Signs and Symptoms of Magnesium Deficiency

With thanks to Sepp Hallberger, who posted this on his blog - go visit him!
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/

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

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.

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

Antidepressant Use in UK, Germany, France 1998-2002

Abstract

"The aim of this paper is to compare the evolution of antidepressant consumption in France, Germany
and the United Kingdom between 1998 and 2002. Commercial databases (IMS Health) have been
used in conjunction with administrative data (PACT for the UK, GKV for Germany and Afssaps for
France) to estimate antidepressant consumption in Daily Defined Doses. The main results are: (1)
Antidepressant consumption has increased significantly over the last decade in France (x2), Germany
(x2.4) and the UK (x3.8); (2) SSRIs are the most heavily consumed drugs in France (67%) and the UK
(60%); (3) Germany is distinguished by an overall level of antidepressant consumption twice as low as
the other two countries and a relatively low use of SSRI antidepressants (31%), in favour of TCAs. In
conclusion, the combined use of administrative and commercial data is possible for an evaluation of
the volume of consumption. This study sheds both medical and economic light on the differences in
both the level and structure of consumption in these three countries.

Keywords: antidepressant consumption, SSRI, France, UK, Germany
Codes JEL: I11 et L65"



Study released February 2009 Pdf here

Bipolar Disorder Caused by Antidepressants

In an essay appearing March 17 in The Lancet, Franco Benazzi, MD, PhD, writes about a common but poorly recognized form of bipolar disorder, called bipolar disorder II.
Because the disorder is so often misdiagnosed, patients are often wrongly treated with antidepressants alone, which can make the problem worse, the professor of psychiatry tells WebMD.

"These patients need to be on mood-stabilizing drugs, and if depression persists an antidepressant can be added," Benazzi says. "Treating these patients with antidepressants alone can actually increase the manic episodes and worsen the disorder."

Bipolar II caused by antidepressants

And more evidence from Am J Psychiatry 166:2, February 2009.
Pdf
Thanks to Philip Dawdy of Furious Seasons for releasing this information.

Evelyn Pringle: SSRI Pushers Under Fire

Brueghel: Blind leading the blind

"Throughout the 1990's, most doctors who attended conferences, medical seminars and other events were not aware that the so-called "key opinion leaders" encouraging them to prescribe the new generation of antidepressants for everything under the sun, including to children as young as infants, were nothing more than highly paid drug pushers for Big Pharma.

For years, the research that showed SSRI antidepressants (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) were dangerous and practically useless was kept hidden, while the studies published and presented to potential prescribers painted a glowing picture of success. These days, a person would be hard pressed to find someone who does not have a family member or friend labeled mentally ill and taking drugs like Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Lexapro and Celexa, or their chemical cousins Effexor, Cymbalta and Wellbutrin.

About once a year, a new round of headlines about all the money made by the SSRI pushers comes and goes; but nothing really ever seemed to stick, until now.

The Senate Finance Committee, with the ranking Republican, Senator Charles Grassley, leading the charge, is investigating GlaxoSmithKline regarding new revelations in a report filed in litigation showing that the company manipulated the numbers on adverse events related to suicidality in clinical trials back in 1989, to make it appear that Paxil did not increase the risk of patients experiencing suicidal behavior when, in fact, trial subjects on Paxil were eight times more likely to attempt or commit suicide than patients taking placebos.

Quite a few of the top pushers are also under investigation by the Committee due to revelations that millions of dollars has changed hands between the SSRI makers and the academics who signed off on some of the most fraudulently reported research in the history of modern medicine. A full list of names is easy to compile by scanning the literature on SSRI studies conducted on children. The same names appear repeatedly.

In alphabetical order, the Fortune 500 team of pushers, at a minimum, includes Drs Joseph Biederman, David Brent, Jeffrey Bridge, Daniel Casey, David Dunner, Graham Emslie, Daniel Geller, Robert Gibbons, Frederick Goodwin, Martin Keller, Andrew Leon, John Mann, John March, Charles Nemeroff, John Rush, Neal Ryan, David Shaffer, and Karen Wagner."
Article here

Lawsuits Against Antidepressant Makers On the Rise

Article and information on how to find legal representation for yourself is here.



Still need another point of view? Look at thi$ site.

Bad Medicine: The Depressing Truth About Antidepressants

Click here to read The Depressing Truth About Antidepressants, from CounterPunch
Click here to read about negative side effects from SSRI and SNRI antidepressants.

Do SSRI's Cause Lesions in Brains of Elderly?

"Antidepressant linked to worsening white matter in elderly
Reuters
Tue, 18 March 2008
The results of a study employing serial cranial MRI suggest that elderly adults who use tricyclic antidepressants may be at increased risk for progression of white matter lesions, which have been linked with late-life depression by previous studies."
Article here

Big Pharma's Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Week

Everywhere we look, Big Pharma is in the news this week. And none of the news is good.

Some major studies have asked if antidepressants help us, and concluded that the effectiveness of these medications is not much greater than that of placebos. 

To see samples of this week's coverage, go to PLoS and Google and enter ssri+placebo. Take a lunch - you could be there for some time.