In addition to 4,200 published reports of SSRI-related violence, aggression, bizarre behavior, self-harm and suicide since the drugs were introduced in 1988, the lucrative antidepressants also pack non-behavioral perks: SSRIs can cause life-threatening serotonin syndrome when taken with migraine drugs, gastrointestinal bleeding when taken with aspirin, Aleve or Advil and the bone condition osteoporosis.
The popular Paxil can reduce or abolish the effect of tamoxifen in breast cancer patients and increase deaths says British Medical Journal. It's linked to a two-fold increased risk of cardiac birth defects in infants according to its own manufacturer, GSK.
And sexually, SSRIs are so linked to dysfunction even the pharma identified web site WebMD admits many will experience impotence, delayed ejaculation or no orgasm. The solution? Add another antidepressant that's not an SSRI like Wellbutrin says WebMD.
Effexor, Cymbalta, Pristiq, SNRIs
Selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) are like their SSRIs chemical cousins except their norepinephrine effects can modulate pain, which has ushered in your-depression-is-really-pain, your-pain-is-really-depression and other crossover marketing. But the problem with giving a psychoactive drug for pain is that you're giving a psychoactive drug for pain. "After three months of taking Savella [another SNRI], I started self-destructing and cutting myself," writes a 40 year old woman on askapatient.com. "I don't know why or anything, but it does similar to Prozac where it makes you think and do weird things."
And Cymbalta, approved this fall for chronic back pain and osteoarthritis?
Cymbalta was the drug healthy 19-year-old volunteer Traci Johnson was testing when she hung herself in an Eli Lilly dorm in 2005. It was the drug Carol Anne Gotbaum killed herself on at Phoenix's Sky Harbor airport in 2007.
SNRI's are also harder to quit than SSRIs, especially Effexor. 25-year-old Chicagoan David F. says he stood at the top of an 8-story parking lot contemplating jumping every day for weeks after quitting. It's also the drug Andrea Yates was on when she drowned her five children in 2001.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
1
1
