FDA warning on SSRIs

[Anonymous]

http://www.ironwooddailyglobe.com/1231murd.htm
Excerpts:
Laguna is alleged to have shot his wife from behind with a .20-gauge shotgun on Fifth Avenue, Laguna had first chased his wife's car with his truck on Poplar Street, ramming it several times before she got out of her vehicle.

Bourg maintains Laguna is on strong medications and must be weaned off the drugs in a controlled environment.

He has worked to have Laguna transferred to either Winnebago or Mendota Mental Health Institute for evaluation and the weaning off of the antidepressants he is taking.

Last week, Bourg said he advised his client of the dangers involved in withdrawal from Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors.

Corporation counsel Jodie Bednar-Clemens strongly objected to Laguna being transferred to either Winnebago or Mendota for evaluation or to have him weaned off the drugs.

She said Laguna could slowly be weaned off the medication while he is in jail, however, experts on SSRIs said withdrawal must be done in a controlled environment.

Bednar-Clemens said the medication Laguna was currently taking would not affect his ability to participate in a trial.

Laguna, who has been on the antidepressants since November, is currently taking Celexa, Wellbutrin, Ceroquel, for schizophrenia, and Xanex.

Bourg told the Globe he will present an involuntary intoxication defense at Laguna's trial, noting Laguna was on three anti-depressants at the time of the shooting.

Bourg contends Laguna began having symptoms of being overdosed in January.

[Anonymous]

Remember to follow the case and post the verdict.

Thanks!

[Deborah]

Mother and daughter, both victims of domestic violence, forced to take psych drugs against their will. Daughter being held in RTC, no contact with her mom.

http://ablechild.org/press%20release/mo ... -19-05.htm

Lisa Payne of Green Bay , Wisconsin finds little to be joyful about during these most holy days of Christmas.  Her daughter is locked away in a psychiatric ?treatment? center having been placed on a variety of mind-altering drugs by the State of Illinois .  She thinks about her possible visit sometime in January to bring her daughter gifts for the holiday.  ?Maybe a pair of jeans? she tells Ablechild . ?She doesn?t fit in her jeans anymore; her clothing size has been reduced from a size 9 to a size 3 due to the drugs effects. I am watching from an unbelievable distance as my daughter suffers in pain, and I have no say in her ?treatment?. Now she is hearing voices. They tell me that it is from all her ?trauma?, I know it?s from the drugs,? she adds.  

Previously featured on Montel Williams, Lisa Payne was a survivor of domestic violence. A victim at the hands of her abusive husband, she was left for dead and her mother was murdered.  Her daughter saved her life, called 911, and stayed by her side as help arrived. ?I know my daughter needs my help now, I just don?t know how I can ensure that she gets it,? she said.  

When Lisa awoke from a coma induced by the beatings, she discovered the Department of Children and Family Services had taken custody of her daughter.  An agency originally designed to help children ?at risk? or in traumatic situations; they had resorted to simply placing her daughter on psychiatric drugs and refused any input whatsoever from her as the biological mother.  Making matters even worse, Lisa has now been court ordered to take antidepressants, undergo urine tests to ensure that she is complying with their drug regiment, and mandated to counseling.  The Supreme Court ruling on the right to ?treatment? never intended to result in the forced drug ?treatment? of individuals.  

Lisa Payne is up against a legal system that has been unchallenged regarding forced drugging of children in State care.  Her chances of ensuring the safety for her child, looks grim. Her daughter is in another State and she cannot afford to travel to visit her.  The court in Illinois has also refused to allow her daughter to transfer to a different psychiatric center closer to home.  Her next court date is not scheduled until May of 2006.  Lisa Payne can be reached at 920-592-9558.

Events that led to CPS taking over.
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?sectio ... id=1470896

[Deborah]

Eileen Dannemann
Director, National Coalition of Organized Women
Submitted as Guest Editorial:

           Thank you so much for the Savodnick article on Psychiatry's sick compulsion. (LA Times, Jan 1, 2006)   My son David, now 21, who has been meditating since he was four; grew up on organic food, received no mandated childhood mercury vaccines, and was point guard of his high school basketball team and a most creative "out of the box thinker" decided to try recreational drugs at the University of Iowa 3 years ago. He had a bad reaction to LSD  The Psychiatrists at the U of I Hospital totally disregarded the fact that he was coming off of a recreational trip and labeled him Bi Polar neatly coded by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) enabling him to be locked up and covered by Medicaid insuring that the Hospital would be paid.  

            The Hospital psychiatrist put David, then age 19, on Lithium, Haldol, Addivan and you name it.  He gained enormous amount of weight and became zombie-like. They told him he would have to be on Lithium the rest of his life...that is...the rest of his life.   This once brilliant athlete was now shuffling his feet having been condemned to a life of a lawn mower. The diagnosis was based on no tests...no genetic history...no nothing...just the "professional opinion" of a college educated, brainwashed American Psychiatric Association (APA) dweeble who blatantly disregarded the fact that David's symptoms were caused by LSD (one of the first SSRI drugs developed by Pfizer in the early day).  Does the DSM have a code for LSD adverse effects?   Would "detoxification" have been a more rational first line of treatment? Would Medicaid pay for a hospital stay for "detoxification"? I don't think so, but it sounds like a sorely needed common sense plan for the youth of America, today. s And...to add insult to injury:

            One day as David was coming off the Haldol, he hung himself in my back yard.  Twitching uncontrollably from a tree, I saved him in the nick of time, shouldering him back up on the ladder from whence he jumped. Today, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued black box warnings for SSRIs:  A little late for David or Diane Routhier, a well-educated, beautiful, happily married mother of two who killed herself with a gun after six days on Wellbutin. Or Sara Bostock whose daughter stabbed herself twice in the chest with a large chef's knife after taking Paxil for 2 weeks.  (Sleeping in the next room, Sara simply heard a slight yelp and a thump when her daughter fell on the floor). Glenn McIntosh?s 6th grade daughter hung herself with her shoelaces in the school bathroom after being prescribed Paxil/Zoloft.  Chris Pittman was 12 years old and on Zoloft when he killed both his grandparents and torched their house.

Yet, Psychiatrists still prescribe these drugs.  David "believed" the white coated, diploma laden authorities and so did his father who would piss in the wind if an authority told him to do so.  It took David a self discovery journey in and out of mental institutions and hospitals for over two years to realize he was not mentally ill but had become a victim of massive, covert, quasi-legitimate, series of clinical drug trials.   The reality is that research hospital psychiatrists are "experimenting' on this generation with a vast array of sketchily FDA approved anti depressant/psychotic medications. University mental hospitals have become the second tier drug trial laboratory for the drug companies. The Bayh-Dole Act passed by Congress in the 80's gave Universities and their researchers full patent rights to drugs they might develop.  Since then, universities and associated hospitals have become field laboratories for the drug industry. (See:  http://www.fortune.com/fortune/fortune7 ... -2,00.html) Emory College, for example, recently received over $300 million dollars for a drug they developed.

            Currently on the radar is TeenScreen, a suicide screening initiative created by Columbia University (emphasis on university). Teen Screen has begun to infiltrate our public schools, using our convenient "educational" network as a channel for the Drug industry. There is so much blind banter going on in the media about the TeenScreen program, but has anyone actually seen a Teen Screen survey?  Have a peek.  Judge for yourself whether this is science or academic junk. We have a research project currently reviewing a TeenScreen survey on our website http://www.ProgessiveConvergence.com.   In our review, we noticed that there were many questions on the use of street drugs such as marijuana, LSD, amphetamines, etc, but no questions on the use of "prescription drugs".  It seemed odd to us that since over eight million children are on psychiatric drugs and many of these drugs have black box warnings in particular for suicide that there were no questions on this survey pertaining to prescription drugs. Marijuana isn't known for causing suicidal ideation, but drugs given to ADD and ADHD kids are.   It is quite telling by this blaring omission who is behind the congressionally funded, mandated mental screening of all America's children via public schools initiative.  In addition, this initiative has been strategically designed so that it does not require active parental consent. And although Congressman Ron Paul (TX) has fought for parental consent, Congress has failed to support him.  

        And while we are at it:  Why all this concern about mental illness in our public schools? Yes, it is true that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) report that 1 of every 6 children has a neurological disorder. Could the 20 years of injecting the generation (via the CDC?s mandated  children?s vaccine program) with high levels of mercury (aka Thimerosal) in as many as 22 vaccines between the ages of 1 month and 2 years old have anything to do with the apparent rampant epidemic of mental illness, ADD, ADHD and Autism?

        Doesn't it seem odd to anyone that we are advised by our government not to eat fish contaminated with mercury, yet we are asked to stand by while health professionals inject this deadly neurotoxin directly into our children?s bloodstreams?  And does it not appear to be even odder? rather than facing this CDC atrocity square on, that Congress is facilitating the dumbing down of our children with anti-depressants, psychiatric, suicide/homicide drugs by funding programs like Teen Screen and the New Freedom Commission. Seems odd to me?the on going government program...shoot ?em up with mercury, then dumb ?em down with Zoloft

         In conclusion, I wonder how we will all fare when the Dept. of Defense (DoD) calls a Bioterrorism emergency (based on reality or not) and the Human Health Services director, Mike Leavitt mandates the injection of every man, woman and child with untested vaccines. Last week?s passage of the Patriot Act amendments has insured non-liability for Drug companies.  How convenient.  We might expect either the avian flu pandemic or a bio terrorist attack any time soon now that Drug companies are held harmless for damages.

Eileen Dannemann
Director, National Coalition of Organized Women
http://www.ProgressiveConvergence.com
http://www.SlavetotheMetal.org

[Anonymous]

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[Deborah]

http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?to ... 300#146878
Follow up

Excerpts:
http://www.staugustine.com/stories/0128 ... 4948.shtml
Leslie Demeniuk impassive as dad speaks about sons
Boys' mother sentenced to two consecutive life terms without possibility of parole; twins' slayings haunt father
By RICHARD PRIOR
richard.prior@staugustinerecord.com
Publication Date: 01/28/06

John and James Demeniuk, 4 years old when they died, "could light up a room wherever they went," Tommy Demeniuk said Friday afternoon, at the sentencing of their mother, Leslie, on two convictions for first-degree murder.

Wearing jail issue of navy blue pants and pullover, Leslie Demeniuk stood at the end of the hour-long hearing to have Circuit Judge John M. Alexander sentence her to two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.

A jury of five women and one man deliberated for three hours over two days before announcing Jan. 17 that Demeniuk was guilty of murdering her sons on March 17, 2001.

Accompanied by his second wife and his sister, Tommy Demeniuk came into the St. Johns County courtroom Friday afternoon and took a seat in the spectator section.

He kept his head down while Alexander denied a motion for a new trial from defense attorney Bill Sheppard.

Leslie Demeniuk was convicted of using a Smith & Wesson .357-caliber Magnum revolver to shoot James as he laid on a bed watching "Scooby Doo" on
television.

John had been sitting on the floor, also watching television. His mother shot at him twice. One shot grazed his head.

According to a crime scene reconstructionist, Leslie Demeniuk grabbed him as he ran for the door, put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger.

Tommy Demeniuk said he has been unable to stop reliving the moment of his children's deaths. He said he can't help putting himself in their place.

"I see the horror in their innocent eyes," Demeniuk said.

He said he can imagine John, knowing his brother was dead, "in shock and running for his life, knowing he was next if he couldn't get away."

Leslie Demeniuk barely changed expression as her ex-husband gave the court a sense of the anguish he had gone through over the past five years.

Sheppard and co-counsel Gray Thomas had argued at trial that a mix of certain antidepressants and alcohol created a "substance-induced mood
disorder" that drove Demeniuk to kill her sons.

Several weeks before the murders, the defendant had been prescribed Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug, as well as Zoloft, a selective serotonin reuptake
inhibitor (SSRI).

Her Zoloft prescription was changed to Paxil, another SSRI, two days before the killings.

Though Demeniuk's family sat a few rows behind her, the only other person who wanted to speak at the hearing was her attorney.

As a 64-year-old father of six children, Sheppard said, "All of us have been affected by this tragedy."

"What's the answer?" he continued. "We need to take another look at a phenomenon known as SSRIs."

The public has been lulled by advertisements into thinking SSRIs are "quick fixes to our daily problems," said Sheppard.

He told the judge that anyone considering taking an SSRI should have it dispensed by a mental health professional, "not by a doc in the box, not by your general practitioner."

As new discoveries about SSRIs are made public, he said, their volatile side effects "are going to be shocking to our nation."

Sheppard filed a notice of appeal and then withdrew as Demeniuk's attorney.

Alexander said he would appoint an attorney to handle the appeal.

© The St. Augustine Record

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the follow up!

[Anonymous]

http://www.prisonpotpourri.com/EXECUTIO ... 13-04.html

[Anonymous]

Jury In Demeniuk Murder Trial Hears Grim Crime Scene Evidence

POSTED: 6:19 pm EST January 10, 2006

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The jury in the Leslie Demeniuk murder trial heard more about the grim crime scene evidence on Tuesday.

One of the witnesses called by prosecutors was lead detective Sgt

[Deborah]

http://www.volunteertv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4564808

Knoxville (WVLT) - Duke University medical researchers have made a surprising finding among patients with heart disease who take anti- depressant drugs.

Researchers found these heart patients are at a significantly higher risk of death.

In this week's Healthy Tennessean, Medical Reporter Jessa Goddard has reaction from the local medical community on the study and how local heart patients should proceed.

The study took into account several patient variables, as well as the type of anti-depressant and the risk still remained.

Researchers say there's something going on here they don't yet fully understand.

But they can't discount the findings.

Heart patients taking anti-depressant drugs had a 55% higher risk of dying.

Even after taking into account factors such as age, degree of heart disease and severity of depression.

Parkwest Hospital Cardiologist Robert Martyn says the risk potential is alarming.

"Yes, I am quite a bit. There's a lot about these drugs that we certainly don't know and all new categories of drugs need to be investigated
thoroughly," says Dr. Martyn.

A newer class of anti-depressants, known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRI's, have generally been considered safe.

For this reason, doctors have increasingly prescribed these drugs to their patients with depression.  In this study, that included one in five patients.

"It is quite common that after a heart attack, and especially for open heart surgery, for people to go through a period of time of depression," says Dr. Martyn.

This new finding is raising issues about the best way to treat depression in heart patients.

Duke researchers believe their findings add more support for the use of other approaches to treat depression, such as exercise.

Doctor Martyn says not only can exercise improve heart health, it's also been proven to combat depression.

A win-win situation for heart patients who also suffer symptoms of depression.

"Even just minimal amounts of exercise certainly has benefits on depression scores, life fitness, energy levels... so any form of exercise is certainly useful," Martyn says.

Doctor Martyn says taking into account the degree of heart disease and severity of depression, you and your doctor can decide what's best for you.

While researchers don't know why there appears to be a link between depression and increased risk of death, there are a number of theories.

Depression has been linked to other heart risk factors such as insulin resistance, high blood pressure, obesity, increased cigarette smoking,
alcohol abuse and physical inactivity.

[Anonymous]

On 2006-03-01 08:51:00, Deborah wrote:




Duke researchers believe their findings add more support for the use of other approaches to treat depression, such as exercise.

Duke must have the only sedentary post cardiac
surgery protocol in the country.

[Anonymous]

It makes sense.  Some of the first genes they've linked to bipolar disorder involve how the body handles stress hormones and, by extension, the tie in of bipolar disorder to an increased risk of insulin resistance, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.

The correlation may be that a certain percentage of the same people who need and respond well to SSRIs also have higher risks of death from their heart disease because of the way a particular genetic vulnerability impacts both systems.

They're already finding out that mental illness is a full-body syndrome with the mood and behavioral symptoms just being some of the symptoms of the whole syndrome that happen to be most noticeable, soonest.

Even if the SSRIs have some sort of causative influence worsening the heart disease outcome, greater understanding of linkage between the two problems of mood disorders and heart disease will certainly help the doctors and healthcare companies develop better treatments to fix/help the underlying causes.

The first thing to find out is if these people with a higher risk of death have a higher risk because they're taking SSRIs, or have a higher risk because of a common gene that gives them the higher risk *and* makes them need the SSRIs.

The cause and development of their heart disease may not be the same as the cause and development of the people who aren't taking SSRIs.

Regardless, finding out what and why will lead to better treatments and is a good thing for everybody.

Julie

[Anonymous]

Two studies published in the Feb Archives of General Psychiatry explore possible links between depression to Alzheimer?s and  late-life cognitive decline.

The first study, from the University of Pittsburgh, tracked 1.265 adults over 12 years and found depression was not associated with cognitive decline.

http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/conten ... t/63/2/153

The second, from the Mt Sinai School of Medicine, which compared the postmortem brains of 52 Alzheimer?s patients with no lifetime history of depression with 50 Alzheimer?s patients with a history of depression, found those with a depression history had higher levels of plaque and tangle in the hippocampus (associated with memory) and more rapid cognitive decline than the depression-free brains.

http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/conten ... t/63/2/161

[Anonymous]

http://keye.dayport.com/viewer/viewerpa ... viewer.tpl

Investigative News Clip
Paxil caused 16 year old to attempt suicide, which lead to class action.

[Deborah]

http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/art ... =0&cat=109

15-Year-Old Pleads Guilty to Murder
Plea agreement ensures that Fort Belvoir teenager will begin his sentence in a juvenile facility until he is 21 years old.
By Ken Moore
June 29, 2006

Rody Phillips, 15, could face life in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree murder, three days before his trial was scheduled to begin.

The plea agreement ensures that Rody, 14 at the time he stabbed 7-Eleven clerk Sun Ku Kwon to death on Dec. 6, 2004, will begin serving his sentence in a juvenile facility.

ON DEC. 6, 2004, Rody walked around the Fort Belvoir base after he woke up at 3 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep, said Morrogh.
Wearing camouflage clothing and black army boots, Rody stole knives and ornamental hand grenades from the commissary on the base, the prosecutor said. Rody eventually ended up at the 7-Eleven at 5638 Mount Vernon Highway where he waited outside until customers left around 5 a.m.

RODY'S PARENTS TRIED to get treatment for their son in the months before the crime. Rody battled depression following his move to Fort Belvior from Texas, where he had lived with his father and stepmother.

His mother and stepfather sent him to a psychiatrist at Fort Belvoir. The doctor started prescribing Effexor for Rody one month before the murder.

Rody said "he was hearing voices that were telling him to hurt somebody," Morrogh said. "In the past, he heard voices that were telling him to rob someone but he knew that was wrong."
One side was telling him one thing, another side the other, the prosecutor said. "He was trying to resist bad thoughts but the voices were telling him otherwise."

During court proceedings the last 18 months, Meleen filed motions showing that she intended to question Rody's sanity at the time of the offense. Rody had been evaluated at the University of Virginia's Institute for Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy in Charlottesville.
Last Friday, Meleen was expected to argue a motion to suppress Rody's statement to police as well argue a motion of "involuntary intoxication" since Rody was prescribed a medication risky to youth.

"The Food and Drug Administration has required pharmaceutical companies to issue warnings concerning Effexor and an entire class of anti-depressants that are believed to pose a risk of violent and suicidal behavior in adolescents," according to a motion filed by Meleen last July.
She will present the effects of Effexor on adolescents and her client as mitigating evidence when Rody is sentenced this fall.

ALTHOUGH HE is separated from adult inmates, Rody has been jailed at the Adult Detention Center since being transferred in May 2005 from the juvenile detention center. "The defendant has stated that he is having thoughts and 'visions' of killing other juveniles housed in the facility who have 'irritated him,'" according to an emergency transfer motion filed by the prosecution 13 months ago.

But since Rody stopped taking the prescribed medication, his grades improved, he is no longer a suicide threat, and his mental health has improved, Meleen said in April 2005 when she requested that Rody be evaluated to determine his sanity at the time of the offense.

Judge Williams asked if Kwon's family had any reaction to the plea agreement made Friday. The Office of the Commonwealth's Attorney has attempted to contact the family, but they moved back to Korea after picking up Kwon's belongings, Morrogh said.