antidepressant industry

[Guest guest]

Dear Harsha,

 

Thank you eversomuch for this very powerful email. My son is highly

energetic and healthy and the teacher has wanted him to be put on Ritalin. I

have fought this and this information will be extraordinarily useful. My

sisters and brothers were also exceptionally high energy (I was the "calm"

one, my mother thought me odd *g*) and they are now very succesful and

triathletes as well ... I'm not *g*, although i am athletic.

 

Had they been in school today, they'd have all been given these drugs, it's a

tragedy that truly hurts my stomach to think about.

 

Once again, thank you for your deep insight and great love,

Annette

[Guest guest]

Thanks El for this important information. I will forward this to

as well.

 

Harsha

 

 

ckress wrote:

 

I've just finished reading "Prozac Backlash" by Joseph Glenmullen, M.D. --

an

expose' of the booming antidepressant industry which currently is raking

in

more than $4 billion a year from the American sales of Prozac, Zoloft and

Paxil alone. The book focuses on these and other SSRI drugs (Luvox,

Celexa)

as well as Wellbutrin, Effexor, Serzone and Remeron.

 

There is no current way of measuring serotonin levels in the brain, and

even

if there were, the prevailing concept of a brain "chemical imbalance"

which

is supposed to be corrected by SSRI or other drugs is pure speculation

which

has never been scientifically proven. The author compares it to saying

that

someone whose headache has been relieved by aspirin has an aspirin

deficiency. He says, "The truth of the matter is: No one has anything but

the vaguest idea of the chemical effects of these drugs on the living

human

brain."

 

The pharmaceutical industry is engaging in every bit as much a

profit-driven,

damn-the-health-consequences cover-up as the tobacco companies. They use

their political clout and $$$ to suppress research results and censor

mainstream media coverage of the facts so even most doctors are in the

dark

about the real nature of the drugs they are prescribing by the ton.

 

At the turn of century, Glenmullen says that medicine promoted then-legal

cocaine elixirs for everything from depression to shyness. These were

followed by prescription amphetamines, barbiturates, narcotics and

tranquilizers, "all hailed as miracle cures" in their day until their

dangerous side effects became widely evident. Each of these drugs was

initially "aggressively marketed with claims that they are revolutionary

breakthroughs, remarkable scientific advances over their predecessors."

 

Modern drug advocates and pharmaceutical companies insist that SSRIs are

non-addictive -- the same thing which was said about cocaine and

amphetamines

when they were prescription antidepressants. Cocaine resembles the Prozac

group in that it is primarily a reuptake inhibitor. According to the

author,

cocaine, amphetamines, diet pills (like Redux), the illegal drug Ecstasy,

and

the SSRI's and other antidepressant group are all related because they

target

brain cells and boost the levels of neurotransmitters. Redux, which was

taken off the market after numerous deaths, is closely related to Prozac

and

the other SSRI's: they all elevate serotonin. Redux was promoted as a

weight

loss drug, since high brain levels of serotonin are known to reduce

appetite.

(This same effect has been found in all the SSRI antidepressants,

although

long term use strangely has the opposite effect of causing weight gain!)

 

Glenmullen says "the term 'antidepressant' is virtually meaningless and

seriously misleading." These drugs are nothing more than prescription

stimulants. By current protocols used by drug manufacturers, the author

says

that almost any stimulating drug would pass as an antidepressant,

including

caffeine pills and nicotine. Patients who are former amphetamine or

cocaine

addicts have reported that the effects of their SSRI antidepressant

medication feels like "mild versions" of street drugs. (In fact, the most

popular illegal use of these prescription drugs is snorting or

intravenously

shooting up powdered quantities of Prozac or Wellbutrin.)

 

The author quotes another doctor/author, Lester Grinspoon, whose 1975 book

"The Speed Culture" seems prophetic. Wrote Grinspoon, "Drug companies

will

probably continue to produce increasingly sophisticated and disguised

amphetamines, and these 'new' drugs undoubtedly will be greeted with

initial

enthusiasm by the medical establishment until it is recognized that any

drug

with amphetamine-like central nervous system stimulating properties almost

invariably is just as toxic, potentially addictive, and therapeutically

limited as Benzedrine or Dexedrine. Only the medical jargon describing

the

alleged 'diseases' has become more sophisticated."

 

The required FDA clinical tests for antidepressants can be as short as 4

weeks, although typically the studies last 6-8 weeks... yet many drug side

effects do not show up until much longer, especially for drugs used

continuously for months or years! Once a drug has been FDA approved, only

about 1% of serious side effects are ever reported and even then, the FDA

only has a staff of 5 doctors and 1 epidemiologist to review the more than

3,000 drugs already on the market.

 

The author says that in addition to common SSRI side effects such as

feeling

nervous, jittery, having trouble sleeping, mental fuzziness, memory loss,

etc., there are potentially serious long term effects. These include

extreme

withdrawal syndromes (which effect up to 50% of patients); sexual

dysfunction

(effecting 60% of patients); neurological disorders and brain damage; and

suicidal and violent behavior reactions.

 

There has been concern that the emotional blunting and apathy reported by

some patients on SSRIs may be the result of damage to their frontal

lobes - a

chemical lobotomy. Neuroleptic drugs which have a similar effect on

brain

chemistry have long been suspected of causing cognitive deficits and

impairment of intellectual functioning. Studies of monkey brains after 4

days of exposure to Redux showed widespread destruction of the branches of

serotonin cells. There is a concern that SSRI type drugs may increase the

incidence of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's.

 

Cocaine and amphetamines boost all three of the brain's "feel good"

neurotransmitters: serotonin, adrenaline and dopamine. (Nicotine also

increases dopamine brain levels.) SSRI's only increase the serotonin.

But

raising brain levels of serotonin DECREASES dopamine levels. Many of the

adverse effects of the SSRIs are direct results of the drop in dopamine.

The

most serious of these are similar to Parkinson's disease, which is also a

result of brain dopamine deficiencies. The same kind of drug induced

neurotoxic effects has been long known with the major antipsychotic drugs

as

"tardive dyskinesia." The patient develops tics, muscle spasms, and

abnormal, repetitive movements of the mouth, tongue, jaw and sometimes

jerking movements of the limbs. These "tics" can lead to swinging or

flailing of the arms, twisting or writhing of the hands, and other

uncontrollable bodily movements. This can be a seriously disabling

condition

and may become worse after medication is discontinued. In about half the

cases, the tics and strange movements slowly disappear after stopping the

drugs; in the rest, the damage is permanent. In severe cases, there is

loss

of motor control as well as agitation and muscle spasms.

 

(For those with active Kundalini, the tardive dsykinesia symptoms of brain

damage can resemble kriyas which occur during meditation or during sleep.

According to Glenmullen, td symptoms usually disappear during sleep -- the

opposite of kriyas. And Peter Breggin says that td is worse when the

patient

tries to perform physical tasks, while kriyas usually do not cause

interference with normal activities, like trying to walk or pick up

objects.)

 

Some of the well known withdrawal symptoms from nicotine are the result

of a

sudden plummet in dopamine: extreme irritation, rage attacks, anxiety,

feeling generally spastic, memory lapses and mental fuzziness, etc. These

are also known side effects of SSRIs. Wellbutrin (also known as Zyban) is

one of the few antidepressants which help smokers quit because it isn't a

SSRI; instead, it raises brain levels of dopamine. Dopamine is a mental

and

sexual stimulant. Historically, drugs that raise dopamine tend to be more

stimulating and more addicting than drugs than only raise adrenaline or

serotonin. Ritalin falls into this category (given to children!). While

all

the antidepressants are known to have withdrawal effects, Wellbutrin has

proven to be one of the most difficult from which to wean patients!

 

Glenmullen backs up his information in the "Notes" section at the end of

his

book: 35 pages of references to research published in scientific and

medical

journals. If anyone is interested in more info on this subject, I

recommend

Peter Breggin's book, "Toxic Psychiatry." There is additional info in an

article about the dangers of these kinds of medications in Shared

Transformation (back issue #9) which is still available on our site at

http://members.aol.com/ckress/newslet.html

 

El

 

//

[Guest guest]

Hi Annette,

>Thank you eversomuch for this very powerful email. My son is highly

>energetic and healthy and the teacher has wanted him to be put on Ritalin. I

>have fought this and this information will be extraordinarily useful. My

>sisters and brothers were also exceptionally high energy (I was the "calm"

>one, my mother thought me odd *g*) and they are now very succesful and

>triathletes as well ... I'm not *g*, although i am athletic.

>

>Had they been in school today, they'd have all been given these drugs, it's a

>tragedy that truly hurts my stomach to think about.

 

Having worked with hyper-active kids who simply couldn't concentrate enough

to learn anything without their Ritalin, I feel sure that it's sometimes a

real gift. But that certainly doesn't apply to all "highly energetic"

children!! And I wouldn't let a teacher diagnose and prescribe for my son!

 

Stick to your guns!

 

Love,

Dharma