, and “she’s” a paid shill for Pharma….
that is not correct, since it clearly indicates on some of these medication attached pages, may cause “suicide ideation” or may cause “homocidal ideation” Teens should never be given Paxil, or Zoloft and it clearly indicates that on the side of the bottles. More importantly, the medical world does not know what is up. It is much easier than thought to help with chemical imbalance. Wellotonin works and there were not big blind studies down or even placebo, what was done, was receptive people suffering with mood disorders were open to the explanation and trying it and wanting to feel better. The results speak for themselves. Columbine, I was told the boys WERE on medication, yes, they were bullied and outcasts, but that lowered their Serotonin. They needed that to come to a healthy place that is all. Sheila M Cooperman LMHC Lic. Psychotherapist.
I personally worked with people trying to get off these drugs. They ALL had horrible side effects including violent tendencies. The stories I heard every day made me thing how is this even legal in this country. Total number of cases we worked with was about 3.5K people in 2 years. I wonder what your special interest is in this to compile a bunch of apologetic hogwash above, since there is no actual science behind the very theory these drugs rely on. Neither serotonin re-uptake nor any other “chemical imbalance” theory has any science behind it at all. Recent research even shows that serotonin has no relation to depression at all. So, please, spare us of your verbose bull.
They even found in returning veterans with PTSD, that they had very low cortisol, where high cortisol is to be expected. Moreover there are very contrary remarks by professionals. F.i. with social anxiety one claims it is too much serotonin, whilst another claims too little serotonin. My advice try out some natural variants and sense how they make you feel.
So behind in your knowledge. Educate yourself about the fraudulent researches of Big Pharma. There was a research in the UK not that long ago into 2500 regular medications of which only 12 could be proven to have some workings. You can also find vids on Youtube about the dangerous negative effects of Paxil, including patients who murder their entire families, when prior to the drug never having been violent. If only for the 25 young veterans in the US who commit suicide daily, often forced to be on multiple antidepressants at the same time, which a civilian would be forbidden to combine, signed for in a contract before being sent on a mission. No psychiatric illness can be proven,they are all invented labels by some men, who throw symptoms on a heap and decide on a adequate, fancy name for the combined symtoms, for which they then can invent new drugs, which are regularly old drugs in a new coat. The chemical imbalance theory still cannot be proven. Recently new are tests with which it is said testing for those chemicals is possible, after which you can balance those out with regular medicine or natural medicine, like herbs. As research for natural medicine is hardly funded, many people in the US believe there is none. When you check out PubMed you will find, much research is done by other cultures. Curcuma, Ginger outperform chemo for cancer. My proof is my sister, who after 2 mastectomies, metastasized cancer, chose to go alternative/complimentary. All friends and acquaintances who chose regular died shortly after diagnosis. She now survives for 7 years, her liver is clean, her tumors are shrinking, but more important her quality of life, her energylevel is great.
The power of truth Thank you Gertrude and big hugs to you and your sister’s resilient strengths! The world is a better place because of your passion for knowledge with seeking and sharing the many natural healthy alternative recoveries. Have a great day beautiful girls!
Causation is crap.Effects PRECEDE causes and the causes are inferred after the effects.You have too much reliance on authority and careerist researchers who are just trying to get tenure,advancement, publishing creds. You drank the Kool-Aid!!!
I urged my representatives to take meaningful steps towards addressing this serious issue — such as getting guns out of the hands of people prescribed these drugs, notifying all school principals and teachers of a students prescription status, and directing the FDA to expand their black box warnings of antidepressants to include the danger of psychotic breaks and violent actions toward other people, in addition to the current suicide warning. It is vital that parents, school principals, teachers, doctors, and their patients, all have this necessary safety information available when an SSRI is prescribed.
Wow, you did everything but help the situation and even included violating the rights of Big Pharma’s victims. Let’s get to the root of the problem which would be ban the use of these noncurative poisons that create chronic medical and psychiatric patients. How about stopping the federal civil law suits that the States file against pharmaceutical companies where the end settlements are nothing more than legal bribes and get these sorry losers at the top of drug companies in actual criminal defendant seats. How about not one penny of the taxpayers’ money should pay for non-curative drugs that do more harm than good. How about criminal charges against any psychiatrist who falsely documents the benefit outwweighs the risk so he or she can create a chronic patient that benefits only big pharma and the psychiatrist. Your representatives are in on it. Biggest lobby in DC = BIG PHARMA!
The biggest difference between “suicide” and “homicide”…is the spelling…but…just ‘try’ to get the pharma companies to put “homicide” on their box warnings. My ‘theory’ is…if it can cause you to possibly commit suicide(murdering yourself, so-to-speak), then it can possibly cause you to commit homicide just as easily…as, again…the only real difference is in the spelling.
I have no love for big Parma and have not researched this particular topic in depth but while reading the article, I found myself thinking that correlation is not causation. How do we know that the drug is perpetuating the violent tendencies? Could it be that those who are likely to become violent were previously diagnosed with depression thus inciting doctors to put them on antidepressants? Is there good research indicating that use of ssri’s causes an increase in violent behavior in those previously not disposed towards aggression?
Each patients health and needs are different. But my observation says that Vitamin D deficiency epidemic is to blame! We are indoors all the time and if outside we put sunscreen. 20 mins a day in the sun would make a big difference with mental health!
300 million prescriptions for psychiatric drugs were written in 2009 alone..
This is a dangerous road to travel…
What is most worrisome that more and more are children and most of those in poorer families. Ritalin for ADHD, according to the inventor of the label a bogusdisease, kills young people with heartattackis, moreover it is a hard drug.
Ritalin is a nice high.Have met kids who love to be on it. One was getting tobe a great skateboarder but mom didn’t like his going to the rink,associating with skaterboys.He was quite good right away so they took him in.Stopped it and ADHD has no wonderful place to go anymore, so they drug him up. He liked speed.Doesn’t everyone, for awhile anyway.
Your reasoning is ridiculous. You have already assumed that most perpetrators were mentally ill. You have not control to compare with similarly mentally ill perpetrators who were untreated. There is no way to tell if the mental illness or the medication is the culprit, but common sense dictates that mentally ill murderers are nothing new.
You do not analyze any numbers, either. Is there a significant increase in such murders? I think not. The murder rate has been in steady decline since the 80s.
Because of your lack of controls, you have provided no data to determine whether, in fact, medication might actually be contributing to lower murder rates. The mere fact that 11 out of 23 subjects OVER THE PAST THREE DECADES were medicated or recently off medication at the time they committed their crimes says nothing about the medication itself. How many similarly medicated unstable individuals who might have killed did not kill (an unanswerable question)? How many of the killers would not have killed had they not been medicated (another unanswerable question)?
Much more research needs to be done with far more and far better controlled data.
So….have you ever wondered WHY those “Much more research …… with far more and far better controlled data” have never been conducted?? If not think about it a bit! Maybe you will be able to figure it out….
Tai Chi is proven to help reduce depression, anxiety, and mood disorder. For more medical research on Tai Chi’s voluminous benefits, visit the World Tai Chi Day official website http://www.worldtaichiday.org and also you can participate in the free World Tai Chi Day events held in 80 nations each April, all free and open to the public. Our goal is to get Tai Chi, Qigong, Yoga, Meditation practices into public schools worldwide to improve student performance, reduce violence, and to heal society at all levels.
At the very least, Tai Chi wouldn’t hurt anyone. It probably would help many people.
I agree.The EST training worked well also.
People does pills safe lives
,there it goes again just get over it your depression right don’t take medication,get educated first before you post somethings google leaky gut syndrome or just click on the word above eat some fiber you good .Now Depression ,well let me educate some of you its not a cold you take a pill and is all better ,it is a disease like cancer that eats you from the inside out,It can hurt every bone in your body every organ it can make you want to die and it kills more americans every day than any other disease ,so tell me again that i could have gas if i take my meds or die ,which one would you take
Social problems are not being addressed in this country. People are suffering from the effects of physical, mental/emotional and sexual abuse in childhood, along with having parents who are alcoholic or drug addicted. Carrying around all this baggage gets worse and heavier generationally. And without social support to prevent these adverse affects before they start or therapy later (which requires much long and comprehensive mediation) we find people depressed and anxious. They either self medicate or go to doctors who prescribe these medicines. Then, taking the medicines can unleash all the anger and underlying distress people feel. Having altered a person’s mental chemistry can allow for unpredictable or uncontrollable behaviour. Having at least one gun for every person in the country does not help either.
Societal problems are driving the use of these drugs and extreme violence in some cases. Even our children are finding themselves depressed, anxious and suicidal. The economics of Big Pharma is not helping. Of course Big Pharma is just one player in an extreme and dysfunctional economic system. But that’s another subject, yet I’d suggest no individual escapes the oppressive feelings associated with such an exploitative system.
It will probably help most but not all. Everyone needs a good diet with folate, B12, good fatty acids and of course all vitamins and minerals. FOS and resistant starch can make a huge difference because it can shift the gut microbiome in a direction where it will produce many important chemicals and vitamins. Most Americans have quite a few deficiencies. The problem for many is genetics though. An MTHFR or COMT problem can lead to many health issues not just mental problems but mental problems a very tricky. A drug that works for one may be a serious problem for another but most doctors give everyone the same prescription. Get a genetic test done by someone like 23 And Me and then see a doctor competent in genetic analysis.
This is why everyone needs genetic testing. Some are very rapid metabolizers of certain drugs and some are very slow. Genetic testing can reveal this. It can make a huge difference in your response, even life or death. Genetics is the future of medicine. You can know what will work for you or harm you. There’s a lot to be learned yet but there is also much help available.
Wow considering all the failed promises of GMO food things that require tons of pesticides and more and more toxic approvals and kill all life systems roots, invade cellular envelopes human and all independent life within genetic splicing and the international resistance to planting it except here in the USA How about stop trying to reinvent the wheel. The sun gives Vit D for free but don’t forget that toxic sun screen to mask you!
Great article! THESE are the DRUGS we need to be concerned w/ folks – NOT CANNABIS! (Have you ever heard of anyone going on a shooting rampage from regularly consuming pot? NOPE!) And further, cannabis strains have stimulant, pacifying, peaceful properties that act w/ the cannabanoid receptors to alleviate depression. So Double down on the EDIBLES and BONG HITS instead of Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft etc.
U just proved Big Pharma’s point for them.God forbid people should treat themselves.
Big thumbs up! Congratulations and may your passion for healing stay vibrant and supported greatly! Thank you for bringing serotonins defensive natural helpers safely!
Thank you for acknowledging what i have said. It may take me one person at a time, but I plan to be here for a long, long time, so that is just fine. Actually word of mouth travels fast, and those that have used the product Wellotonin are already shouting about it from the roof tops. I can’t ask for anything more. It is just that simple.
You’re very welcome, you earned it! Healthy and good for the many roof top shouters supporting the good health they claimed after using your product Wellotonin. We all should be climbing our roof tops to watch those toxic patented allowances and empires crumble there will be dancing n the streets.
Cheers to natural healing practitioners and clients seeking them!
HOW MANY COP SHOOTINGS OF CIVILIANS ARE A RESULT OF COPS ON ANTIDEPRESSANTS and/or PAIN MEDS?
If the public is scrutinized for prescription or OTC medicine when interrogated by cops in public places for whatever reason a cop thinks is justifiable, then do we citizens have the right and/or the responsibility to demand the same application of law to COPs?
How many episodes of police-brutality in the news have investigated COPs for the use of Rx drugs known to have violent side-effect or cause irrational behavior? ZERO!
Where is the ACLU in this issue? Someone please ask them.
A lot of cops seem to be displaying psychotic behavior when in stressful situations on the job. They keep repeating the same old litany… “I was afraid for my life!” after they shoot-to-kill a pedestrian or child or someone who talks back to them. If that’s what they really feel, then they should get a different job.
I feel sorry for them, but they should not be allowed to carry a gun while working. They should not be allowed to drive a car either… just like the rest of us citizens!
All “good” programs are way of transferring tax money to industries that own the govt.The opposition strengthens the rape of the world&makes it even more easy.
To the individual who replied to me, about Wellotonin. It has not missed yet, and I have have hundreds of people using this product.The only reason, it has not been more, is only my clients for the last four years were given the opportunity to try it. Now, all can. Honestly, yes it does have to do with genetics, whether they are depression, anx, ocd, anger, but as long as your serotonin stays above the genetic predisposition, is how I explain it, than you will not present any symptoms. when it comes to violence, there has never been anything proven to be a bad seed, therefore it has to be a some type of combination of nurture vs nature. I still say, and I stick to this, that it is caused by Serotonin, or of course there are those that really screwed up their brains by using drugs like MDMA, acid, mushrooms, and other psychodelic nightmares. Putting that to the side, I have clients who would have been prescribed medication, but I explained using their contribution of their life events, just when the Serotonin began to plummet. Like I said, have not had anyone who did not feel improved or like me “I Feel Great”
I Googled Wellotonin and cannot find it. Where does one get it?
No one in his right mind faults mentally ill people. The problem is with the drugs establishment medicine gives them, which leads to violence and suicide in way too many cases. Yes, there is only correlation which is not causation. But whenever there is correlation of this kind there should be a very through and impartial/independent investigation to make sure causation does not exist. The Pharma-medical mafia and their ally the FDA typically prevent this from happening.
You label yourself sick, depressed, a loser and the spiral starts.David Foster Wallace was in that space then went to AA with his alky friends who were all getting better.Then he got better and wrote Infinite Jest.I guess I should just say that I read myself out of depressions and without the depressions I would never have read the marvelous books I’ve read, I would not be so wonderfully educated. and on and on. I treasure my depressions. They make what you are doing and thinking up to that point where it hits you as irrelevant.Then you begin to rethink and refeel yourself differently and become someone new. All depends if you are a growth junkie or not.
Good for you, but you are in the minority of depressive people and are lucky enough to have/had a minor depression.
My depression MINOR??? It’s been lifelong.Only I knew that I was the one who had to understand it, use it 2 my advantage.The pillers wouldn’t have helped. I did a bunch when doing med studies where they paid me big bucks to be a gunea pig, so that’s when I learned of their effects.Was in the study when Traci killed herself at Lilly.Awful awful drug.I wanted to die too.
It amazes me how people aggressively clutch to their pharma meds saying, well, I see that hundreds, perhaps thousands are killing themselves and others but it is working for me. It isn’t working for you. There is certainly the perception that it is working and often these meds will have a honeymoon phase but the effectiveness almost always wears off due to the body’s ability to reach homeostasis. If there were any consideration of taking these drugs with harsh and often addictive side effects it needs to be only after a long list of natural therapies were tried. But, NO. People want the easy pill. Sadly, many of these drugs with long term use will lead to deplorable conditions such as akisthisia and Parkinson’s like disorders. Every organ and cell is adversely effective with brain shrinkage being scientifically proven and efficacy no greater than a sugar pill but go on, keep believing the GREAT LIE.
Look for “Study 329″…..google it…. pro publica also did a similar piece recently….
big pharma needs to be shut down.