Google Under Criminal Investigation Over Drug Ads: Report

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/13/google-drug-ad-investigation_n_861532.html

Earlier this week, Google revealed in a cryptic filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it was setting aside $500 million--equivalent to around one sixth of its revenue in the first quarter of 2011--to resolve a mysterious case with the Department of Justice.

Now, sources say that Google is nearing a settlement with regulators following a criminal investigation into allegations that the search giant profited from selling online ads to illegal pharmacies. These illicit pharmacies may violate U.S. law by peddling expired or counterfeit prescription medication, or selling medicine without a physician's prescription.

The $500 million Google may be required to pay would be unprecedented: According to the Wall Street Journal, "A payment of that size would be among the highest penalties paid by companies in disputes with the U.S. government."

Though Google has attempted to crack down on rogue pharmacies in the past--the company filed a suit against illegal prescription drug sellers last year and now requires pharmacies to receive accreditation before purchasing ads--people "familiar with the matter" said investigators are probing "the extent to which Google knowingly turned a blind eye to the alleged illicit activities of some of its advertisers—and how much executives knew," notes the Journal.

Google and the Department of Justice have declined to comment on the investigation. Google co-founder Sergey Brin dodged a question on the probe during Google's I/O conference.

"Luckily, since we changed roles a few months ago, I don't have to deal with filings, and the DOJ, the SEC or other acronyms," Brin said, according to the Journal.

The investigation could have far-reaching implications for Google's lucrative ad business.

We wonder if a lot of people who find their substance of choice is unavailable will be forced to go off their meds... that could be disastrous if done "cold turkey". But information on how to withdraw from psychotropic meds without doing yourself further harm is on this site. Check out our LINKS in the right-hand column - you will find info on halting antidepressants/SSRI's by Dr. David Healey and the excellent work by Dr. Heather Ashton on getting off Benzos - and other resources.

Quit Smoking

Happy Valentine's Day to all our friends and readers. 

Give your heart a gift this Valentine's Day - Quit Smoking!

George Washington University has helpful resources here
http://www.gwu.edu/quitsmoking/

Quit smoking Wikis are here
http://quitsmoking.wikia.com/wiki/Quit_Smoking
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking_cessation

Our favorite method is to reduce smoking cravings with Vitamin B3 -  nicotinamide - which the brain may perceive as identical to nicotine.
Pharmaceuticals Anonymous: Niacin for Smoking Cessation

Medications to quit smoking can have unwanted side effects.
http://pharmaceuticalsanonymous.blogspot.com/2008/05/spoof-death-cures-smoking.html

Psychiatric Drugs as Agents of Trauma by Charles L. Whitfield, MD

http://www.musehousepress.com/Psychiatric_Drugs_As_Agents_of_Trauma_JRS508.pdf

Psychiatric Drugs as Agents of Trauma by Charles L. Whitfield, MD

Excerpted from: The International Journal of Risk & Safety in Medicine 22 (2010) 195-207

DOI 10.3233/JRS-2010-0508

IOS Press

Volume 22, Number 4, 2010

Private Practice of Trauma Psychology, Psychiatry, and Addiction Medicine; Consultant and Research

Collaborator at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 3462 Hallcrest Dr., Atlanta,

GA 30319-1910, USA and Board of Directors of the Leadership Council on Child Abuse

& Interpersonal Violence, Baltimore, MD, USA

Tel.: +404 843 3585; E-mail: c-bwhit@mindspring.com

Abstract. Drawing on the work of numerous psychiatrists and psychopharmacologists and my own observations, I describe how most common psychiatric drugs are not only toxic but can be chronically traumatic, which I define in some detail throughout this paper. In addition to observing this occurrence among numerous of my patients over the past 20 years, I surveyed 9 mental health clinicians who had taken antidepressant drugs long-term. Of these 9, 7 (77%) experienced bothersome toxic drug effects and 2 (22%) had become clearly worse than they were before they had started the drugs. Based on others’ and my observations I describe the genesis of this worsened condition which I call the Drug Stress Trauma Syndrome.

These drug effects can be and are often so detrimental to the quality of life among  a  distinct but significant minority of patients that they can no longer be considered trivial or unimportant. Instead, they are so disruptive to many patients’ quality of life that their effect becomes traumatic, and are thereby agents of trauma. These observations and preliminary data may encourage others to look into this matter in more depth.

Five Reasons Not to Take SSRI Antidepressants

Great article from Psychology Today. Edited for brevity; please visit the link

Lennard J. Davis is professor of disability studies, medical education, and English literature at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the author of Obsession: A History.

Now that SSRIs don't work for depression, don't take them!
Published on January 7, 2010

For the past five years, and in my recent book OBSESSION: A HISTORY, I have been questioning the effectiveness of Prozac-like drugs known as SSRIs. I've pointed out that when the drugs first came out in the early 1990's there was a wildly enthusiastic uptake in the prescribing of such drugs. Doctors were jubilantly claiming that the drugs were 80-90 per cent effective in treating depression and related conditions like OCD. In the last few years those success rates have been going down, with the NY Times pointing out that the initial numbers had been inflated by drug companies supressing the studies that were less encouraging. But few if any doctors or patients were willing to hear anything disparaging said about these "wonder" drugs.

Now the tune has changed.

Reason One: A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association says that SSRI's like Paxil and Prozac are no more effective in treating depression than a placebo pill.
...

Reason Two: A January 4 article in MedPage Today cites a study done at Columbia University and Johns Hopkins. The study says that doctors routinely prescribe not one but two or three SSRI's and other psychopharmological drugs in combination with few if any serious studies to back up the multiple usage.
...

Reason Three: More and more psychiatric disorders are appearing that might be called "lifestyle" diseases. What was called shyness, sadness, restlessness, shopping too much, high sex drive, low sex drive, and so on have increasingly been seen as diseases and many more will appear in the new DSM
...

Reason Four: We're an over-medicated society, and the goal of drug companies and a compliant and harried medical establishment is ultimately to have some drug coursing through every individuals' s bloodstream.
...
Reason Five: The whole serotonin hypothesis is challenged by these findings.
...
What Should You Do? Think twice, be skeptical, and question a simplistic diagnosis you might receive after discussing your condition for a short time with a rushed practitioner.
...

Link

Hooked on happy pills: The long term effects can be terrifying

Antidepressants: Internal bleeding. Strokes. Birth defects. Falls. And more.

"We estimate more than two million people are taking antidepressants for more than five years and the largest group are women aged 18 to 45,' says lead researcher Tony Kendrick, professor of general practice at Southampton University.
'Many young women today are picking up repeat prescriptions for months and years apparently without any checks - in many cases these are women who want to stop but can't.
Even those who make a deliberate choice to stay on the medication long-term may not be aware of the dangers, not least the risk of missing out on the normal ups and downs of ordinary life.'"

Link

How to get free? Two helpful links from the resources in our Friends column - to the right

Dr. David Healey on stopping antidepressants safely

Dr. Heather Ashton's manual on stopping benzodiazepines

Evelyn Pringle: Paxil Birth Defect Litigation - First Trial a Bust for Glaxo

Evelyn Pringle reports on the Paxil/Seroxat suit brought by Andy Vickery on behalf of plaintiffs.

From the page:

A number of birth defect cases are set for trial in 2010. Andy Vickery, who practices at the Houston firm of Vickery, Waldner and Mallia, is handling several cases, with the Novak trial set to start first. The case is unique in that it involves an infant born with heart birth defects to Derek and Laura Novak on April 4, 2002, after Laura was prescribed Paxil during pregnancy for the off-label treatment of migraine headaches.

"Although one might worry that this would cause a jury to blame the prescribing doctor," says Vickery, "in this case, we can show that GSK encouraged this use, by sending out over 1500 "medical information" letters touting the benefits of Paxil for migraine headaches, and by leaving "approved WLF reprint" articles with the prescribing doctors."

...

During opening statements in the first trial on September 15, 2009, Sean Tracey told the jury they were "going to see documents in this case that have never seen the light of day before."

"You will see internal GlaxoSmith documents that the FDA hasn't seen, that the United States Congress hasn't seen, and that no jury has ever laid their eyes on before," he said. "They have been under seal for over three years."

Many of the sealed documents related to the Paxil studies conducted on rats and rabbits. The world-renowned expert from the UK, Dr David Healy, testified on behalf of the plaintiffs.

Paxil was originally owned by a Danish company called Ferrosan, and that company did the preliminary animal studies on rats and rabbits to look at teratogenicity around 1979 and 1980.

Healy explained that a teratogen is an agent that will cause birth defects and "it could be a drug or maybe a virus or maybe an illness."

In addition to birth defects, he said, a teratogen can cause a fetus to be born dead or cause a miscarriage, which is death before birth.

Article here

Antidepressants Dangers - Women's Health Initiative reports

"The (Women's Health Initiative) findings, in the largest cohort of women yet studied, provide additional warning that antidepressant therapy may in fact be detrimental with respect to stroke and total mortality in this demographic population."
Psychology Today commentary

LA Times on Stopping Antidepressants

Hopelessly simplified; totally inadequate. People are going to get hurt. FAIL.
For links to the facts about antidepressant dangers please go here to Dr. Heather Ashton's site and check out other withdrawal resources listed in our FRIENDS links - David Healey's is of special note: Halting SSRI's PDF

Stop the Dangerous and Invasive Mothers Act

Mothers Act Fuels Multibillion Dollar Drug Industry - Evelyn Pringle
Link
FDA Throws Lifeline to Antipsychotic Pushers - Evelyn Pringle
Link
Mothers Act Disease Mongering Campaign - Evelyn Pringle
Link

Want to contact your congresscritter? Find out what to do at Unitedforlife's Action Page

Racial and Ethnic Differences in Response to Medicines

"RACIAL AND ETHNIC DIFFERENCES IN
RESPONSE TO MEDICINES: TOWARDS
INDIVIDUALIZED PHARMACEUTICAL
TREATMENT

Valentine J. Burroughs, MD, Randall W. Maxey, MD, PhD, and Richard A. Levy, PhD
Washington, DC and Reston, Virginia

It is now well documented that substantial disparities exist in the quality and quantity of
medical care received by minority Americans, especially those of African, Asian and Hispanic
heritage. In addition, the special needs and responses to pharmaceutical treatment of these
groups have been undervalued or ignored. This article reviews the genetic factors that underlie
varying responses to medicines observed among different ethnic and racial groups. Pharmacogenetic
research in the past few decades has uncovered significant differences among racial and
ethnic groups in the metabolism, clinical effectiveness, and side-effect profiles of many clinically
important drugs. These differences must be taken into account in the design of cost management
policies such as formulary implementation, therapeutic substitution and step-care protocols.
These programs should be broad and flexible enough to enable rational choices and individualized
treatment for all patients, regardless of race or ethnic origin. (J Natl Med Assoc. 2002;
94:1–26.)

Key words: race l ethnicity l
pharmaceuticals l
pharmacogenomics

The recent report of the Institute of Medicine
(IOM), “Unequal Treatment: Confronting
Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Healthcare,”
illustrates in eloquent scientific detail that racial
and ethnic disparities in health care do
exist and are prevalent in both the treatment of
medical illness and in the delivery of health
care services to minorities in the United States.1
Of greater significance is the finding that these
disparities still exist even after adjustment for
differences in socioeconomic status, insurance
coverage, income, age, comorbid conditions,
expression of symptoms, and access-related factors.
These disparities are not confined to any
one aspect of the health care setting, and can
even be found in the delivery of pharmaceutical
services, which are under increasing cost
control measures.
Implicit in this transaction is the ultimate
outcome of increased morbidity and mortality
for African Americans and other minorities.
This is mostly due to a diminished quality of
medical care and health services, but also due
to a predilection to avoid using better quality

© 2002. From the Health Policy Committee, Board of Trustees, National
Medical Association, Washington, DC; and Scientific Affairs,
National Pharmaceutical Council, Reston, Virginia. Requests for reprints
should be addressed to Dr Richard Levy, National Pharmaceutical
Council, 1894 Preston White Drive, Reston, VA 20191.
JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL MEDICAL ASSOCIATION VOL. 94

PDF




NAMI has a plan in place to "treat" Natives - and people in other nations of non-white ethnicity.
"Chapter Four Evaluating Your Outreach Efforts 127 Materials adapted from Outreach to African Americans and Hispanic Families: A Manual for NAMI Affiliates. Currently, Mental Health and Social Services......"Link



NAMI's "Eliminating Disparities" pdfs - various ethnic groups targeted

Shouldn't any plan which mentions "eliminating" and "Natives" be immediately suspect?

If "losing your mind" is a normal response to having your culture, community and country destroyed, what then?
Has much really changed since the days of the Hiawatha Asylum?

SSRI Discontinution at Wikipedia

Synaptic/SSRI cartoon above is a spoof.
We'll place this information on "Discontinution syndrome" in our Friends column as well.

Antidepressants can cause premature aging, wrinkles - and violence

Another adverse drug side effect - premature aging (wrinkling and muscle loss) due to antidepressants - comes to light.
Link
From Japanese news, a link between antidepressant use and violence.


Would we take these medications if we knew how harmful the side effects might be?

Search results: Antidepressant Induced Psychosis

Here are just a few of the almost 100,000 results for a search for antidepressants induced psychosis from http://google.com:

Scholarly articles for antidepressant induced psychosis
Antidepressant-induced mania and cycle acceleration: a ... - Altshuler - Cited by 380
Radiologic correlates of antidepressant-induced ... - Figiel - Cited by 32
Treatment of Tricyclic Antidepressant-Induced Orgasmic ... - SOVNER - Cited by 35

Search Results
Which Antidepressant, Anti Depressant Induced Psychosis - Agonist ...
Read about Which Antidepressant, Anti Depressant Induced Psychosis.
agonist.org/Learning-Center/Which_Antidepressant,_Anti_Depressant_ Induced_Psychosis.htm - 9k - Cached - Similar pages -
Antidepressant-associated mania and psychosis resulting in ...
Antidepressant-associated mania and psychosis resulting in psychiatric admissions. ... Bipolar Disorder/chemically induced*; Bipolar Disorder/diagnosis ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11235925 - Similar pages -
by A Preda - 2001 - Cited by 42 - Related articles - All 4 versions
BP or Antidepressant-induced Mania
Q: BP or Antidepressant-induced Mania. Hi there; I was diagnosed with bipolar a month ago after a paxil induced mania/psychosis that was relatively severe. ...
www.bipolarworld.net/Phelps/ph_2002/ph721.htm - 15k - Cached - Similar pages -
Index to SSRI Stories
Mania & Psychosis, Antidepressants, 2004-02-02, U.S.A., ++200000 a Year Enter Hospital Due to Antidepressant- Induced Mania/ Psychosis: FDA Testimony ...
ssristories.com/index.php - 699k - Cached - Similar pages -
» Antidepressant Side Effects Cause Psychosis PSYCHIATRIC ...
18 Aug 2005 ... FDA Fails To Protect From Antidepressant Drug Side Effects ... likely that the actual rates of antidepressant-induced mania and/or psychosis ...
www.psychiatry.info/psychiatrists-in-the-news/antidepressant-side-effects- cause-psychosis/ - 21k - Cached - Similar pages -
ICFDA SSRI Prescribing Draws Fire
were due to SSRI induced psychosis." Todd Zwillich, Senior Writer ... The number of doctor office visits including an antidepressant prescription more than ...
www.drugawareness.org/Archives/Miscellaneous/MRadmissions.html - 7k - Cached - Similar pages -
Treatment emergent psychosis associated with mirtazapine and ...
risk of inducing psychosis. Cases of antidepressant-induced psychosis, in the absence of other causes, especially mania, should be followed up for as long ...
search.sabinet.co.za/images/ejour/medjda/medjda_v5_n4_a6.pdf - Similar pages -
Plasma catecholamine metabolites in antidepressant-exacerbated ...
We have previously noted a significant number of hospitalizations secondary to antidepressant-induced psychosis and mania. ( Bowers et al., 1998). ...
linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S016503270000327X - Similar pages -
by F Fortunati - 2002 - Cited by 4 - Related articles
[PDF] Suicidality, violence and mania caused by selective serotonin ...
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
admissions over a fourteen month period and found that 43 (8.1%) could be attributed to antidepressant- induced mania and/or psychosis. ...
www.breggin.com/31-49.pdf - Similar pages -
by PR Breggin - 2004 - Cited by 35 - Related articles - All 15 versions
Alternative Treatments For Drug Induced Psychosis - a ...
In fact, antidepressant-induced mania is generally regarded as one of the ... alleviate symptoms of psychosis in people with bipolar disorder and there . ...
www.wellsphere.com/wellpage/alternative-treatments-for-drug-induced- psychosis - 80k - Cached - Similar pages -

Furious Seasons: "Another Fine SSRI Withdrawal Story"

Here. Don't miss the comments.

Seven-year old on antidepressants hangs himself

'Weeks before his death, Gabriel Myers, the 7-year-old Broward boy who hanged himself in the shower of his foster home, had been prescribed a powerful mind-altering drug linked by federal regulators to an increased risk of suicide in children.'
Link
Please, let's stop these tragedies.

Too long a sacrifice
Can make a stone of the heart.
O when may it suffice?
- W.B. Yeats.

April 20th: Anniversary of Columbine Shooting

Today marks a sad anniversary - the
Columbine High School massacre. Did medications cause the Columbine shootings - and many others?


Film by Gary Null, 2005

'In the absence of any objective medical tests to determine who has ADD or ADHD, doctors rely in part on standardized assessments and the impressions of teachers and guardians while the they administer leave little room for other causes or aggravating factors, such as diet, or environment. Hence, diagnosing a child or adolescent with ADD or ADHD is often the outcome, although no organic basis for either disease has yet to be clinically proven. Psychiatrists may then prescribe psychotropic drugs for the children without first without making it clear to parents that these medications can have severe side-effects including insomnia, loss of appetite, headaches, psychotic symptoms and even potentially fatal adverse reactions, such as cardiac arrhythmia. And yet, despite these dangers, many school systems actually work with government agencies to force parents to drug their children, threatening those who refuse with the prospect of having their children taken from the home unless they coooperate.'

PDF: Treatment-related mania: antidepressants can cause bipolar disorder

Since product infomation documents and inserts WARN of these very side effects, isn't it time we stopped this?

Statistics on antidepressant murders, suicides and other tragedies are here

This is Dr. Ann Blake Tracy's site on the dangers of psychotropic drugs: Drugawareness.org

Do antidepressants destroy our ability to love?

"My main thought was: What a pain in the ass... I had not the slightest emotional reaction. I thought, this is a really strange art project... It was a most amazing sight in terms of sheer elegance. It fell like water. It just slid, like a turtleneck going over someone's head... It was just beautiful. You can't tell people this. ... I just felt like everyone was overreacting. People were going on about it. That part really annoyed me... I cried about all the animals left there in the neighborhood... I think I have some kind of emotional block. I think I should join some support group for people who were there... You know what was really funny? After the fact, like, all these different writers were writing these things about what it was like, and nobody bothered to call me."
- Elizabeth Wurzel, author of PROZAC NATION, and antidepressant user, on her reaction to the events of 9/11

Similarly, some persons on antidepressants lose their ability to feel love. For some, that feeling may never return - a part of the human soul is permanently destroyed.
Link

Malic Acid and Magnesium for Brain Zaps

Image inspired by R.Crumb
















If you are withdrawing from meds - antidepressants - you may have brain zaps or other painful symptoms as part of what the pharmaceutical industry wishes us to benignly think of as "discontinuation syndrome".
As many who have been through SSRI withdrawal know, the experience can be a kind of Hell. You can read descriptions of brain zaps here.
To ease brain zaps, you may consider using supplements of Magnesium and Malic acid, described in the link below. Magnesium is the main ingredient in baby powder and Epsom salts, and Malic acid is also found under the name Apple Cider Vinegar. Link

Melatonin during meds withdrawal

The Nightmare by Henri Fuesli
Food for thought about melatonin, Ambien and other sleep and mood medications. It is particularly interesting that antidepressants can cause depletion of the body's melatonin. Link

Antidepressants Strongly Linked to Heart Disease

"Researchers have documented an alarming link between the use of antidepressants and the development of serious heart disease. The link was discovered by following 63,449 women as part of the Nurses’ Health Study. The results show a “specific relationship between antidepressant use and sudden cardiac death.” The specific conclusion of the study states, “In this cohort of women without baseline coronary heart disease, depressive symptoms were associated with fatal coronary heart disease, and a measure of clinical depression including antidepressant use was specifically associated with sudden cardiac death.”

This antidepressant news followed another recent and rather stunning finding, that antidepressants cause significant bone loss. The commonly used SSRI antidepressants double the risk for fractures in anyone over the age of 50 who uses them regularly. The mechanism involved is that too much serotonin from the drugs directly interferes with the formation of new bone."
Link