In other words, the control group, the group of normal individuals who did not have depression but were given the antidepressant medications during the trial phase of the drug company's research, reported they had experienced suicidal thoughts and ideations, and thoughts of violence. Put bluntly, antidepressants can potentially make a normal person want to kill themselves or others.
As reported by The Express, "Experts working on the study said the analysis was undertaken because the harms of antidepressants, including the risk of suicide, are often explained away as if they are disease symptoms or only a problem in children." The Free Thought Project spoke with an ER nurse to confirm these suspicions and get an opinion from someone working in the field of Emergency Medicine.
The nurse, who wishes to remain anonymous, said she'd been working in the emergency room of a hospital on the East Coast for 10 years. She said she'd taken care of nearly 100 patients who'd committed suicide and all but one, by her recollection, were taking antidepressants. And she has seen double that number attempt suicide, most of whom were taking the medicines. Most of the attempted suicides and suicides were done by hanging. But questions remain. After all, if the medicines are working to keep adolescents and adults from killing themselves, wouldn't the numbers be reversed? Wouldn't the reports coming from the ER be that children not taking medicines were killing themselves, but medicated children were safer??
She conveyed a conversation she overheard, whereby doctors in the ER were discussing antidepressants being given to children. One ER physician said, "I would never give antidepressants to children," to which the other doctors agreed, making similar comments.
As The Free Thought Project has reported on numerous occasions, the dangers of antidepressant medicines are quickly becoming known. And while Big Pharma and the FDA are quick to defend their clinical trials, and use data to demonstrate the drugs are safe for human consumption, even the FDA has placed a black box warning label on the medicines. The National Institute of Mental Health described the warning label saying, "Following a thorough and comprehensive review of all the available published and unpublished controlled clinical trials of antidepressants in children and adolescents, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a public warning in October 2004 about an increased risk of suicidal thoughts or behavior (suicidality) in children and adolescents treated with SSRI antidepressant medications."
The aforementioned warning label on antidepressants was mandated by the Food and Drug Administration of the U.S. Federal Government. Here's the FDA's statement, "[5/2/2007] The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today proposed that makers of all antidepressant medications update the existing black box warning on their products' labeling to include warnings about increased risks of suicidal thinking and behavior, known as suicidality, in young adults ages 18 to 24 during initial treatment (generally the first one to two months)."
Did you catch that carefully worded phrase? It reads, "suicidal thinking and behavior." In other words, even the FDA admits children and young adults are killing themselves while taking a medicine that is supposed to keep them from killing themselves.
Maybe you or someone you know is already taking the medicine and you've been wondering where those suicidal thoughts are coming from. It may be time to check to see if the drug you're taking is on the list. Here's the list of drugs which the FDA says must carry the suicide warning label.
Anafranil (clomipramine)
Asendin (amoxapine)
Aventyl (nortriptyline)
Celexa (citalopram hydrobromide)
Cymbalta (duloxetine)
Desyrel (trazodone HCl)
Elavil (amitriptyline)
Effexor (venlafaxine HCl)
Emsam (selegiline)
Etrafon (perphenazine/amitriptyline)
fluvoxamine maleate
Lexapro (escitalopram oxalate)
Limbitrol (chlordiazepoxide/amitriptyline)
Ludiomil (maprotiline)
Marplan (isocarboxazid)
Nardil (phenelzine sulfate)
nefazodone HCl
Norpramin (desipramine HCl)
Pamelor (nortriptyline)
Parnate (tranylcypromine sulfate)
Paxil (paroxetine HCl)
Pexeva (paroxetine mesylate)
Prozac (fluoxetine HCl)
Remeron (mirtazapine)
Sarafem (fluoxetine HCl)
Seroquel (quetiapine)
Sinequan (doxepin)
Surmontil (trimipramine)
Symbyax (olanzapine/fluoxetine)
Tofranil (imipramine)
Tofranil-PM (imipramine pamoate)
Triavil (perphenazine/amitriptyline)
Vivactil (protriptyline)
Wellbutrin (bupropion HCl)
Zoloft (sertraline HCl)
Zyban (bupropion HCl)
While some free thinking individuals have known about the dangers of antidepressant medicines for years, others may be unwittingly taking the medicines and acting on their suicidal thoughts. Patient advocacy groups like the Citizens Commission on Human Rights have been sounding the alarm in an attempt to warn parents, adults, physicians and politicians of the dangers of psychotropic drugs being prescribed as one journalist described it "like candy."
Their website offers a list of alternatives to psychotropic drugs and a word of advice to persons seeking help from a psychiatrist. If a psychiatrist diagnoses you with a psychiatric condition, ask them to perform a blood test or a brain scan to confirm their diagnosis. They cannot, because there aren't any blood tests or scans which can be performed for any psychiatric diagnosis, according to CCHR. And therein lies the problem. CCHR suggests because the general public has been conditioned to trust their physicians without question, leaving patients at the mercy of the diagnosis and the drugs prescribed, which might just be a deadly combination.
Professor Peter Gøtzsche, of the Nordic Cochrane Centre and lead author of the research study, described the potential for the general public to be misled. He said, "While it is now generally accepted that antidepressants increase the risk of suicide and violence in children and adolescents, most people believe that these drugs are not dangerous for adults. This is a potentially lethal misconception."
Gøtzsche brought up an interesting point which even the FDA has yet to address. He used the word "violence" in connection with taking antidepressant medicines. The subject of violence, murder, and even mass murder correlated to antidepressant use was covered quite extensively in Dr. Ann Blake Tracy's book "Prozac: Panacea or Pandora? the Rest of the Story on the New Class of SSRI Antidepressants Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Lovan, Luvox & More." Tracy detailed numerous cases of homicide and mass murders which she contends are related to antidepressant use.
Mass murderers who were taking antidepressant medicines is a subject The Free Thought Project has addressed on numerous occasions. The Baton Rouge, LA shooter Gavin Long was reportedly taking numerous psychotropic drugs including antidepressants and was said to have been suffering from PTSD when he gunned down five police officers in a rampage.
Omar Mateen, the Pulse nightclub shooter may have been taking psychotropic drugs and was suffering from psychosis in the days leading up to the nation's most deadly mass shooting, according to a Reuters report. Witnesses who may have known he was taking the medicines were reportedly asked by the Feds to stay quiet about the matter.
Suicide is now reaching epidemic proportions in the United States. As The Free Thought Project reported in February, suicide is now the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S. and yet antidepressant prescriptions are skyrocketing. All the while, Big Pharma drug companies, which are manufacturing the medicines, are said to have known about the dangers of their drugs, even being complicit in covering up the suicides and attempted suicides which occurred during the trial phases of some of the drugs.
As Gøtzsche explained, "Antidepressants don't work in children, that is pretty clear, in the randomized trials children say that they don't work for them, but they increase their risk of suicide. What I get out of this colossal under-reporting of suicides is that [antidepressants] likely increase suicides in all ages ... it is absolutely horrendous that [pharmaceutical companies] have such disregard for human lives."
But what the researchers discovered, and what is likely more disturbing, is that the drug companies underreport the dangers of their drugs while they're being tested. As Dr. Tarang Sharma of the Nordic Cochrane Center stated, "The analysis suggests that clinical study reports, on which decisions about market authorization are based, are likely to underestimate the extent of drug-related harms."
As TFTP reported, "More than half of the suicide attempts and suicidal thoughts had been misrecorded as 'emotional instability' or 'worsening of depression.' In summary trial reports from the drugs giant Eli Lilly, suicidal attempts were missing in 90 percent of cases." In other words, Eli Lily, allegedly, whitewashed their data, to cover up the dangers of SSRIs and bring their deadly products to market, all done with the blessing of the FDA.
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