A new study by Norwegian scientists on the antidepressant Paxil has found that it increases the risk of suicide in adults 7 times greater than if the patient had taken a placebo (sugar pill). The new statistics reported in the British Medical Journal are based on 16 clinical trials presented to the world's leading drug regulatory agencies since 1989.
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a psychiatric watchdog group that blew the whistle on the suicidal and violent effects of the first of the SSRI antidepressants in 1991, said that in light of this latest study and the volume of evidence about the dangers of these drugs, "prescribing psychiatrists and any company or psychiatric association promoting the safety of these drugs should be held accountable for patient suicides."
A History of Cover Up At Risk of Patients' Lives
- CCHR leveled its harshest criticism at the American Psychiatric Association (APA), which has the power and responsibility to advise its members. Last year, the APA opposed the FDA ordering a "black box" label be added to antidepressant packaging, warning doctors and parents that the drugs could cause suicide in under 18 year olds.
- In a joint statement, both the APA president Michelle Riba and President-elect Steven Sharfstein said that the "black box warning on antidepressants could have a chilling effect on appropriate prescribing for patients."
- In 1999, the out-going president of the APA, Rudrigo Munoz, claimed, "...there is very little evidence to prove a causal relationship between the use of antidepressant medications and destructive behavior."
- In August 2005, Dr. Sharfstein admitted in an article for the Psychiatric News that recent charges in the media against psychiatrists had some merit, namely that "many patients are being prescribed the wrong drugs and drugs that they don't need. These charges are true…" However, in what CCHR says is a typical of the APA's failure to accept any responsibility, Dr. Sharfstein quibbled, "It's not psychiatry's fault-it's the fault of the broken health care system in the United States."
- But the warning signs on antidepressants have been long ignored because, says CCHR, the drugs are a $14 billion a year industry and 36 million Americans are taking them, a potential goldmine for the APA which makes between 15 and 20 percent of its income from drug company advertising in its journals.
- As far back as November 2002, FOX National News exposed how internal pharmaceutical company records revealed that people taking Paxil were 8 times more likely to commit suicide than if taking placebo.
- Last December, ABC's Prime Time revealed it had evidence of at least 100 children who have committed suicide while taking antidepressants while many others attempted it. Cases include 17-year-old Julie Woodward who hanged herself in the family's garage 7 days after taking an antidepressant and Matt Miller, aged 11, who hanged himself in his bedroom closet one week after being prescribed and taking an antidepressant.
- On June 30, 2005, the FDA announced it is now conducting a review of data about the increased risk of suicide in adults. The warning came too late for Cecily Bostock, aged 25, who violently stabbed herself to death with a kitchen knife 2 weeks after being prescribed Paxil.
- Precedent law is needed to make prescribing psychiatrists and their associations accountable. Already, courts are starting to recognize the facts. In June 2001, a Wyoming jury awarded $8 million to the relatives of Donald Schell, who went on a shooting rampage after taking an antidepressant. The jury determined that the drug was 80% responsible for inducing the killing spree.
- CCHR charges that the APA has for years endorsed the falsehood that people "have a chemical imbalance" requiring antidepressants to restore their brain to "normal." It took 17 years before an APA president, Dr. Sharfstein,-faced with a daunting amount of publicity about the dangers of antidepressants- admitted in June 2005 that "there is no clear cut lab test" to determine a chemical imbalance. Questioned about Sharfstein's admission on a CBS news interview 2, Dr. Mark Graff, Chair of the Committee of Public Affairs for the APA, confessed, "Chemical imbalance…it's a shorthand term really, it's probably drug industry derived.…We don't have [chemical imbalance] tests, because to do it, you'd probably have to take a chunk of brain out of someone-not a good idea."
- Unscientific claims are also perpetuated in the APA's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM). Within a year of Prozac's release, children and adolescents accounted for well over $1 billion of the $3 billion paid to private psychiatric hospitals for inpatient treatment. More than a third of child and adolescent inpatient stays were based on the invented diagnoses of "conduct disorder," "adolescent adjustment disorder," and "oppositional defiant disorder," for which antidepressants can be prescribed. Between 1990 and 2000, the suicide rate for 15 to 19-year-olds soared 800%.
- CCHR has recommended that anyone who has been abused by psychiatrists prescribing psychiatric drugs or other potentially dangerous "treatments" contact CCHR to report their concerns.
CCHR has an impressive 36-year history of investigating and exposing psychiatric violations of human rights and was established by the Church of Scientology.
Published: August 26, 2005
Author: Marla Filidei
