http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/TV_Shows/Connect_with_Mark_Kelley/ID=1528191916

http://davidcarmichael.com/

“I’m concerned that too many people are being
prescribed antidepressants and not being given counselling and cognitive
behaviour therapy, because access to those therapies, while it is improving, is
still patchy,” said Professor Steve Field, the chairman of the Royal College of
General Practitioners, which represents the UK‘s family doctors.

“More people are being diagnosed with depression, but
many of them would be treated better by having access to talking therapies,
especially those with mild to moderate depression. I’m concerned that these
people are being treated with medication unnecessarily,” he added.

GPs felt “cornered” into giving patients
antidepressants because of a lack of alternatives, he said.

“Talking therapies are just a good [as medication]
for treating mild depression, and CBT can be just as good for more serious
depression. But the provision for these therapies hasn’t been good,” said Field.
However, more GPs were gaining more of a choice between tablets and talking
treatments, he said.

Antidepressant use rises as recession feeds wave of worry

Prescriptions have doubled in decade,
NHS figures show, with doctors warning drugs are covering for counselling
shortage

• guardian.co.uk, Friday 11 June 2010 19.13 BST
• Article
  history

Seroxat [Paxil] antidepressant pills.
Photograph: Jack Sullivan/Alamy

The number of antidepressants prescribed by the NHS
has almost doubled in the last decade, and rose sharply last year as the
recession bit, figures reveal.

The health service issued 39.1m prescriptions for drugs to tackle depression in England in 2009, compared
with 20.1m in 1999 – a 95% jump. Doctors handed out 3.18m more prescriptions
last year than in 2008, almost twice the annual rise seen in preceding years,
according to previously unpublished statistics released by the NHS’s Business
Services Authority.

The increase is thought to be due in part to improved
diagnosis, reduced stigma around mental ill-health and rising worries about jobs
and finances triggered by the economic downturn.

But tonight doctors warned that some people are being
put on the drugs unnecessarily, especially those with milder symptoms of
depression, partly because there is too little access to “talking therapies”,
which use discussion rather than drugs to tackle problems.

“I’m concerned that too many people are being
prescribed antidepressants and not being given counselling and cognitive
behaviour therapy, because access to those therapies, while it is improving, is
still patchy,” said Professor Steve Field, the chairman of the Royal College of
General Practitioners, which represents the UK‘s family doctors.

“More people are being diagnosed with depression, but
many of them would be treated better by having access to talking therapies,
especially those with mild to moderate depression. I’m concerned that these
people are being treated with medication unnecessarily,” he added.

GPs felt “cornered” into giving patients
antidepressants because of a lack of alternatives, he said.

“Talking therapies are just a good [as medication]
for treating mild depression, and CBT can be just as good for more serious
depression. But the provision for these therapies hasn’t been good,” said Field.
However, more GPs were gaining more of a choice between tablets and talking
treatments, he said.

Peter Byrne, the director of public education at the
Royal College of Psychiatrists, whose 12,450 members include the UK‘s 6,300
consultant psychiatrists, echoed Field’s concern. It said it was unsurprising
that prescriptions were rising after a decade of investment in mental health services. “The optimistic view is that
more people are being uncovered and treated. My concern is that people with mild
depression should not be put on antidepressants,” he said.

Consultant psychiatrist Tim Kendall, director of the
National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health, which drafts NHS guidance on
the drugs, said: “Antidepressants are offered too frequently in primary care
because the waiting lists for alternative treatments are too long. Doctors need
to think hard about putting people on these drugs because they can be hard to
get off and have significant side-effects.”

The NHS does not record how many people take
antidepressants, but up to one in six people suffers from some form of
depression during their life. The recession has produced greater demand for NHS
help with mental health problems.

“In 2009 all of us – whether we work in general
practice, general hospitals or specialist services – are seeing an increase in

referrals from the recession. The stresses of the downturn are the last straw
for many people,” said Byrne.

The Labour government invested hundreds of millions
of pounds in “talking therapies”, in an effort to help jobless people with
chronic problems get back into work and couples negotiate relationship
difficulties. The Lib-Con coalition has promised to continue prioritising such
treatments. But Byrne disputed claims about long waiting times.

The falling cost of antidepressants may have an
effect. Ten years ago each prescription cost £16, but this has fallen to just £6
today, which means the NHS spend has fallen, from £315m in 1999 to £230m last

year.

Dr Hugh Griffiths, the government’s mental health
tsar, said that while the causes of, and risk factors for, depression were
complex “the recession can have an impact. A rise in prescriptions might also
reflect a greater awareness and willingness to seek support and better diagnosis
by GPs”.

“Psychological therapies, which can be offered
alongside or as an alternative to medication, provide choice in treatment. We
are closely looking at how we can improve access”, said Griffiths.

A survey in March for the mental health charity Mind,
which asked people if they had sought help for work-related stress since the
downturn began, found 7% had begun medical treatment for depression and 5% had
started counselling.

A spokeswoman for Mind, Alison Cobb, said the fact
antidepressants are now licensed for use in a wider range of conditions, such as
social anxiety and post traumatic stress, was also a
factor.

http://industry.bnet.com/pharma/10007579/glaxo-paxil-and-the-catholic-church-sex-abuse-cover-up-drug-implicated-in-suicide-of-priest/

Glaxo, Paxil and the Catholic Church Sex Abuse Cover-up: Drug Implicated in Suicide of Priest

By Jim Edwards | Apr 7, 2010

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), which was already the focus of controversy over whether it ignored thesuicide risk of its antidepressant Paxil, has found itself linked to the Catholic Church’s cover-up of child abuse in the death of a priest who took the drug.

The case seems bound to become a further PR headache for GSK, which in 2008 was accused of obscuring the suicide risk of Paxil in studies for 15 years.

Father Rick Tucker, who took Paxil because he was upset about the way his parish ignored a child abuse scandal, may have committed suicide because of side effects from the drug and not the stress from the cover-up, a federal judge ruled. Judge David H. Hamilton of Indiana’s federal court found that Tucker’s sister Debra could sue GSK over the death of her brother, who shot himself to death inSeptember 2002.

The Tucker case stems from 1966, when Debra Tucker was 10 years old and attended the St. Lawrence Parish church in the Diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana. At the same time, Rick attended St. Mary’s Seminary in the same parish. Between 1966 and 1968, Debra was raped two to four times a month by St. Lawrence’s children’s choir instruction, a lay employee of the church, she alleges. In1968, Tucker had an abortion at the abuser’s behest, and then her family  including Rick, who had no idea what was going on  moved house and the abuse stopped. Debra remained in the area and over the years the abuser painted her house and attended the funerals of both her parents, she alleges.

In July 2000, after Debra discovered that the abuser had also allegedly assaulted his own children, she attended a meeting with Father Tucker, St. Lawrence’s Monsignor Robert Sell and other church officials. She claims that Sell and the church agreed to ensure that the abuser had no further contact with children in the parish and in return she would not sue the church.

After learning that Sell and the church allegedly did nothing about the man, Debra Tucker sued for breach of contract in a separate case not involving GSK.

The parish dragged its feet over the lawsuit, and as Father Tucker waited for word over whether his employers would settle his sister’s case, he became increasingly anxious. He was also worried about an upcoming audit by the diocese because, the judge wrote, he had “advanced himself some monies” and the Church would discover these “irregularities.”

However, his anxieties were misplaced: the audit did not uncover any irregularities in Father Tucker’s bookkeeping, the ruling says. The Tucker family’s lawyer said that the amounts involved were in the $50 range  and thus proof that Father Tucker’s anxiety was a product of the drug and not the situation he was in.

After taking Paxil, Tucker went into a sudden depressive tailspin. His diary for Aug. 30, 2002, just two days after he was prescribed the pill, says:

“Things have gotten behind and I do not know how to catch up. I want to live, but I want out of the pain. I feel like I am in an ocean and I can’t swim to the top for air. . . . I can see no way out of it. I know that if I follow through with the thoughts that come to my mind, there will be people hurt. … Debra I am sorry.”

Father Tucker killed himself on Sept. 18.

Debra Tucker alleges in her complaint against GSK that the company knew as early as 1990 thatPaxil potentially had an increased risk of suicide, and that the company failed to warn patients of the risk of akathisia, psychosis or violent self harm. Akathisia is a profound state of anxiety in which patients, unable to rest, believe they are doomed.

GSK had asked the judge to summarily dismiss the case based because the expert witnesses who testified that Father Tucker’s death was triggered by the Paxil and not the other stresses in his life were inadequate. The judge ruled there was a case to answer.

GSK and Msgr. Sell did not immediately respond to emails and a voicemail requesting comment. I’ve decided not to name the alleged abuser  although his name is published in Debra Tucker’s complaint against the church because I could not reach him for comment.

Your comment is awaiting moderation.

After two decades of tracking mothers and babies exposed to SSRI
antidepressants during pregnancy I shutter to ever see a mother take one of
these drugs. If those adverse effects listed in this article are not bad enough
to consider exposing a baby to, we have yet to witness the full effects of these
drugs upon offspring. These babies brains will not be fully developed until they
are in their 20’s. The full negative effects upon that developing brain will not
be known until then. Knowing what I know after 20 years of researching these
drugs and tracking patients who have taken them, I DO NOT WANT TO SEE WHAT IS
COMING!!

Dr. Ann Blake Tracy, Executive Director,
International Coalition for Drug
Awareness
http://www.drugawareness.org & http://www.ssristories.com

“The court heard that Mr White,
who has no previous convictions, had been prescribed the antidepressant
Seroxat  [Paxil] at the time of the incident. This combined with
alcohol had lessened his inhibitions, ­magistrates were
told.”

http://www.islingtontribune.com/news/2010/feb/hand-it-over-fan-who-stole-smiths-star%E2%80%99s-guitar-says-%E2%80%98i%E2%80%99m-sorry%E2%80%99

Hand it over! The fan who stole Smiths star’s guitar says, ‘I’m
sorry’

Man apologises to musician for snatching instrument after gig and keeping
it for 10 years

Published: 18 February 2010
by JOSH
LOEB

FOR 10 years, music fan Stephen White secretly held all the
answers to a musical mystery that  had mystified one of Britain’s most
revered guitarists.

Every time he looked at the shiny 1964 Cherry Red
Gibson SG guitar hidden in his flat, he gulped at the memory of how he had
stolen it from Johnny Marr, the musician who shot to fame with cult rock group
The Smiths.

On Tuesday, a decade after pinching the £30,000 instrument
backstage after a gig at the Scala nightclub in King’s Cross, Mr White, a
38-year-old carer, owned up to the theft in court.

He told Highbury
­Corner Magistrates’ Court that he was “disgusted” with himself.

Mr
White had been in the crowd packed inside the Scala to see Marr’s band Johnny
Marr and the Healers in 2000 on the night he walked off with the

guitar.

The court heard how he occasionally played it at home and at one
stage took it to the Tin Pan Alley guitar shops in Denmark Street, Bloomsbury,
to have it repaired after he ­accidentally stood on it.

Police
recovered the instrument after acting on a tip-off.

Mr White said: “I’m
disgusted with the whole thing. There’s a victim here. I can’t reconcile myself
with the ­behaviour of that night.”

The court heard that Mr White,
who has no previous convictions, had been prescribed the antidepressant Seroxat
at the time of the incident. This combined with alcohol had lessened his
inhibitions, ­magistrates were told.

After watching Marr perform, Mr
White went backstage to meet the musician and noticed a stage entrance was open.
On discovering the guitar unattended, he made what his counsel, Oliver Dean,
described as “a spur of the moment decision”. He picked up the guitar, walked
out with it via a fire escape and took it home in a taxi. It is believed the
guitar was found at Mr White’s Enfield home with the ticket from the gig in 2000
attached to it.

Marr, a renowned ­guitar collector famous for his
songwriting ­partnership with singer Morrissey, was reported at the time as
being “very upset” by the ­disappearance of the instrument and offered a
reward for information leading to its safe return.

Mr Dean said his
client felt extremely guilty about taking the guitar and had expressed a wish to
write and ­apologise to Mr Marr.

Police Constable Christopher Swain
said Mr Marr, who is ­currently on tour in New Zealand, was “ecstatic” about
the instrument’s return, adding: “He bears no malice towards the
defendant.”

PC Swain said: “The guitar did have a high sentimental
value to him. Initially he though he had been targeted by a professional thief
but when the details came to light he said he didn’t want the matter to go
further.”

Prosecutor Dorothy Thomas said that although the guitar would
normally have been worth around £6,000, it had been ­estimated as having a
value of £30,000 because of its association with Marr, who now plays with The
Cribs.

Mr White  was sentenced to 200 hours of community
­service. A spokes­man for Mr Marr said last night (Wed­nesday): “He
is obviously very happy to have his guitar

returned.”

Rebound symptoms may keep many on drugs

“Patients and their parents say internal company documents
show Glaxo failed to warn consumers about the risks of Paxil until forced
to do so in 2005 by the Food and Drug Administration. In the trial set
to start Monday, Michelle David blames the drug for causing life-threatening
heart defects in her son, Lyam Kilker, now age 3.”

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/business/20090912_Glaxo_trial_opens_here_Monday_in_what_could_be_Paxil_test_case.html

Posted on Sat, Sep. 12, 2009

Glaxo trial opens here Monday in what could be Paxil test
case

By Sophia Pearson and Margaret Cronin Fisk

Bloomberg News
GlaxoSmithKline P.L.C., the world’s second-biggest
drugmaker, begins a trial in Philadelphia next week in what may be a test case
for more than 600 lawsuits over claims that the company’s antidepressant drug

Paxil causes birth defects.

Patients and their parents say internal
company documents show Glaxo failed to warn consumers about the risks of Paxil
until forced to do so in 2005 by the Food and Drug Administration. In the trial
set to start Monday, Michelle David blames the drug for causing life-threatening
heart defects in her son, Lyam Kilker, now age 3.

The company, based in
London and with major operations in Philadelphia and its suburbs, faces two more
such trials each month from October through January in state court in
Philadelphia.

“The early cases set the parameters for any global
settlement negotiations,” said David Logan, dean and professor of law at Roger
Williams University in Bristol, R.I.

Paxil, approved by the FDA in 1992,
generated about $942 million in sales last year, 2.1 percent of the total for

the company.

Glaxo has settled other Paxil-related cases, including a
suit brought by the New York Attorney General’s Office accusing the company of
withholding safety data about the antidepressant.

The drugmaker isn’t
liable for Lyam Kilker’s heart defects, and it acted responsibly in testing
Paxil and updating safety information, Kevin Colgan, a Glaxo spokesman, said in
an e-mail.

“The scientific evidence simply does not establish that
exposure to Paxil during pregnancy caused Lyam Kilker’s condition,” Colgan said.
“Very unfortunately, birth defects occur in 3 to 5 percent of all live births,
whether or not the mother was taking medication during pregnancy.”

The
FDA said in an alert to doctors on Dec. 8, 2005, that preliminary studies
suggested Paxil might contribute to heart defects in infants when taken in the
first three months of pregnancy. The government asked the company to update the
label enclosed with the medicine, changing its birth-defect warning.

The
FDA’s action does not prove any connection between Paxil use and birth defects,
Glaxo said in court filings in July.

“GlaxoSmithKline will show it acted
properly and responsibly in conducting its clinical trial program for Paxil, in
marketing the medicine, in monitoring its safety once it was approved for use
and in updating pregnancy information in the medicine’s label as new information
became available,” Glaxo’s Colgan said.

Lawyers for patients say Glaxo
documents show the company had known since 1980 that Paxil could raise the risk
of birth defects.

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/lifestyles/local_other/article/S-PHAR06_20090902-190006/290023/

Q:I have been taking Effexor XR for two
years. At first I was pleased that it relieved the anxiety, depression and
excessive worrying I had been suffering. Then I began experiencing insomnia and

night sweats and decided to taper off this antidepressant.

After cutting
my dose in half, I have had brain zaps (impossible to explain) and pressure in
my ears.

Answer: Many people find that antidepressants such as Effexor
(venlafaxine), Cymbalta (duloxetine), Lexapro (escitalopram), Paxil (paroxetine)
and Zoloft (sertraline) are helpful for depression. But there can be a dark
side.

Stopping this type of drug can lead to withdrawal symptoms such as
dizziness, headaches, insomnia, anxiety, sweating, visual disturbances and
difficulty concentrating. Many people complain of shocklike sensations in their
head (brain “zaps” or “shivers”).

Postpartum with 1st Baby and Recovered With No Meds:
U.S.A.

Expert Q&A

How long will my postpartum depression last?

Expert answer

Excellent article! Many would still be alive and many more
would have avoided being damaged had they been able to see this coming as
clearly as I did years ago when I began warning about these drugs. But it is not
over! There will tragically be many more losses due to the ability of drug
manufacturers to buy the silence this doctor from Tufts says below should
not happen. These settlements need to be made public!

The one glaring omission in this article is a case I am very
familiar with Tobin vs Glaxo. This Paxil-induced murder/suicide
case was allowed to go to court, rather than being settled by Glaxo.
And after hearing all the evidence the jury ruled
that it was clear that Paxil was the main cause of this tragic
murder/suicide that cost 4 lives in one WY family. They ordered Glaxo to pay
$6.3 Million – in my opinion a very small amount for four lives!

But it will not be the end of these types of cases being filed.
The authors did not figure the losses Glaxo will face from those cases
of murder/suicide so their losses could be far greater than detailed
below.

The company hasn’t specified in regulatory filings
the number of suicide, birth-defect and addiction cases settled.

“It’s important to disclose such settlements because
it raises the red flag for both doctors and patients that there might be a
problem,” said Dan Carlat, a psychiatrist at Tufts University School of Medicine
in Boston who writes and edits a blog and a monthly

Psychiatry
Report. “It would motivate
doctors to dig into the literature even more before prescribing these
drugs.”

• About 450 suicide-related Paxil cases were settled. Only about a dozen
  haven’t been, the people said. The $1 billion total doesn’t include more than
  600 claims that Paxil caused birth defects.
• A Philadelphia jury on Oct. 13 found the drugmaker should pay $2.5 million
  to the family of Lyam Kilker, a 3-year-old boy born with a heart defect after
  his mother took Paxil while pregnant. Based on that outcome, an analyst
  estimated the company may potentially face additional verdicts in birth-defect
  cases waiting to be tried in Pennsylvania.
• 600 More Cases
• “A liability totaling $1.5 billion is possible,” wrote Savvas Neophytou, a
  Panmure Gordon analyst in London, in a note to investors the day after the
  Kilker verdict.
• In comparison, Pfizer Inc., parent of Wyeth, the maker of diet-drug
  combination fen-phen, has had to set aside about $21 billion to resolve about
  200,000 personal-injury claims over that medicine. Merck & Co. agreed to
  pay $4.85 billion to resolve more than 48,000 claims over the withdrawn
  painkiller.
• Harris Pogust, an
  attorney for Paxil plaintiffs, couldn’t confirm the total. He said the amounts
  are confidential.
• The suicide settlements included a suit over the death of a 14-year-old
  boy who had been taking Paxil for two months. The parents of Scott Cunningham,
  of Valparaiso, Indiana, sued after the boy hung himself in 2001. They alleged
  Glaxo suppressed evidence that Paxil use was linked to the risk of suicide
  attempts by adolescents. Glaxo denied the allegations, according to court
  papers.
• The family settled its suit in May, according to court filings. Family
  attorney Bijan Esfandiari confirmed the settlement, saying the amount was
  confidential.
• About 150 cases over suicides by Paxil users were settled for an average
  of about $2 million, and about 300 over suicide attempts settled for an
  average of $300,000, they said. Some of the claims were resolved before suits
  were filed, according to the people familiar with the matter.
• Glaxo has settled about 10 birth-defect cases, Sean Tracey, a
  Houston-based lawyer who represented the family of a child victim, said in
  court Dec. 2. The settlements averaged about $4 million, the people familiar
  with the cases said.
• Glaxo paid an average of about $50,000 per case to resolve about 3,200
  claims linking Paxil to addiction problems, the people familiar with the cases
  said.
• In its 2008 annual report, company officials noted they had reached a
  “conditional settlement agreement” in January 2006 with Paxil users who
  alleged they suffered withdrawal symptoms after taking the drug. The case,
  filed in Los Angeles federal court, was marked closed in court records in
  February.

Glaxo Said to Have Paid $1 Billion to Settle Paxil

Lawsuits

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By Jef Feeley and Margaret Cronin Fisk

Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) — GlaxoSmithKline Plc has
paid almost $1 billion to resolve lawsuits over Paxil since it introduced the
antidepressant in 1993, including about $390 million for suicides or attempted
suicides said to be linked to the drug, according to court records and people
familiar with the cases.

As part of the total, Glaxo, the U.K.’s largest drugmaker, so far has paid
$200 million to settle Paxil addiction and birth-defect cases and $400 million

to end antitrust, fraud and design claims, according to the people and court
records.

The $1 billion “would be worse than many people are expecting,” said Navid Malik, an analyst
at Matrix Corporate Capital in London. “I don’t think this is within the
boundaries of current assumptions for analysts.”

The London-based company hasn’t disclosed the settlement total in company
filings. It has made public some accords. Glaxo’s provision for legal and other
non-tax disputes as of the end of 2008 was 1.9 billion pounds ($3.09 billion),
according to its latest annual report. This included all legal matters, not just
Paxil. The company said 112 million pounds of this sum would be “reimbursed by
third-party issuers.”

The drugmaker has reduced its insurance coverage to contain costs, “accepting
a greater degree of uninsured exposure,” the annual report states. “Recent
insurance loss experience, including pharmaceutical product-liability exposures,
has increased the cost of, and narrowed the coverage afforded by, insurance for
pharmaceutical companies generally,” Glaxo said.

Glaxo Comment

Glaxo declined to confirm the $1 billion figure. “Paxil has been on the
market in the U.S. since 1993. Like many other pharmaceutical products, it has
been the subject of different kinds of litigation over the years,” said Sarah Alspach, a
spokeswoman for Glaxo, in an e-mailed statement. “It would be inappropriate and
potentially misleading to aggregate payments in these various types of
litigation.”

Chief Executive Officer Andrew Witty has moved
to replace revenue lost to generic versions of drugs such as Paxil. Worldwide,
Paxil generated about 514 million pounds in sales last year, or 2.1 percent of
the total. Glaxo closed up 5 pence to 1,303 pence in London trading Dec. 11,
down 8.8 percent from a year ago.

About 450 suicide-related Paxil cases were settled. Only about a dozen
haven’t been, the people said. The $1 billion total doesn’t include more than
600 claims that Paxil caused birth defects.

A Philadelphia jury on Oct. 13 found the drugmaker should pay $2.5 million to

the family of Lyam Kilker, a 3-year-old boy born with a heart defect after his
mother took Paxil while pregnant. Based on that outcome, an analyst estimated
the company may potentially face additional verdicts in birth-defect cases
waiting to be tried in Pennsylvania.

600 More Cases

“A liability totaling $1.5 billion is possible,” wrote Savvas Neophytou, a
Panmure Gordon analyst in London, in a note to investors the day after the
Kilker verdict. He still recommended buying Glaxo shares because a likely appeal
may reduce the amount paid by the company.

In comparison, Pfizer Inc., parent of Wyeth, the maker of diet-drug
combination fen-phen, has had to set aside about $21 billion to resolve about
200,000 personal-injury claims over that medicine. Merck & Co. agreed to pay
$4.85 billion to resolve more than 48,000 claims over the withdrawn painkiller.

Harris Pogust, an
attorney for Paxil plaintiffs, couldn’t confirm the total. He said the amounts
are confidential.

Paxil Is Different

“Paxil’s been different from most drugs,” said Pogust, a lawyer from
Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, who is handling suicide and withdrawal cases.
“You’ve had three major personal injury litigations over one drug — the
suicide, the birth defect and the withdrawal cases. To have three significant
problems with one drug is really unusual.”

The company had $11.7 billion in U.S. Paxil sales for nine years starting in
1997, according to documents made public this year in a Pennsylvania trial. In
2002, the year before Paxil faced generic competition in the U.S., sales of the
drug there were $2.12 billion. Last year, U.S. sales had fallen to $129 million.
Through September of this year, sales were $52 million, down 52 percent from the
same period in 2008.

Since at least 2003, Glaxo has faced claims in U.S. courts that some Paxil
users were subjected to an undisclosed, higher risk for suicide and birth
defects.

A Suicide Settlement

The suicide settlements included a suit over the death of a 14-year-old boy
who had been taking Paxil for two months. The parents of Scott Cunningham, of
Valparaiso, Indiana, sued after the boy hung himself in 2001. They alleged Glaxo

suppressed evidence that Paxil use was linked to the risk of suicide attempts by
adolescents. Glaxo denied the allegations, according to court papers.

The family settled its suit in May, according to court filings. Family
attorney Bijan Esfandiari confirmed the settlement, saying the amount was
confidential.

About 150 cases over suicides by Paxil users were settled for an average of
about $2 million, and about 300 over suicide attempts settled for an average of
$300,000, they said. Some of the claims were resolved before suits were filed,
according to the people familiar with the matter.

Glaxo has settled about 10 birth-defect cases, Sean Tracey, a Houston-based
lawyer who represented the family of a child victim, said in court Dec. 2. The
settlements averaged about $4 million, the people familiar with the cases said.

Hasn’t Specified

The company hasn’t specified in regulatory filings the number of suicide,
birth-defect and addiction cases settled.

“It’s important to disclose such settlements because it raises the red flag
for both doctors and patients that there might be a problem,” said Dan Carlat, a
psychiatrist at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston who writes and
edits a blog and a monthly Psychiatry Report. “It would motivate doctors to dig into the
literature even more before prescribing these drugs.”

Glaxo paid an average of about $50,000 per case to resolve about 3,200 claims
linking Paxil to addiction problems, the people familiar with the cases said.

In its 2008 annual report, company officials noted they had reached a
“conditional settlement agreement” in January 2006 with Paxil users who alleged
they suffered withdrawal symptoms after taking the drug. The case, filed in Los
Angeles federal court, was marked closed in court records in February.

“Glaxo did not admit liability” in the addiction settlements, the company’s
officials said in a March 2009 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission.

The Other $400 Million

In one of eight accords unrelated to individual suicide, addiction or
birth-defect claims, Glaxo agreed in 2003 to pay $87.6 million to the U.S. and
49 states over claims it repackaged and privately labeled Paxil and another
drug, Flonase, to a health maintenance organization at discounted prices.

Glaxo, denying liability, agreed in 2004 to pay $165 million to settle two
antitrust suits over allegations it engaged in sham patent infringement
litigation to stall approval of generic versions of the drug, court records
show. Of that total, $100 million was for direct purchasers of Paxil, such as
drug wholesalers, and $65 million was for indirect buyers, the records show.

In the same year, Glaxo agreed to pay $2.5 million to New York to resolve
accusations the company withheld safety data about the antidepressant. The
company, calling the claims unfounded, agreed to release safety studies on the
medicine’s effect on children.

In 2005, the company added a black-box warning to its Paxil label that the
drug increased the risk of suicidal thoughts among adolescents, following a
request by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to do so.

The Philadelphia case is Kilker v. SmithKline Beecham Corp. dba
GlaxoSmithKline, 07-001813, Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County,
Pennsylvania (Philadelphia).

To contact the reporters on this story: Jef Feeley in
Wilmington, Delaware, at jfeeley@bloomberg.net and; Margaret Cronin Fisk in
Southfield, Michigan, at mcfisk@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated:
December 14, 2009 00:01 EST

I am writing my story because I want to do something to help inform people about the harmful effects of antidepressant drugs. It took me several years, after using antidepressant medications for more than ten, to become clear headed enough to figure out what happened to me. I wound up having a minor stroke or a seizure according to the MRI. Now I’m trying to get my life back together.

Here’s what happened:

I went to a Psychiatrist in 1990 because I couldn’t control crying jags at work. I had been sad over a horrible accident that left my 19-year-old son permanently brain injured.

The lady psychiatrist saw me for less than five minutes, announced I was clinically depressed and prescribed Prozac. When I asked, she said it was not habit forming.

I remember feeling almost immediate relief after the first dose (surprising, since she said it would take 3 weeks to take effect). All of the sudden life became wonderful! I sang to myself all day long. I was the life of every party (or so I thought). I began drinking too much and running around like I was on speed. I just had so much fun at everything I did. The world was at my feet and I was setting it on fire! Wow…why didn’t I find these drugs sooner?

But really, as the years went by, I became unattached to the world emotionally. I became very self-centered. I lost a lot of friends. I missed major life occurrences, like the death of my father. I was not there for him during his illness nor was I emotionally present at his funeral. I was absolutely giddy all of the time. My most radical act was to sue my employer. I know now that it’s better not to sue your local government! As I look back at bad life decisions and embarrassing behavior, I can only be grateful that it was not worse. I read daily of cases describing people committing crimes and displaying truly bizarre behavior on these drugs, some turning into homicidal monsters when they try to withdraw. There are people spending the rest of their lives in prison because of these drugs. I realize I am one of the lucky ones to have come out of the fog and be able to tell my story. I have an insecure (shy), reserved personality by nature, and I come from a conservative family. I know now that the ‘drug fog’ kept me from seeing what was really happening in my life for many years. I know now that I would not have made all those bad decisions had I not been on those drugs. These pharmaceuticals that I so trusted to ‘cure’ my disease of depression have altered my entire life.

I realized I wanted off the drugs in the fall of 2001. It was nothing noble on my part that I finally decided to get off (an entirely different and very long story that I am not proud of…we’ll just say I wanted to be clear headed and leave it at that). It took from the fall of 2001 until the fall of 2003. And guess what? By December 2003 I was experiencing severe brain fogginess, mental confusion and panic attacks! I was deathly afraid of what was wrong with me and just as afraid to take any kind of medication to treat the crying jags. At this point, I did not know that I was experiencing was drug withdrawal.

I began to seek help. I had an MRI done because of the terrible brain fog.(1) They found ‘non-specific white focal matter’, which the doctor said could have been caused by a minor stroke or seizure. I searched for answers for an entire year from: three PHD therapists, one medical doctor of internal medicine, one general practitioner MD and one gastroenterologist MD. None of these professionals would discuss withdrawal effects of psych drugs! One guy curtly said in a very harsh tone, “if you want to talk about antidepressant drugs, you have to go to a psychiatrist!” Another, the PHD Psychologist lady, was giddy and scatter-brained. She left me sitting in her waiting room a half hour, then sashayed in laughing hilariously, saying she was so sorry she forgot about our appointment…then she proceeded to prop her feet up on her chair with her keyboard in her lap and and pounded in my name address and insurance information, saying “you know this drill, right?” I told her that I did not want to take antipressant drugs. She quickly explained to me that “our brains need help” and gave me some websites that supported her position. I finished the session with her and asked her not to file a claim on my insurance. I gave her a check. And guess what? The next day there was a claim on my insurance website! The woman obviously was in a world of her own. I suppose I should have written her a thank-you note for yet another example of the bizarre behavior caused by drugs that claim to “help” our brains!

Well, in fairness to these professionals, I was an emotional wreck, and probably presented a scary dilemma to them. While, all doctors may not know about the devastating physical effects these drugs have on our bodies and brains, most of them have heard about suicidal tendencies associated with them, and the well documented stories of people committing horrendous acts either on or while trying to quit these drugs. I’m sure when I mentioned I had recently quit them, I was quite the pariah.

I finally found a psychologist here in Austin, Texas, Dr. John Breeding, that lent me a copy of Dr. Ann Blake Tracy’s tape, ‘Help, I Can’t Get Off My Anti-depressants’. And wow…what a relief! I wasn’t crazy after all. It really was the drugs, as I suspected. I began reading and researching, and discovered that everything that had been happening to me was directly related to the years of antidepressant drug use.

It took a personal crisis for me to wake up. And that’s exactly what happened. The details of the crisis are not important. What’s important is that things had to get pretty bad before I realized that the antidepressant drugs were wrecking my life and absolutely destroying my soul. Author and Psychiatrist Peter Breggin writes about a spellbinding effect these drugs have on people. Believe me, I was spellbound for a long time. I absolutely accepted as truth that these drugs were helping me. Even when I got off of them it took awhile for me to ‘come back’ and fully realize how duped I had been. This year will be the 6th year I am free from those mind captivating drugs, and never have I been tempted to get back on. Each week that goes by I still continue to gain memories and mental clarity.

It’s hard to get over the fact that more than 10 years of my life were lost in a fog because of drugs that doctors said would help me. It feels like my life has been turned totally upside down because of these drugs.

There must be a reason my mind was spared. I am now supporting an effort to enhance public awareness about the harmful effects of SSRI drugs in any way I can. That is the reason for this open letter. Please people …wake up! How many more lives must be ruined before you will see the truth?

I am asking that the medical community embrace the concept of ‘informed consent’. I went to three psychiatrists. None of them were willing to discuss the negative side effects of the SSRI drugs they prescribed for me. I went to professional counselors and psychologists who said ‘our brains need help’ and ‘the drugs help so many people’. Now after extensive reading and researching, I am absolutely disappointed in the prevailing viewpoint by the mental health community that mind-altering drugs are the answer. There is clear scientific evidence that they are not. When I see the giddy, drunken behavior of people on these drugs today, I am simply appalled that they continue to be touted as helpful by professionals who take an oath do ‘do no harm’!

I have started a support group for families, friends and bio-psychiatric drug survivors as a means of helping one another to heal. The lack of support from the medical community made me feel alone and isolated much of the time as I was coming off these drugs. By forming a community support group I hope to be able to help people avoid what I went through by sharing some of the information that is not readily available to the general public. I want to do something to spare people the anguish I went through. The information that I know now that I did not know when I went through all this should be readily available. My question to the medical community is why isn’t it?

It is my opinion that SSRI drug use today is epidemic, and that our society is being adversely affected because of it. It is my belief that those of us who have been on the drugs and successfully withdrawn have a responsibility to spread the truth that we have so painfully learned. We can change the world. We must share our stories and get the truth out there. If you are in a position to spread the word about how harmful psychiatric drugs are, do so…don’t hesitate. If you touch one life, you have made a difference.

Sincerely,
Ellen Heath
Transformers Support Group

P. S. Please feel free to contact me at 512-626-7986 or e-mail me at MHEATH3@AUSTIN.RR
(1) Brain fog means: I could not think straight. I felt confused about day to day activities at work (I am a financial analyst), my short term memory was so bad that I could barely put a sentence together, and I just found myself in a state of mental confusion, not knowing if this was my fault or the rest of the world that was askew. Mental confusion is hard to describe because you don’t really recognize it until you have begun to regain your clarity. You get lost on the way to a location that you’ve travelled many times before. You forget names of people that you’ve known for years… you turn the wrong way down a familiar hallway.