INTERNATIONAL COALITION FOR DRUG AWARENESS » Decades

ANTIDEPRESSANT & PAIN MED: War Vet Kills Self In Front of VA Medical Center: OH

Ann Tracy — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 01:24:21 +0000

NOTE FROM DR. TRACY: If this young man was wanting to make a statement by taking his life I cannot think of a better place to make such a statement than in front of the VA Medical Center! Why? Because they have been one of the very worst at pushing these kinds of meds. They hand them out like candy and have for decades! I am sure he was frustrated with the treatment he was getting from the VA as they continue to push these drugs as the only “answer” when they DO NOT WORK and only make the initial problem worse!

Paragraph five reads: “Scott Labensky, whose son lived with Huff, agreed. He said the veteran was injured by a ground blast while serving inIraq and received ongoing treatment for a back injury and depression.”

SSRI Stories Note: The most common treatment for depression is an antidepressant, usually a newer antidepressant such as SSRIs or SNRIs. The suicide rate among soldiers is now higher than the combat deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan. The FDA Black Box warning for antidepressants and suicidality covers those aged 24 and under. The majority of the soldiers in Iraq/Afghan are 20 to 24 years of age.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/veteran-commits-suicide-in-front-of-dayton-va-center-656012.html

Did war vet kill self to make a statement?

Man had been in VA emergency room earlier in the morning.

By Lucas Sullivan and Margo Rutledge Kissell
Staff Writers Updated 11:23 PM Friday, April 16, 2010

DAYTON Jesse Charles Huff walked up to the Veterans Affairs Department’s Medical Center on Friday morning wearing U.S. Army fatigues and battling pain from his Iraq war wounds and a recent bout with depression.

The 27-year-old Dayton man had entered the center’s emergency room about 1 a.m. Friday and requested some sort of treatment. But Huff did not get that treatment, police said, and about 5:45 a.m. he reappeared at the center’s entrance, put a military-style rifle to his head and twice pulled the trigger.

Huff fell near the foot of a Civil War statue, his blood covering portions ofthe front steps.

Police would not specify what treatment Huff sought and why he did not receive it. Medical Center spokeswoman Donna Simmons declined to answer questions about Huff’s treatment, citing privacy laws. But police believe Huff killed himself to make a statement.

Scott Labensky, whose son lived with Huff, agreed. He said the veteran was injured by a ground blast while serving in Iraq and received ongoing treatment for a back injury and depression.

“He never got adequate care from the VA he was trying to get,” Labensky said. “I believe he (killed himself) to bring attention to that fact. I saw him two days ago. He was really hurting.”

Simmons said Huff received care at the center since August 2008 and his care was being handled by a case manager.

The suicide rate among 18- to 29-year-old men who have left the military has gone up significantly, the government said in January.

The rate for those veterans rose 26 percent from 2005 to 2007, according to data released by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The military community also has struggled with an increase in suicides, with the Army seeing a record number last year. Last May, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base focused on suicide recognition and prevention after four apparent suicides involving base personnel within six months.

Huff arrived early Friday in a cream-colored van police found parked about 200 yards from a south entrance of the medical center. The van contained some U.S. Army clothing, a carton of Newport cigarettes and a prescription bottle of Oxycodone with Huff’s name on the side.

Oxycodone is often used to treat severe pain.

As a precaution, bomb squad technicians blew apart a backpack Huff carried before committing suicide.

ANTIDEPRESSANTS & MEMORY LOSS: Utah No. 2 in nation for Alzheimer’s

Ann Tracy — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 16:03:04 +0000

NOTE FROM DR.
TRACY:

SSRI antidepressants affect memory so strongly that
“amnesia” is listed as a “frequent” side effect.

I recall almost 20 years ago getting a note from my dear
friends Frank and Phyllis Van Wagenen, parents of Robert Redford’s wife of
nearly 30 years, Lola Van Wagenen. They were writing to thank me for the copy of
my first booklet on Prozac that I had recently sent to them because it helped
them so much to understand what they had been through during the past year. Upon
receiving their note, with great concern I immediately called Frank and PHyllis
and she shared with me their experience.

While visiting New Orleans for the Marti Gra they were
attacked near their hotel and Frank’s watch was stolen. In the attack Frank was
hit in the head and had to be hospitalized for a concussion. Then not long after
they returned home to Utah Frank lost five friends to death. When you are
elderly that begins to happen, but his doctor immediately put Frank
on Prozac. Within one week on the drug Frank was diagnosed with Rapid
Onset Alzheimer’s. The facility issuing the diagnosis wanted to commit him
to a long term facility. Luckily Lola put her foot down and refused and asked
them instead to take him off the Prozac. They refused. And she told them they
would take him home and take him off it themselves. At that point the facility
wished them luck in getting him off Prozac! (That was after only one week of use
and developing an addiction to it!!)

Well the family was able to get him off the drug safely and
Frank miraculously recovered from his rapid onset Alzheimer’s! The only long
term effect that stayed with him was that he never did regain any recall for the
one week he was on Prozac.

Now after two decades of leading the nation in
the use of the Prozac family of antidepressants, Utah has gained the number two
spot leading the nation in Alzheimer’s cases! Obviously it is long overdue that

Utah, the nation and the world wake up to the connection between Alzheimer’s
Disease and antidepressants.

Alzheimers, as is the case with autism and Bipolar, is a
condition of elevated serotonin levels. Utah is the antidepressant, ice cream
and jello capital of the nation – all of which increase serotonin levels. Utah

also has some of the highest rates of Alzheimers, autism and Bipolar
nationwide.

Remember that with Fen-Phen & Redux it was the elevated
serotonin that produced the gummy gooey glossy substance to build up on heart
valves. They now have research demonstrating that in Alzheimers there is a gummy
gooey glossy substance that builds up in brain tissue. Search Dr. Cade’s work in
Florida. He took children who were autistic or schizophrenic off dairy & 80%
returned to normal.

I would take bets that if Utah went on a
dairy-free/jello-free/sugar-free/Nutrasweet-free/antidepressant-free/atypical-antipsychotic-free/pain-killer-free/tussin-cough-syrup-free,
etc. diet (all are known to increase serotonin levels) our Alzheimer’s rate
would plummet! But that plan would not make billions for the big boys.

I also agree with the first poster that The China Study is
an excellent reference.

Ann Blake-Tracy, Phd, Executive Director,

International Coalition for Drug
Awareness

www.drugawareness.org &
www.ssristories.com

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705354201/Utah-No-2-in-nation-for-Alzheimers.html

Utah No. 2 in nation for Alzheimer’s

By
Carrie A. Moore

Deseret
News

Published:
Saturday, Dec. 26, 2009 12:03 a.m. MST

Memories of the year his parents hid a Red Ryder
BB gun behind the Christmas tree come easily to John Stone.

In fact, he can even recount the exact number of
BB cartons he emptied before his parents woke up that frosty morning in
Lewiston, Idaho.

But at 71, John forgets what he had for
breakfast today.

His mind can’t hold a current thought long
enough to retrieve hot dog buns at the grocery store. Or to remember which key
does what on the computer. Or that a dear friend he spoke with at church isn’t a
new acquaintance.

John is one of 30,000 Utahns who have
Alzheimer’s disease, the second highest incidence in the nation, according to
the 2009 Alzheimer’s Association Disease Facts and Futures report. That is
likely due to the fact that Utahns live longer, and it plays into projections
that during the next decade, the Intermountain West will see the nation‘s
greatest increase in Alzheimer’s patients, the report said.

For John Stone, Alzheimer’s disease has stolen
the present while preserving the past. So as his wife, Judy, wrote the annual
Christmas letter last month, she decided it wouldn’t be real without a paragraph
telling extended family and friends about her Parkinson’s disease and John’s
Alzheimer’s — a decision he agreed to but likely doesn’t remember.

Not the kind of happy news they had been used to
sharing over the years. “Coming out of the closet,” as Judy put it, was
difficult because “the last thing I wanted was for people to feel sorry for us.
… It was just time to tell people what’s going on in our lives.”

In a society where the most lurid details of
celebrities’ lives are updated daily in the media, there is still something of a
social taboo about Alzheimer’s. What will people think? How will they react? Or
not?

People 65 and older have a 1 in 8 chance of
acquiring Alzheimer’s, and those who live to 85 have a 47 percent chance of
developing the disease. And Utahns who do so “tend to stay here. They don’t move
to Florida,” like they do in so many other states, according to Nick Zullo,
program director at the Alzheimer’s Association of Utah.

Judy Stone has become part of those statistics,
as one of more than 90,000 family caregivers statewide. As she plans the family
Christmas party, she knows John will enjoy the celebration. He just won’t
remember much, if any, of it.

At 63, Judy wasn’t yet ready to retire from
teaching English at Skyline High School after her own diagnosis a few years ago,
though it got to the point “I couldn’t read my own handwriting.”

John’s diagnosis earlier this year made the
decision about whether she should retire.

Both had teaching careers they loved, built a
life around their children and saw a future very different from the one that
faces them. “It’s crazy that we both have a neurological disease,” and while
some treatments are available, neither condition has a cure.

Judy says the thought of losing motor control is
daunting, but the loss of memory seems overwhelming at times.

A former building contractor who found a second
career as a teacher for the disabled, John “knows what’s happening to him,” Judy
says. Though he “works hard to please me and do the things that need doing
around the house” like folding laundry and unloading the dishwasher, “I think he
feels like he can’t do anything anymore. He’s lost his confidence.”

To keep them both as active as possible, one of
their daughters has created “John and Judy’s Medical Book,” a three-ring binder
that organizes information about all their medications and possible side
effects, list of bills and other items that need regular attention, as well as
summaries of past doctors’ visits to help them track the progression of both
their conditions.

It also contains a daily schedule, laid out hour
by hour, which Judy calls “invaluable” at helping them create a daily routine
that includes exercise, healthy eating, social activities and cognitive mind
games. TV is limited to a hour or two after dinner, and bedtime comes early.

While the routine has helped give purpose that
can often evaporate along with memory, Judy knows things will likely have to be
adjusted over time as their abilities change. She’s learned to be both
optimistic — and realistic — about the future.

“Life goes on. It’s not totally bad, and it can
be good at times. I think there always has to be a silver lining. Maybe if it
brings us closer together, that’s the silver lining,” she says, eyeing the
brightly lit tree and an antique Christmas stocking on the fireplace that
belonged to John’s father, who also died of Alzheimer’s.

As for how this Christmas — and the next one,
and the next — will mark the changes ahead as they age, “who knows?” she says.
“We just have to focus on turning lemons into lemonade.”

Every minute. Every hour. Every day.

e-mail: carrie@desnews.com

Suspicious Suicide of sister – Solved – IMIPRAMINE. GENERIC FOR TOFRANIL

SisterRip1981 — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 11:35:08 +0000

Lisa & Lori

Lorraine

1956-1981

Lori’s Story

“I always knew my sister’s sudden death that was labeled suicide was

suspicious” Nothing made sense until NOW!

After almost 3 decades of being kept in the dark, I have the answer I

searched for my entire life since that tragic morning I found her in

her 1977 Buick with our father’s handgun in her lap. I promised her

that morning I would not give up until I found t

he “truth” about what

really happened to her. My sister loved her family and knew we loved

her. She would not of taken her life. So why did she?

Summary of my story:

My sister moved home to file for divorce in 1980.

I am her younger sister Lisa, and we spent the most time together when

she moved back home. I was thrilled to have the time with her. We were

very close.

She was a strong, smart woman and was determined to make it on her own.

She worked for the county that we lived in and was very well liked.

They were shocked as everyone was to hear about her sudden death. So

out of character.

The time she lived with us she was fine. Going to work taking one day

at a time to rebuild her life. Until Suddenly the last month to weeks

she changed.

I listened, and I watched her suddenly turn into someone I did not

know. I could not figure it out. Why was she acting like this? Saying

these things to me? Finding it funny to scare me?

She started to talk about death and dying, and included me in her ideas

on how I could help her end her life. (ways we could try)

Some examples: She would loop a belt around her neck and ask me to pull

as hard as I could until she stopped breathing, She would ask me to

come in the middle of the night and put a pillow over her face to

suffocate her in her sleep, she would lay still in her bed and when she

heard me coming she would pretend to be dead when I shook her to wake

her up… she would not move until she started to laugh hysterically, and

would say “I’m just joking Lisa..I just wanted to see what you would do

if I were really dead? and what it would really feel like to be dead? I

wouldn’t really do it …I’m too chicken!”

Soon another sudden change came about she started to say things like

“HE” is in your closet and going to get you. Will you sleep with me in

my room?! Never made sense. She also would go from laughing and joking

about something then it turned into anger and agitation and confusion

at times.

Something else happened shortly before she took her life. She was

very sick with the flu. She lost a lot of weight, she could not eat,

drink, or get up out of bed she was very pale and fragile looking. I

felt so bad I could not help her feel better.

She often fell asleep with her bible on her face she looked like she

was searching for a answer to something that was happening inside her

she did not understand.

I had to take the bible of her face when she finally was able to sit

still and take a short nap. Her sleeping pattern was all off as well.

The night before she took her life I remember so clear all the details.

I remember everything.. from how she kept rocking in our rocking chair

we had in the living room. She would n

ot stop. She also was talking

much faster than usual and walking much faster as well. When I asked

her to stop rocking so fast she just looked at me like she couldn’t

stop, or didn’t want to. It was like someone was pushing her to rock. I

thought it very odd at the time but soon overlooked it because her

behavior had been so altered lately that I almost was getting use to it.

Lori came into my bedroom late that night and stood in my doorway. She

was talking to me.

The last thing she said was “Well I’ll see you in the morning!” and off

she went down the hallway and I heard the door slam as it always did

behind her. I did not know it then but that was the last time I would

see her alive.

On September 22 1981 I was getting ready for school. I went into her

room to borrow a shirt of hers and I quietly asked her if I could

borrow it.

She did not answer. So I took it and got ready to catch the bus.

As I walked out the front door down our driveway I had to pass her car.

From a distance all I could see was RED. My first thought was “here she

goes again, She is trying to fool me again, and this time she used

Ketchup!

Well as I got closer..I saw my sister through the car window as she lay

on her side with her head on the headrest of the passenger side door. I

could see her face clearly. There was blood dripping from her bottom

lip onto the seat and still I was in disbelief.

Our father came out of the house broke the driver side window unlocked

the door got in the car reached across her body to unlock the passenger

side door ran around the car as fast as he could to then find out my

sister was not moving. She was not alive. She was gone.

My sister’s body lay across my fathers lap and he just kept repeating

Why?

My father’s spirit died at that moment he realized his daughter was

dead.

We had no answers, there was no evidence that somebody could of helped

her there was no clues left behind. So It appeared at the time

“suspicious”

Decades later the truth has surfaced. Finally I was able to put it all

together. I was going through my sister’s box of things I packed almost 28 years

ago. I came across many things I remembered from the time… Including a

medicine bottle. We knew my sister was put on a medicine to help her

with stress from the divorce so it was not a surprise that I packed the

bottle off her dresser.

However..the shock came to me when I typed the name of the drug into

the computer just months ago.

Slowly…it all came together..and I mean all of it. From the things she

said to the things she did. To the rocking in the chair to the things

she was seeing that were not there ..and finally to the flu like

symptoms that come with the Sudden withdrawal of the

medication!

The Black Box Warnings that today are on ALL antidepressant drugs says

it all.

My sister was put on this drug Aug. 18 1981.

She stopped taking it as many people did due to the side effects.

She was in bed with the flu which turned out to be not the flu at all

but the withdrawal from this prescription drug that in the end killed my

sister!

I WAS 13 YEARS OLD

LORI WAS 25

PEOPLE ASK ME WHY NOW DOES THIS MATTER?

MY ANSWER IS…BECAUSE NUMBER ONE MY SISTER IS DEAD.

NUMBER TWO I AT 13 HAD TO LIVE MY ENTIRE LIFE WITH SUSPICIAN ABOUT WHAT

HAD HAPPENED TO HER!

I HAD TO LIVE WITH THE NIGHTMARES, I COULD NOT WALK BY A PARKED CAR FOR

YEARS DUE TO THE FEAR OF SEEING HER INSIDE AGAIN,

I WOULD GO TO THE CEMETARY FOR THE FIRST FEW YEARS RIGHT FROM SCHOOL

AND JUST SIT AND ASK..WHY..HOW..SOMETHING IS MISSING. I KNOW YOU DID

NOT DO THIS. YOU WOULD NOT DO THIS.

I WAS TORMENTED BY HER BECAUSE OF A MIND ALTERING DRUG..THAT WAS AND

STILL IS LEGAL IN THIS COUNTRY.

I COULD NOT SAY GOODBYE TO HER WHEN SHE DIED BECAUSE I WAS AFRAID TO GO

UP TO THE COFFIN DUE TO THE FACT I THOUGHT SHE WOULD JUMP UP AT ME AND

LAUGH LIKE SHE DID BEFORE.

I HAVE BEEN THROUGH HELL BECAUSE OF THE DAMAGE THIS DRUG DID TO MY

SISTER..AND TO MY FAMILY.

AND I KNOW THERE ARE OTHER FAMILIES OUT THERE STILL IN THE DARK!!

I HOPE TO FIND THEM AND LET THEM KNOW WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO THEIR

LOVED ONE IF OUR STORIES ARE SIMILAR..AND THIS RX DRUG WAS INVOLVED!

——————————————

THE DRUG WAS CALLED IMIPRAMINE. GENERIC FOR TOFRANIL

ALSO PRIOR TO THE SSRI THE CLASS OF DRUG LORI WAS ON WAS CALLED A TCA. TRICYCLIC 3 RING MAKE UP..THIS DRUG WAS THE FIRST ANTIDEPRESSANT INVENTED IN THE LATE 1950′S.

** MANY DID NOT LIKE THE DRUG DUE TO ALL THE SIDE EFFECTS/ADVERSE REACTIONS THAT CAME ALONG WITH IT.

MOST PEOPLE WHO TOOK THIS IN CLINICAL TRIALS OR STUDIES SHOWED THEY DROPPED OUT DUE TO THESE SIDE EFFECTS. NEVER GOT TO THE POINT WHERE IT WAS SUPPOSE TO TAKE EFFECT!

THAT IS WHAT MY RESEARCH SHOWED.. BUT YOU ASK ANN TRACY.

YOU MAY WANT TO ADD THIS TO LORI’S STORY SOMEWHERE IF YOU CAN:

WHEN WE TOLD HER DOCTOR SHE WAS ACTING LIKE SHE WAS ABOUT DEATH AND DYING..WE WERE TOLD NOT TO WORRY ABOUT IT THAT SHE WOULD NOT DO ANYTHING BECAUSE IT WAS NOT IN HER. SHE WOULD NOT REALLY HARM HERSELF OF ANYONE ELSE.

WELL…THAT WAS ANOTHER PIECE THAT DID NOT FIT.

THIS WAS TRUE.

**** THE DOCTOR BACK IN 1981 WHO GAVE HER THIS DRUG FOR MERE STRESS OF A DIVORCE…DID NOT KNOW..THE DRUG THEY GAVE HER WAS INDUCING HER BEHAVIOR.

THEY HAD NO IDEA..THEY WERE IN THE DARK JUST AS LORI WAS..AND US HER FAMILY WERE.

IT JUST SIMPLY LOOKED LIKE SHE WAS GOING CRAZY AND LOSING HER MIND!!

WHEN IN ACTUALITY SHE WASN’T..THE DRUG WAS INDUCING THIS REACTION!

but the one thing I wanted to make clear on the taking this drug Imipramine is that FROM START TO FINISH IT WAS ABOUT A MONTH. AUG 18 1981 SHE STARTED IT.

THEN STOPPED she told a friend I don’t like how this medicine is making me feel I’m not taking it anymore.

SEPT. 22 1981 SHE SHOT HERSELF IN THE HEAD AT 1AM.

FOUND AT 7AM PRONOUNCED DEAD AT 8:32AM

AND HER SUSPICIOUS SUICIDE WAS JUST RECENTLY SOLVED AS OF A FEW MONTHS AGO!

I AM OUTRAGED!

The Note she left behind said: It’s Nobody’s fault I Just Flipped!!!

then drew a smiley face.”

She often drew smiley faces when she wrote things in general. but even the smiley face did not match her normal happy ones.

Lptpkp@aol.com

PLEASE SIGN Lori’s Petition to help me find others: :http://tinyurl.com/mt63tp

Part of the Warning on this drug today:

patients should be carefully supervised during the early phase of treatment with imipramine, and may require hospitalization. Prescriptions should be written for the smallest amount feasible.

Hypomanic or manic episodes may occur, Such reactions may necessitate discontinuation of the drug. If needed, imipramine may be resumed in lower dosage when these episodes are relieved.

All patients being treated with antidepressants for any indication should be monitored appropriately and observed closely for clinical worsening, suicidality, and unusual changes in behavior, especially during the initial few months of a course of drug therapy, or at times of dose changes, either increases or decreases.

The following symptoms, anxiety, agitation, panic attacks, insomnia, irritability, hostility, aggressiveness, impulsivity, akathisia (psychomotor restlessness), hypomania, and mania, have been reported in adult and pediatric patients being treated with antidepressants for major depressive disorder as well as for other indications, both psychiatric and non-psychiatric. Although a causal link between the emergence of such symptoms and either the worsening of depression and/or the emergence of suicidal impulses has not been established, there is concern that such symptoms may represent precursors to emerging suicidality.

Consideration should be given to changing the therapeutic regimen, including possibly discontinuing the medication, in patients whose depression is persistently worse, OR who are experiencing emergent suicidality or symptoms that might be precursors to worsening depression or suicidally, especially if these symptoms are severe, abrupt in onset, or were not part of the patient’s presenting symptoms.

Families and caregivers of patients being treated with antidepressants for major depressive disorder or other indications, both psychiatric and non-psychiatric, should be alerted about the need to monitor patients for the emergence of agitation, irritability, unusual changes in behavior, and the other symptoms described above, as well as the emergence of suicidally, and to report such symptoms immediately to health care providers. Such monitoring should include daily observation by families and caregivers.

patients should be carefully supervised during the early phase of treatment with imipramine, and may require hospitalization. Prescriptions should be written for the smallest amount feasible.

Hypomanic or manic episodes may occur, Such reactions may necessitate discontinuation of the drug. If needed, imipramine may be resumed in lower dosage when these episodes are relieved.

Comments are coming in since my story posted: