"We're exposing the fact," he says, "that the drug company is putting profits ahead of safety."
Attorney Kwok might just be the guy to accomplish this feat. He is certainly no lightweight in the legal arena. In 1998 at age 28, he became one of the youngest Texas attorneys to become Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law and over his career he has tried more than 65 jury trials to verdict.
In June 2004, he successfully argued for and won an $18,200,000 jury verdict against the Union Pacific Railroad.
And his justice seeking activities extend well beyond the court room. Mr. Kwok has served on the State Bar of Texas grievance committee, where he judged disciplinary proceedings against other attorneys and in 2005, he completed a full term as Commissioner Vice Chair for the Houston Police Department, where he judged internal affairs disciplinary proceedings against Houston Police Officers.
There is definitely plenty of evidence to support Mr. Kwok's assertion that SSRI makers are selling the idea of an epidemic of depression. According to, "The Marketization of Depression: The Prescribing of SSRI Antidepressants to Women," by Janet Currie, in the May 2005, Women and Health Protection, "SSRIs are also among the highest selling of all drugs in an industry that has been consistently ranked as one of the most profitable in the United States for the past twenty years."
"Prior to the introduction of SSRIs," Ms Currie reports, "depression was considered to affect only 100 people per million."
"Since the introduction of SSRIs," she states, "prevalence rates for depression are now considered to be in the range of 50,000 to 100,000 cases per million (a 500 to 1,000 fold increase)."
"Twice as many psychotropic drugs," she notes, "are prescribed for women as for men, and this holds true for the SSRI antidepressants."
One of the more recent marketing schemes put into play to recruit new SSRI customers is the designation of "National Depression Screening Days," in the US and Canada with advertisements for free depression screenings at sites set up in local communities. Funding for this scheme is provided by all the usual suspects including Forest Labs, Eli Lilly, Glaxo, Pfizer and Wyeth.
In Ontario, Canada, Mamdani et al found "tremendous cost implications" due to the shift from older antidepressants to the new SSRIs and that antidepressant costs rose by an estimated 347% between 1993 to 2000.
"Prescriptions have been written for Celexa for women from all walks of life," Mr Kwok says, "from Medicare recipients to college students."
"That meant a lot of pregnant women were taking it," he points out, "and doing so without all the information they needed to protect themselves."
The Shore lawsuit alleges that defendants "failed to warn the public and the medical community about the special risks of developing birth defects in newborns, cardiovascular defects, heart related birth defects, or other serious problems associated with the use of Celexa."
Critics say the over-selling of SSRIs could not be accomplished without the help of middle-man doctors who write the prescriptions. These days, they say, physicians in every field of medicine are corrupted by financial ties to drug makers.
According to Dr. Jay Cohen, a recognized expert on medications and side effects and the author of, "Over Dose: The Case Against The Drug Companies," the "drug companies have marketed SSRI antidepressants vigorously not only to psychiatrists, who are supposed to have some expertise with these drugs, but also to family practitioners, pediatricians, gynecologists, internal medicine specialists, and anyone else who can pen a prescription."
"But this doesn't mean that they possess in-depth knowledge of SSRIs or their actions and toxicities," he notes.
Attorney Kwok might just be the guy to accomplish this feat. He is certainly no lightweight in the legal arena. In 1998 at age 28, he became one of the youngest Texas attorneys to become Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law and over his career he has tried more than 65 jury trials to verdict.
In June 2004, he successfully argued for and won an $18,200,000 jury verdict against the Union Pacific Railroad.
And his justice seeking activities extend well beyond the court room. Mr. Kwok has served on the State Bar of Texas grievance committee, where he judged disciplinary proceedings against other attorneys and in 2005, he completed a full term as Commissioner Vice Chair for the Houston Police Department, where he judged internal affairs disciplinary proceedings against Houston Police Officers.
"Prior to the introduction of SSRIs," Ms Currie reports, "depression was considered to affect only 100 people per million."
"Since the introduction of SSRIs," she states, "prevalence rates for depression are now considered to be in the range of 50,000 to 100,000 cases per million (a 500 to 1,000 fold increase)."
"Twice as many psychotropic drugs," she notes, "are prescribed for women as for men, and this holds true for the SSRI antidepressants."
One of the more recent marketing schemes put into play to recruit new SSRI customers is the designation of "National Depression Screening Days," in the US and Canada with advertisements for free depression screenings at sites set up in local communities. Funding for this scheme is provided by all the usual suspects including Forest Labs, Eli Lilly, Glaxo, Pfizer and Wyeth.
In Ontario, Canada, Mamdani et al found "tremendous cost implications" due to the shift from older antidepressants to the new SSRIs and that antidepressant costs rose by an estimated 347% between 1993 to 2000.
"Prescriptions have been written for Celexa for women from all walks of life," Mr Kwok says, "from Medicare recipients to college students."
"That meant a lot of pregnant women were taking it," he points out, "and doing so without all the information they needed to protect themselves."
The Shore lawsuit alleges that defendants "failed to warn the public and the medical community about the special risks of developing birth defects in newborns, cardiovascular defects, heart related birth defects, or other serious problems associated with the use of Celexa."
Critics say the over-selling of SSRIs could not be accomplished without the help of middle-man doctors who write the prescriptions. These days, they say, physicians in every field of medicine are corrupted by financial ties to drug makers.
According to Dr. Jay Cohen, a recognized expert on medications and side effects and the author of, "Over Dose: The Case Against The Drug Companies," the "drug companies have marketed SSRI antidepressants vigorously not only to psychiatrists, who are supposed to have some expertise with these drugs, but also to family practitioners, pediatricians, gynecologists, internal medicine specialists, and anyone else who can pen a prescription."
"But this doesn't mean that they possess in-depth knowledge of SSRIs or their actions and toxicities," he notes.
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