TOO EERY!!!!!! Re: Boy’s meds might give clinician pause today

Tuesday, 19 August 2008
This is ALL TOO
EERY!!!!! Just yesterday I was at Von Maur in Omaha with Mark and
Donna Taylor as we stopped while driving from Salt Lake City to Des Moines!
What sent chills down my spine, even though I was too tired to feel much
after driving for about 12 hours straight with only a couple hours break, was
what I learned when I dropped Mark and Donna off at Whole Foods to pick up a few
groceries while I played on the lawn with my puppy. And as I played with
him I looked up and saw Von Maur. I caught my breath and thought “But it
does not look like a mall from here, maybe it is just another Von Maur store,
not the one where all those people died last year.”
So when the next person stopped to play with my little dog I asked
them if that happened to be the mall where the shooting was last year.
When they said yes I thought I would fall over from the shock of it all!!
Why?
Because last December 4th when I last drove through Omaha I stopped across
the street (right where I was yesterday) from Von Maur at the Omaha Whole Foods
Market and asked if we could arrange for me to come and speak to warn
people in the Omaha area about the dangers of antidepressants. I then left
waiting for them to call me.
But it was the following day that Robbie walked into that mall shooting. It
resulted in NINE deaths due to his long-term use of antidepressants. Yesterday,
almost a year later I realized how closely tied all of this was as I
stood there just across the street with the first boy shot at Columbine High
School knowing I personally left warning just the day before the shooting.
The most sickening statement about this never ending nightmare comes
from the question Mark asked me as we stood there yesterday. He wanted to
know whether the Whole Foods had ever called back wanting to schedule
a lecture. I had to tell him they had not.
And now today this article comes out talking about Robbie’s long-term use
of antidepressants? I noticed they did not even explain the withdrawal he was in
at the time which causes the REM Sleep Behavior Disorder at an even higher rate
than being on one does.
The whole combination of these experiences  . . .  these things
never stop taking my breath away!!!
When we look at the info in this article we realize that I was years too
late anyway even though I made an attempt to stop this one just the
day before it happened. What is being done now to babies in the wombs of the
moms who take these drugs is CRIMINAL!!! And the same holds true for all those
in their youth who are given these drugs!! How very terrible! And if they
continue to attempt to push the Mother’s Act to get more pregnant and
nursing moms on these drugs . . . . WATCH OUT!
But in saying that, let me add that I do believe there is hope to turn
those effects around if you know enough about alternative treatments.
Ann Blake-Tracy
In a message dated 8/17/2008 9:36:49 P.M. Central America Standard T,
gm1000@prodigy.net writes:


One of the Journal Articles on SSRI Stories
states:  “Sentence 5 of the Abstract reads:  “Experimental
studies in rodents show that administration of SSRIs during a key
developmental window creates changes in brain circuitry and maladaptive
behaviors that persist into adulthood.”


http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T01-4P4NPGN-1&_user=10&_coverDate=07%2F07%2F2007&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=f6d5a09cf544b66a9526277a6e021e57
Review

Developmental effects of SSRIs: lessons learned
from animal studies

Xenia Boruea, b, John Chena, b and Barry G.
Condronb, http://www.ssristories.drugawareness.org//#cor1
, mailto:condron@virginia.edu

aUniversity of Virginia Medical Scientist
Training Program and University of Virginia Neuroscience Graduate Program,
Charlottesville, VA 22904, United States

bUniversity of Virginia, Department of
Biology, Charlottesville, VA 22904, United States

Received 1 June
2007;  accepted 19 June 2007.  Available online 7 July 2007.

Abstract

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are
utilized in the treatment of depression in pregnant and lactating women. SSRIs
may be passed to the fetus through the placenta and the neonate through
breastfeeding, potentially exposing them to SSRIs during peri- and postnatal
development. However, the long-term effects of this SSRI exposure are still
largely unknown. The simplicity and genetic amenability of model organisms
provides a critical experimental advantage compared to studies with humans.
This review will assess the current research done in animals that sheds light
on the role of serotonin during development and the possible effects of SSRIs.
Experimental studies in rodents show that administration of SSRIs during a key
developmental window creates changes in brain circuitry and maladaptive
behaviors that persist into adulthood. Similar changes result from the
inhibition of the serotonin transporter or monoamine oxidase, implicating
these two regulators of serotonin signaling in developmental changes.
Understanding the role of serotonin in brain development is critical to
identifying the possible effects of SSRI exposure.

Keywords:
Serotonin; Neurotransmitter; CNS development
http://www.ssristories.drugawareness.org//#bcor1
Corresponding author at:
University of Virginia, Department of Biology, Gilmer Hall
071, Box 400328, Charlottesville, VA 22904, United States. Tel.: +1 434 243
6794; fax: +1 434 243 5315.

At 08:06
AM 8/17/2008, jay baadsgaard wrote:

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10408174

Published
Sunday    August 17, 2008

Boy’s meds might give
clinician pause today

BY LYNN SAFRANEK

WORLD-HERALD STAFF
WRITER

Robbie Hawkins was prescribed medications to combat anxiety
disorders, hyperactivity and depression for roughly half of his 19
years.

In 1992, when Robbie was 4, a psychiatrist prescribed
Ritalin, a stimulant used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder,
and Mellaril, an antipsychotic.

When Robbie was hospitalized that
December, those medications were discontinued in favor of the
antidepressant Pamelor, which he took for at least 10
years.

Although all three medications still are prescribed,
research has shown limitations or flaws in each that would give a clinician
today greater pause before prescribing them to a
preschooler.

Consider:

Ritalin: A well-regarded trial
study published last year involving preschoolers showed that
while some children benefit from Ritalin, younger children may be
more sensitive to its side effects. Those can include decreased appetite,
sleep loss, irritability and emotionality, said Dr. Mary Margaret Gleason,
the lead author of psychiatric medication treatment guidelines for
preschoolers published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child &
Adolescent Psychiatry.

Mellaril: This antipsychotic is
typically prescribed for schizophrenia. Robbie took a low dose to help him
settle down and fall asleep. Tests have found that Mellaril causes
some patients serious heart problems, such as changing the rhythm and
electrical conduction of the heart, Gleason said. The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration recommends prescribing it only to schizophrenic
patients who have not responded to other antipsychotic drugs.


Pamelor: Newer antidepressants have fewer side effects and a wider
tolerance, said Dr. Graham Emslie, the chief of child and adolescent
psychiatry at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas. Research also has shown
that Pamelor isn’t as effective in young children, Gleason said, although it
can help some children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder or loss
of urinary control.

When Robbie was 15, he was treated with the
antidepressant Effexor XR. Two years later, he was prescribed the
antidepressant Zoloft after attempting suicide.

He refused both
medications after taking each for less than two months, according to
juvenile court records.

Nearly all antidepressants, including the
three prescribed to Robbie, now carry a required “black box”
warning on their labels. The FDA began ordering such warnings three
years ago, after clinical trials suggested that some drugs increased the
risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in children and teens, particularly
when first given or when the dosage changed.

No research has
been conducted to determine whether antidepressants taken
by children or teens have long-term effects, Gleason
said.

Robbie wasn’t taking antidepressants last
December when he killed eight people, severely wounded others and
committed suicide at Von Maur, although an autopsy detected therapeutic
amounts of the prescription drug diazepam, a tranquilizer known by the trade
name Valium.

The drug had not been prescribed to him.

The FDA
has approved only one antidepressant — Prozac — for use in children, but
psychiatrists can use their discretion to prescribe
others.

Gleason called the decision to prescribe psychiatric
medication to children “a complicated balancing act” that pits the risk of
continuing illness against the risks associated with
medication.

“By the time (parents) seek mental health care, they’re
really in a lot of distress, the child’s in a lot of distress (and) the
impact of the illness is pervading the child’s life,” she said.
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