Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 The manufacturer of prozac, Eli Lilly & Co., continues to stress that prozac has been proven quite safe, even in use with children. It has been the FDA approved, after all, and we all know how stringent the FDA drug safety program is.
My own take is that we are dosing up our children with far too many psychoactive drugs. Our children don't need Ritalin, they don't need prozac, and they don't need to be given labels of fictitious diseases such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or Social Anxiety Disorder. |
| REPPED: A new study published in the journal Endocrinology reveals that giving prozac to children may result in a loss of bone mass. The study was conducted on mice and showed an average 9.4% less bone formation in the thighbones of the mice taking prozac, compared to mice who were not given the drug. With the popularity of antidepressant drugs continuing to climb, and with prozac now the only antidepressant still being widely prescribed to children in the United States, this finding is of special significance. |
Benjamin H. Natelson, M.D.
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 Doctors tend to try new medicines when they are looking for options beyond their usual ones. prozac was the first of the new, "cleaner" antidepressants to be released, meaning that patients taking this drug have fewer side effects than patients taking the antidepressants that were previously available. Those drugs, the tricyclics, certainly did reduce depression and anxiety, but at a cost: dry mouth, serious weight gain, and sexual difficulties topping the list.
After prozac, a wealth of antidepressants hit the market, some of which worked similarly to and some differently from prozac. |
Brenda Watson and Leonard Smith
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 So it's easy to see if this enzyme is low and the person is, let's say, taking prozac for depression, the possibility of prozac overdose becomes a real one. This is especially true if the person has significant toxin exposure (as most of us do). It's also well known in the medical community that excessively elevated serotonin levels
(from prozac or other SSRIs) can cause suicidal depression the same way too low of a level of serotonin can. |
Benjamin H. Natelson, M.D.
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| After prozac, a wealth of antidepressants hit the market, some of which worked similarly to and some differently from prozac. So if a doctor was treating a person with depression and prozac was not effective in reducing the symptoms, he or she might switch to an antidepressant with a different brain action. Unfortunately however, the doctor would be basing the decision on "gut" instinct; the medical literature offers almost no studies that direct doctors on when to make this switch. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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| Prozac has been proven quite safe, even in use with children. It has been the FDA approved, after all, and we all know how stringent the FDA drug safety program is.
My own take is that we are dosing up our children with far too many psychoactive drugs. Our children don't need Ritalin, they don't need prozac, and they don't need to be given labels of fictitious diseases such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or Social Anxiety Disorder. |
| With the popularity of antidepressant drugs continuing to climb, and with prozac now the only antidepressant still being widely prescribed to children in the United States, this finding is of special significance.
Elsewhere around the world, the use of antidepressant drugs in children has been banned. This is largely because overwhelming evidence has surfaced in the last several years pointing to an increased risk of suicidal thoughts and violent behavior in children given SSRI drugs -- a class of drugs to which prozac and other antidepressants belongs. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Now the truth is finally starting to come out on antidepressant drugs like prozac. And what is the truth? That drug makers like Eli Lilly not only knew their star drugs were more dangerous than alternatives, but that they actively sought to suppress the release of that information in order to protect profits. What we are witnessing today is the beginning of the end of an era: the days of the Big Pharma con in which direct-to-consumer advertising pushed a drug industry to unprecedented levels of corporate greed. Of course, Eli Lilly denies everything. It's the same story talking to Merck. |
C. W. Randolph, M.D.
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 Genie was working as a pharmaceutical representative for Eli Lilly in 1987 when the company launched the first SSRI, prozac. During sales meetings, she was instructed to target ob-gyns and sell them on prozac as a cure for the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS), such as depression, mood swings, bloating, and anxiety. Evidently, the recommended sales technique worked. prozac soon accounted for one-quarter of Lilly's revenues, with annual sales reaching $2.6 billion. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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| In every case, they were "caught" by other people or organizations such as the British Medical Journal, which has gone public with these documents on prozac. If all this sounds familiar, it is: Big Tobacco used the same stonewalling efforts in its ongoing denials that cigarettes were harmful to health (or even addictive, if you can believe that). Today, Big Pharma looks a whole lot like Big Tobacco: corporate greed, massive cover-ups, and hundreds of thousands of people dying each year from the use of their products. |
| Finally, I want to mention that I warned people about the suicide risk of prozac back in 1998. Back then, the idea that antidepressant drugs could cause suicides was considered ludicrous. It was fringe information, almost conspiracy theory stuff. Today, we're learning it's 100% true. And if you don't believe me, just ask the parents of all the children killed at the Colombine high school massacre in Colorado: their killers were on antidepressant drugs. Getting the picture yet? |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 There are so many murder/suicides linked to prozac and other SSRI drugs that the public would be absolutely shocked to learn the true details of how many people have been killed by these drugs. Remember Phil Hartman, the comedian? He was killed by his wife who was also on these drugs. And let's not forget the Colombine massacre, in which both teenage boys who blew away their classmates were on antidepressants. What amazes me the most about all this is how drug companies manage to cover up these facts and suppress negative evidence for so long. |
| After all, these missing prozac documents are from a trial in 1994! That's a good ten years of suppression during which billions of dollars worth of these drugs have been peddled to patients by drug-pushing doctors. Of course, Eli Lilly denies everything. All their drugs are perfectly safe, they have nothing to hide, and their only mission is to serve the good of mankind... to hear it from them, anyway. I wonder how the parents of the Colombine children feel about all this? |
C. W. Randolph, M.D.
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| Evidently, the recommended sales technique worked. prozac soon accounted for one-quarter of Lilly's revenues, with annual sales reaching $2.6 billion.
In 2000, just before prozac was to lose its patent protection in 2001, Eli Lilly changed the name from prozac to Sarafem, changed the pill's color from green and white to pink and lavender, and got FDA approval to market it for severe premenstrual symptoms, or premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). Prior to the launch of Sarafem, Lilly spent $2.3 billion on marketing, much more than the $1. |
Craig Pepin-Donat
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 The Antidepressant Solution: A Step-by-Step Guide to Safely Overcoming Antidepressant Withdrawal, Dependence, and Addiction
Joseph Glenmullen ISBN: 0743269721
Publishers Weekly Review: "The author of prozac Backlash returns with important and sound advice for patients who are taking antidepressant medications, particularly selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRls) like prozac and Paxil."
National Eating Disorders Association www.NationalEatingDisorders.org
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism www.niaaa.nih. |
C. W. Randolph, M.D.
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| During sales meetings, she was instructed to target ob-gyns and sell them on prozac as a cure for the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS), such as depression, mood swings, bloating, and anxiety. Evidently, the recommended sales technique worked. prozac soon accounted for one-quarter of Lilly's revenues, with annual sales reaching $2.6 billion. |
Craig Pepin-Donat
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| The Antidepressant Solution: A Step-by-Step Guide to Safely Overcoming Antidepressant Withdrawal, Dependence, and Addiction
Joseph Glenmullen ISBN: 0743269721
Publishers Weekly Review: "The author of prozac Backlash returns with important and sound advice for patients who are taking antidepressant medications, particularly selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRls) like prozac and Paxil."
National Eating Disorders Association www.NationalEatingDisorders.org
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism www.niaaa.nih. |
Benjamin H. Natelson, M.D.
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| Now, with more than a dozen new antidepressants available, I rarely use prozac because it stays in the system for prolonged periods of time. This lingering presence can be a problem when I want to prescribe other drugs, which might interact with prozac that's still present in the body. So I start with different drugs that are in the same category: SSRIs. I mentioned them before as a treatment for anxiety, but they originally were designed for use in depression. |
C. W. Randolph, M.D.
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| In 2000, just before prozac was to lose its patent protection in 2001, Eli Lilly changed the name from prozac to Sarafem, changed the pill's color from green and white to pink and lavender, and got FDA approval to market it for severe premenstrual symptoms, or premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). Prior to the launch of Sarafem, Lilly spent $2.3 billion on marketing, much more than the $1.5 billion it had spent on the drug's research and development. |
Herbert Ross, DC with Keri Brenner, L.Ac.
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 If serotonin levels are depressed, you're depressed," says Michael Phillips, DC, who compares sugar's action to that of the drug prozac. "Prozac, so commonly prescribed for depression, works by elevating levels of serotonin. The emotional aspects of blood sugar imbalances are rooted in a [similar] physiological response." caffeine consumed after noon will interfere with sleep patterns in sensitive individuals. If sleep is a problem for you, it may be best to avoid caffeine altogether. If you love the taste of coffee, consider drinking decaf, which is also high in antioxidants. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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| Our children don't need Ritalin, they don't need prozac, and they don't need to be given labels of fictitious diseases such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or Social Anxiety Disorder. What they need is physical activity -- more recess time, more time under natural sunlight so they can generate their own vitamin D and prevent depression and other mental disorders on their own.
They need better diets, starting with the banning of soft drinks in all public schools and the banning of all advertising and marketing of junk foods and fast foods to children. |
Hyla Cass, M.D.
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 Prozac Backlash: Overcoming the Dangers of prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, and Other Antidepressants with Safe, Effective Alternatives. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2000.
Holford, Patrick. Optimum Nutrition for Your Mind. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publications, 2004.
Stoll, Andrew, Stoll, M.D. The Omega-3 Connection: The Groundbreaking Antidepression Diet and Brain Program. New York, NY: Free Press, 2002.
Websites
About.com—www.depression.about.com: Lots of great information on all aspects of depression and its treatment.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) website—www.cognitivetherapy. |
Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. McCrea
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 His psychiatrist treated him with psychotherapy, and also with prozac, which abated his panic attacks but not the depression. She then prescribed lithium, for a "kick start," followed by higher doses of prozac. His condition worsened; his diagnosis remained unclear.
The closest (and perhaps wisest) observer of Tony's condition was his wife, Carmela. In one episode, she offered him a more than skeptical diagnosis: "I can't tell if you're just old-fashioned, paranoid, or a fuckin' asshole."1
Carmela's conundrum captures this chapter's problems. How common is mental illness? |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 The child's parents were so disturbed by the event that they popped some prozac and warned the child, "Just say no to medication for erectile dysfunction!"
Red Robin restaurants have pulled the Viagra bears from their game machines, replacing them with prozac Pistols that let children simulate violent school shootings after taking psychotropic medications.
Alzheimer's drugs for Congress
The FDA has approved a new Alzheimer's patch that delivers brain-saving drugs through the skin. |
Herbert Ross, DC with Keri Brenner, L.Ac.
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| If serotonin levels are depressed, you're depressed," says Michael Phillips, DC, who compares sugar's action to that of the drug prozac. "Prozac, so commonly prescribed for depression, works by elevating levels of serotonin. The emotional aspects of blood sugar imbalances are rooted in a [similar] physiological response." caffeine consumed after noon will interfere with sleep patterns in sensitive individuals. If sleep is a problem for you, it may be best to avoid caffeine altogether. If you love the taste of coffee, consider drinking decaf, which is also high in antioxidants. |
Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. McCrea
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| Analysis shows that "the placebo effects were 86% of the prozac effects." This 14% substantive improvement came with myriad adverse physiological effects (diarrhea, insomnia and sedation) as well as higher rate of psychiatric adverse events (irritability, mania, and fatigue). The authors recommend drug-free treatment such as cognitive behavioral therapy or even a psychological placebo such as exercise.40
Another critic criticized the study's design, noting that the group which received prozac with cognitive therapy, for which most benefit was claimed, was not double or even single-blinded. |
C. W. Randolph, M.D.
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| In 2000, just before prozac was to lose its patent protection in 2001, Eli Lilly changed the name from prozac to Sarafem, changed the pill's color from green and white to pink and lavender, and got FDA approval to market it for severe premenstrual symptoms, or premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). Prior to the launch of Sarafem, Lilly spent $2.3 billion on marketing, much more than the $1.5 billion it had spent on the drug's research and development. |
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