After 6 deaths, 6 years ago, on November 17, two days ago, the New Zealand Herald featured an article reporting on an inquest into these deaths. The original with photos of the 6 children is linked. The text is below the link. The action in this post happens right at the bottom of the NZH article and beyond.
Fluoxetine use in teenager scrutinised in youth suicide inquest
A coroner’s inquest into the deaths of six Northland young people, including Martin Loeffen-Romagnoli, has revealed systemic failures.
The inquiry is also examining the role of antidepressants, including fluoxetine, and seeks solutions for suicide prevention.
- Hamuera Ellis-Erihe, 16, of Raumanga died in 2018. He loved dancing, rapping and singing.
- Summer Mills-Metcalf, 14, of Kaipara, died in 2018. She was described as a happy, smiling girl who enjoyed pulling pranks on family members.
- Ataria Heta, 16, of Moerewa died in 2020. She was a stand-out kapa haka performer with a kind nature.
- Maaia Reremoana Marshall, 13, of Kaitāia died in 2018 after being under the care of Oranga Tamariki.
- James Patira Murray, 12, of Ruakākā died in 2018. He loved rugby and was a Northland representative.
- Martin Loeffen-Romagnoli, 15, of Kaipara died in 2018. He was a talented hockey player described as friendly and loveable.
When Paula Mills took her 14-year-old daughter Summer to get help for depression she had no idea the common antidepressant they were given could have deadly risks.
Four weeks after doctors doubled Summer’s dosage of fluoxetine, commonly known as Prozac, Mills’ world shattered when her daughter took her own life.
Now, Mills is demanding better warning be given about the suicidal ideation effects of the drug, and a leading psychiatrist agrees with her.
Coroner Tania Tetitaha has been leading a Northland coroner’s inquest into the deaths of six youths who died by suicide in 2018 and 2019.
The teenagers were aged between 12 and 16 and the court has heard two of the girls involved – Summer Mills-Metcalf and Ataria Heta – were on prescription medication for depression and anxiety leading up to their deaths.
The four-week hearing involving Te Whatu Ora, Oranga Tamariki, ACC and the Ministry of Education has brought a range of professionals in to look at where possible failings occurred and seek solutions to impediments to suicide prevention, specifically in Te Tai Tokerau.
Coroner Tetitaha indicated early in the hearing there would be a finding the youths died by suicide.
Several witnesses have given evidence in relation to Summer’s death including her mother, a school principal and a leading child psychiatrist.
Her mother said earlier in the hearing her daughter had a short history of being prescribed Fluoxetine, a serotonin selective reuptake inhibitor (SSRI).
A happy, bubbly and outgoing girl, Summer’s mood dramatically turned after she was plagued by bullying at school and on social media throughout 2017.
Her mother was actively involved in seeking help for Summer and took her to the doctor on February 14, 2018, where the teenager was prescribed fluoxetine at 10mg with a note to increase to 20mg per day as tolerated.
- Youth suicide inquest: Teen’s cryptic message to his …
- ‘He was made to feel like a nobody’: Troubled life …
- Teen who OD’d was sent home, parents told to ‘keep …
- ‘Should have known’: 14yo dies in suspected suicide …
Mills rang doctors twice in March and April requesting a review around upping her meds and over that time, increased her dosage to 20mg per day.
On May 1, after consultation with her doctors, Summer’s dosage was upped to 40mg a day with a note for a scheduled review in four to six weeks.
But Summer never made it to the review date. She ended her life on June 3, 2018.
‘Doubling her dose was a huge error’
Fluoxetine is a commonly used drug in New Zealand to treat depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) or eating disorders.
When dispensed, the package comes with a six-page pamphlet inside with a warning on page four that if thoughts of suicide begin to occur, seek medical help.
In America, the drug comes with a black label warning on the box that the drug may increase the risk of suicidality.
Mills gave evidence that she had noticed Summer becoming more agitated but never thought her daughter would end her life. She said they were not advised about the risks of suicidal ideation by any health professional, a side effect she only discovered from her own research after Summer’s death.
“She was taking her medication but it wasn’t working. When they doubled her dose we asked if it was safe and the doctor said it wasn’t well-researched.
“I now believe doubling her dose was a huge error and more inquiries should have been done. I couldn’t understand why Summer hadn’t fought to live.”
Written information needed
Doctor Andrew Craig Immelman, a member of the New Zealand Medical Council with multiple accreditations in child youth psychiatry, gave evidence in the third week of the hearing about his opinions relating to the clinical engagement with Summer.
Notes on the medical file said adverse reactions were discussed with Mills, however, Immelman said there was no evidence any handouts were given, something he believes is lacking in medical practice.
“The issue is retention.
“I refer to a study where junior doctors were involved in simulated handovers with or without printed handouts and reiterate only 2.5% of the information was retained after five verbal-only cycles as opposed to printed handouts.
“I see it as a reflection of the memory of people involved, it points very clearly to written information being a prerequisite,” he said.
“It’s quite hard on whānau and a human characteristic is to not register information at stressful times of appointments.”
Immelman suggested providing patients with pamphlets at doctor’s clinics should be standard practice. These pamphlets should be concise – about two pages with about 1000 words – and available in multiple languages, ensuring information is clear and accessible to all.
“It would be best if we had a New Zealand formula, a handout that was less wordy and able to be used more easily by young people and anyone who requires medication.
“Putting myself in the position of a parent, it is information that I would want to receive.”
Changes are needed
Mills also made similar recommendations to the coroner and said if they had known the risks, they would have perhaps chosen a different path.
“There needs to be changes in our mental health system when handing out medications. These psych drugs can and do cause suicidal ideation, Medsafe states professionals should discuss clearly the adverse effects with their patients.”
Immelman was also critical of the six-week follow-up Summer had been given and said a check-in with her should have been done the following week.
Immelman also believed the possibility of a thorough treatment plan being dictated and written in front of the patient would help with engagement and therapeutic alliance.
“We need to change our practice and I’m sorry to be so forceful about it.
“There are things outside our control like workforce shortages … I believe we need more people out there, we need more boots on the ground and we don’t have that so we tend to cut corners and often it works out okay but it’s not the best practice.”
Coroner Tetitaha will release her findings on the inquest into Ataria, Summer, Maaia Marshall, Martin Loeffen-Romagnoli, Hamuera Ellis-Erihe and James Murray in early 2025.
SUICIDE AND DEPRESSION
Where to get help:
• Lifeline: Call 0800 543 354 or text 4357 (HELP) (24/7)
• Suicide Crisis Helpline: Call 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO) (24/7)
• Youth services: (06) 3555 906
• Youthline: Call 0800 376 633 or text 234
• What’s Up: Call 0800 942 8787 (11am to 11pm) or webchat (11am to 10.30pm)
• Depression helpline: Call 0800 111 757 or text 4202 (24/7)
• Helpline: Need to talk? Call or text 1737
• Aoake te Rā (Bereaved by Suicide Service): Call 0800 000 053
If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111
Have you been effected by Fluoxetine?
Katinka’s Petition
Earlier this year Katinka Newman got the idea of a petition aimed at getting Suicide Helplines to find a way to help those receiving calls to be able to put the possibility that the caller’s meds, if recently changed, might be making them feel worse.
Helplines like the ones you see obligatorily listed at the end of this NZH article. Helplines which the Daily Mail wanted to feature at the bottom of Katinka’s article about a petition saying they were not doing their job.
See – Is Your Treatment Making you Suicidal
And – Drug Dysregulation of Iatrogenic Insanity
And – Truth is Stranger than Fiction
We face an increasingly bizarre situation, that could almost be described as psychotic. On one side, especially in suicide prevention programs, we have experts stressing the need to listen to the patient’s voice. But this mostly means giving them space to describe their social and related situations – everything except their experience of the medicines they are on.
We have suicide prevention helplines like Papyrus figuring the best thing that can be done is to get people on antidepressants.
Doctors can’t see a problem because if they ask they hear that helplines can ask people if they are taking any meds. In some countries helpline volunteers can ask if someone is on meds – in order to suggest going to a doctor if they are not yet on meds. But they cannot ask about anyone’s experience on those medicines or hint the medicine might be the problem.
Of course, if they could ask common sense questions about the effect of your medicines, and suggest going to your doctor, the result is likely to be a doubling of the dose of the antidepressant.
As Dexter Johnson found out. See
The History of a Medical Psychosis
and Romain Schmitt – See
Quil’s Mangent Des Médicaments
Clinical Details confuse Expert Doctors
Romain’s father Vincent suggesting closing these helplines down. This sounds counter-intuitive until you think about it. Rather than doing the job they were set up to do, they have their hands tied behind their back and can pretty well only make things worse.
Helplines are a show, a token. Having them makes people think something is being done about a problem.
A Silencing
It is not just the voices of the children and the rest of us being put on these medicines that are being silenced.
A colleague mentioned in an email a week ago that her two daughters, in two different schools, came home the previous week both reporting that someone in their school had committed suicide. These days schools are programmed to pull in therapists to help students recover from a trauma like this – programmed to put in place a gateway to get more students put on drugs.
Until recently students rarely committed suicide. But in the last decade they have had to face a rising tide of suicides of their friends.
There is no mention in school assemblies or from therapists or anyone that some of these suicides might be linked to meds. If anything is blamed it is likely to be social media. Experts of all sorts are piling in to claim that bullying on social media is causing suicides. This might be possible occasionally in sextortion or catfishing cases but bullying is more likely to lead to antidepressants which lead to suicide.
Are Old Media or New Media to Blame?
Damsels Dying from Distress or Dysphoria?
No one, however, seems willing to face up to the role of the meds. Not the old media – nor the medical media.
Silencing Doctors Silencing Safety
Medical journals should be full of articles outlining the adverse effects of drugs – in order to better help a doctor ask about a patient’s experience on the medicines s/he has put them on. That is exactly what medical journals were full of till about 30 years ago – but no longer. There is not a trace of an iota of a hint that medicines could possibly cause problems – other than mentions of hazards in order to dismiss ridiculous misinformation.
Where Does the Misinformation Come From
Loss of Humanity
We have lost our humanity. Just as with actors, or mask wearers, who can say anything because it is not them who is talking – they are just the mouthpiece for a script from elsewhere – so too with our doctors and politicians and educators.
This is a chilling instance of education aimed at conforming – brick in the walling – students. Rather than tackle the awkward job of educating teens or their parents and others in desperate need of education on matters of life and death like this, our educators are being political – speaking with forked tongues. How much of this do their listeners detect? How much squares with their experience?
Actors always have smooth lines. No need to struggle to articulate or fumble for the right word. Life is easier in acting mode.
When in the room with our doctors and educators, the presence of others controlling what can be said is palpable.
HAKA
Things are getting worse. There is an increasing turn to telehealth, which industry are rapidly colonizing as a means to get us on more and more drugs. Not just telehealth but soon to be ChatGPT delivered consults with your meds delivered by Amazon.
For convenience we can package your meds to help you to remember what to take when. Packaged this way they come with no information sheets that despite being designed to mislead you might possibly give you a hint of the problems your meds can cause – not just suicide but for instance the living death that is PSSD.
These days legislators get lobbied about Medical Assistance in Dying. But almost no-one, apart from those who have been bereaved, are lobbying for efforts to reduce a rising tide of preventable Medically Assisted Death (MAD) in youngsters who, for the most part, whatever else is desperate about their situation, desperately do not want to die.
Is it time to move beyond Petitions? Time to take the HAKA or an equivalent to Departments of Health or Congresses?
Or perhaps Irish Hunger Strikes, which are not an act –
“When they doubled her dose we asked if it was safe and the doctor said it wasn’t well-researched. “
David Healy and Robert Whitaker flew to New Zealand to support Maria Bradshaw.
January 15, 2014
https://davidhealy.org/guilty-2/
Days of reckoning?
A little over a year ago, there was consternation in psychiatric circles as a French psychiatrist, Daniele Canarelli was found guilty after her patient hacked a man to death. She had not recogized the hazard he posed. Doctors didn’t like the implications they saw.
In a series of lectures I have raised the question as to how long it might be before a doctors would be found guilty for a suicide or homoicide linked to an antidepressant, given that we have known that these drugs can cause suicide or homicide for over 50 years. See RxISK’s Violence Zone.
New Zealand
In March 2008 17-year old Toran Henry who was on Fluoxetine (Prozac) committed suicide, fifteen days after starting the drug. Maria Bradshaw, his mother, convinced that the drug had caused the problem refused to have his death attributed to a depression or other disorder he didn’t have.
Unbeknownst to her, the company that marketed it in New Zealand, Mylan, had looked internally at the case and decided their drug had caused Toran’s death. Maria had to fight to get this information. Mylan withheld their assessment and forced her to get the High Court to agree she was her child’s legal representative.
Following her efforts for her son, Maria and others formed CASPER, a New Zealand based organization aimed at raising awareness of suicide and the role that treatments like the antidepressants can play in provoking this. It is now spreading to other countries and its profile is rising steadily.
Old Zealand
Meanwhile in 2011 in Old Zealand (Denmark), Danilo Terrida, 20, committed suicide eleven days after he was prescribed antidepressants following an eight-minute-long conversation with a doctor.
The doctor never followed up on the consultation and was recently found responsible for the suicide by the National Agency for Patients’ Rights and Complaints.
The health agency, Sundhedsstyrelsen, has decided to make it harder for doctors to prescribe antidepressants to 18-to-24-year-olds after Danilo’s suicide.
Maria Bradshaw says
July 22, 2015 at 4:17 pm
My 17 year old son killed himself 15 days after being prescribed prozac by a psychiatric registrar. The drug company and my government conducted causality assessments and determined the drug was the probable cause of his suicide. In my country, medical professionals can’t be sued so I went to the police asking they arrest him for manslaughter.
They are currently conducting and investigation with a view to deciding whether to lay a criminal charge against the doctor. Paying a fine arising from civil proceedings would have no impact on the doctor or pharmaceutical company or regulator. A doctor being convicted of manslaughter could be a game changer. In my view criminal negligence resulting in death requires publicly conducted criminal proceedings not confidential settlements in civil courts.
“ I couldn’t understand why Summer hadn’t fought to live.”
This is every parents living nightmare. Some parents won’t get it at all, cuckolded by the system and their protectionism. Other parents will totally ‘get it’, like Dan Johnson and Vincent and Yoko Schmitt losing their young children, and countless other children as Katinka has highlighted and in their respective Webpages.
We risk even more of these tragedies as remote prescribing expands, especially in the USA. This includes both video visits with your “regular” doctor or clinic, and the commercial telehealth services like Hims/Hers, Done and Cerebral which openly hawk specific drugs. Lexapro, being still on patent, is their hottest antidepressant.
Right now the healthcare industry’s big priorities are making two pandemic-era measures permanent: 1) allowing telehealth to be billed at the same rate as in-person care, and 2) allowing remote prescription of “controlled substances” (especially opioids for pain and stimulants for ADHD).
Stimulant prescriptions are up massively, with a focus on straight-up amphetamines such as Adderall rather than methylphenidate. They have been a major focus for the commercial telehealth services, which tend to use an extremely quick-and-dirty evaluation to diagnose ADHD. The other big prize is the market for weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy.
All in all, the trend is towards less and less human attention and feedback with each prescription. (In the mental health field there’s increasing interest in chat-bots and apps as “providers”). As patients we are increasingly “home alone” with our new drugs. Which is scary, for people of all ages.
Fact –
Girls hormones are different – add to this the normal biological changes in early life – add to this school environments where “educators” teach who knows what and who knows how – add to this the high propensity for contagion in school environments – add to this the mandatory subjects that insist on teaching sex education whether the child is ready or wanting to know – add to this sex ed. being taught by adults who are not qualified in such specific subjects and who follow curriculum guidelines created by Policymakers – add to this, young female mental health was an untapped economic market – add to this the interference by GPs telling young females that they are old enough to be on contraception, and prescribing hormone drugs – add to this the Laws that state parents have no say – …..
Recipes for disasters.
Hormonal changes are tricky – add drugs that are known to cause depression – then add anti-depressants for treating the drug induced depression – then –
Blame the child, blame the parent, blame demographics, colour, creed, practices, beliefs, family, anyone But not the prescriber
Speaking of hunger strikes, I hitchhiked from one end of Ireland to the other in December of 1980. That was when the hunger strike in H-Block was on full swing. And that was all anybody talked about that week. And I did not meet ONE person who had ONE nice thing to say about the IRA.
It’s a complex matter. As a post on DH – To the last breath – outlines there is noble tradition behind Irish hunger strikes that led to Irish Freedom. At the time Terence MacSwinney was condemned by the Church and all sorts of people. It didn’t take long though to view him as the next best thing to a saint. Bobby Sands was reviled in 1980 and while not seen as a saint now is still viewed in a much more benign light than he was back then. And of course the IRA – in the form of Sinn Fein – are now the First Minister in Northern Ireland, hobnobbing with British Royalty.
It does raise questions for all of us who believe in peaceful protests. All of Ireland rose up in praise of the women, primarily in Northern Ireland, who led a Not in Our Name campaign against the violence and won a Nobel Peace Prize – but hardly anyone remembers them now.
In any sport, you have to pose a genuine threat to the other side to get anywhere. The question for us in the wake of the other side tolerating an entire ghostwriting of the medical literature, and sequestration of study data, and an increasing ability to comprehensively side-line, marginalize, or effectively eliminate anyone who dissents, what if anything might make ‘them’ think twice or make a mistake.
I have had a regular string of people exploring a Medical Assistance in Dying option. I suggest that rather than go quietly they should consider a hunger strike outside the offices of whatever company or politician they hold responsible for the shredding of their life. I don’t know of anyone who has taken even a moment to explore this option. Are there others?
D
Most people who stayed alive during their drug withdrawal incarceration were on a deadly enforced hunger strike. People may write brilliantly about all the pitfalls of pharma fraud were never in the shoes of the harmed. The fact that these people have tried to get in to the head of the harmed is quite exemplary.
Most people who comment here are of the older generation, who have travailed the path, who support anything in which to undo the massive harms inflicted.
Twenty years ago, might have been the opportunity to march in the streets. Things have changed, yet again. With a Government intent on non crime hate speech, a feeling of fear has immersed society. So what you could do in the name of free speech now has a few question marks. If anyone suggested a Hunger Strike, a target you could become.
Everyone knows.
The legal route to suing your doctor or suing the pharmaceutical companies lies in ruins and yet, this seemed the most methodical approach.
The young ones are dying, after the old ones were dying, but the young ones won’t rise up because they are all drugged.
A country in peril, rose up, to save itself; but the people who rise up now have been so mentally maligned it would be hard to raise an army.
An Assisted Dying Bill is imminent.
A scuttle of people in a parliament making decisions for us, with horrendous repercussions for our futures.
Like the doctors who scuttle away, at the first signs of dissent.
Some won’t be silenced, some will. What can be done?
You’re right. Petitions don’t change anything. Neither does self-immolation – nor even hunger strikes. Their value is to draw attention to a crisis. Not sure what you call a crisis like MAD, that has been witnessed but effectively diminished for 20+ years of campaigning by you and those left behind – a SCANDAL?
As you say, the only effective drivers of change are political, sometimes underpinned by legal, with the permission of the powers that be – companies, in this instance. Since you are now part of a political process to stop the MADness, certainly in the UK – please keep eating.
Some thoughts.
Risk communications. You probably know him, but searching for serious minds in risk communications – I came across Peter M Sandeman. I’ve seen his thinking applied to high risk industries like nuclear – but what could be more high risk for the person and those who love them than medical interventions?
https://www.psandman.com/articles/risk.htm
https://www.aiha.org/get-involved/volunteer-groups/content-portfolio-advisory-group/communication-oehs-risk-concepts/risk-communication
I’m very taken with Peter Sandeman’s differentiation between risk communications and risk assessment. Arguably the MHRA is in the risk assessment business; it’s a bureaucratic, self-justification process. To quote PS:
‘Risk communication differs from risk assessment in that risk assessment deals with the physics and chemistry and probability of something happening. Risk assessment defines risk as magnitude (how bad the problem could be) times the probability (how likely it is to happen). Experts tend to focus on this definition (let’s call it hazard), and so underestimate actual risk, because they ignore outrage’.
His risk communications’ theoretical equation is Risk = Hazard + Outrage. (My UC emphasis follows – I feel the need to shout on behalf of our children):
‘RISK COMMUNICATION TRIES TO CREATE A LEVEL OF “OUTRAGE ” APPROPRIATE TO THE LEVEL OF HAZARD.
‘STILL OTHER TIMES, THE OUTRAGE IS RIGHTLY HIGH ABOUT A GENUINELY SERIOUS RISK, AND THE JOB IS TO HELP PEOPLE BEAR IT, SUSTAIN IT, AND ACT ON IT.’
If we/the system acted on the clarity embodied in this risk comms thinking, rather than the existing flaccid, self-serving risk assessment which ‘informs’ the guidance and PILs;
Even ‘shared decision making’ – based on lucidly written short documents, as the New Zealanders are envisaging, would not be enough.
Arguably the three parties involved in the risk communications’ interaction-doctors, patients and their parents or ‘responsible others’, e.g. university medical centre staff -would need to commit to a written contractual agreement re risk acknowledgement, driving home the seriousness of the risk they are accepting. Just as, est 50 years too late for the 20,000 children and families affected, valproate patients now need to sign an ARAS form (annual risk acknowledgement). https://www.gov.uk/guidance/valproate-use-by-women-and-girls
You’ve already mostly written the guidance that needs to be part of this risk agreement. It may be a little demanding for some – if your patient feels suicidal on a drug – DO NOT INCREASE/DOUBLE THE DOSE – might need to be the headline.
https://rxisk.org/reducing-the-risk-of-treatment-induced-suicide/
H
I will have to check PS out in more detail but this feels like the kind of thing that was being said about risk communication linked to things like the nuclear industry – in the last millennium.
Risk communication as practiced by MHRA has nothing to do with calibrating the right level of outrage – it is being economical with the truth. It’s lying. It’s being juggling fiends who worse than the fiends in Macbeth who managed to get rid of the bad guy neither the keep the word of promise to our ears or to our hope.
When I say ‘ours’ of course there is a constituency who are very happy with MHRA – what they hear fits their hopes. And they sit back relaxing because people you might expect to think would critique the situation – like Jonathan Sumption look like they must have had a crush on June Raine at one point.
D
Have no fear, D, I have observed just how economical with the truth the MHRA are. Even parsimonious with the truth. In fact, defining ‘truth’ would prove an impossible task for the organisation.
I was invoking and applying Sandeman’s risk comms theory outside his usual context – because it supports a commonsense position.
Personal risk in medicine has little or nothing to do with the ‘efficacy’, ‘safety’ or prevalence ‘stats’ that the regulatory fiends (lots of fiends about) juggle. It’s the worst possible case for you, the individual patient. So all those acres of PIL copy droning on about 1:10 might experience dizziness or nausea, whereas an indeterminate number might feel driven to end their lives, have the hierarchy of personal risk all wrong.
In the defence industry so I’m told – and it’s commonsense – an unquantified or worse still – thinking PSSD – an unquantifiable risk – is considered an immeasurable risk. No unfounded assumptions of rarity.
I’ve just driven down a fast, busy, wet road in the dark – safely. I may be counted as a positive risk statistic – but the road safety stats certainly had no bearing on my personal safety.
Sumption makes my flesh creep.
The thing is that the MHRA are communicating with consumers – doctors – there is no other state in life where the consumer is not who most people think the consumer is. No comparable place where you hand your safety over to someone for whom its no skin off their nose if you get injured or die – in fact their lawyers will encourage to blame you rather than accept responsibility
D
And so Pharmageddon came to pass.
This is why I insisted on having a letter of instruction on my local surgery records – ‘To save you wasting your time, my position is this – you will never drug me, unless the only alternative is death, in the short term.’ Not joking.
This is also why we need a patient experience led research and risk comms ‘function’, entirely separate from the MHRA. Presumably one of core reasons you founded Rxisk itself.
At the moment ,it’s sort of the unspeakable after the irredeemable- ly trusting until it’s too late.
The Time Bandits
Monday, September 12, 2016
EXCLUSIVE: Dr Ian Hudson: In Defence of the Suicide Pill
https://fiddaman.blogspot.com/2016/09/exclusive-dr-ian-hudson-in-defence-of.html
On Friday, December 15, 2000, Ian Hudson, who at the time was still employed by GSK, gave a deposition in relation to a case that was to be tried in Wyoming a year or so after this deposition was taken, the result of which found that Paxil was, in fact, a proximate cause of the deaths in this case.
The case in question was brought against GSK by the relatives of a man, Donald Schell, who killed himself and three others after taking the drug Paxil,
Here is Ian Hudson’s video testimony. It’s a bit scratchy in places and the audio drops but it is the first time this has been seen in public.
Ian Hudson is the current Chief Executive of the MHRA, the British drug regulator who regulate the drugs you and I take.
Antidep Effects@antidepeffect59m
Replying to@Fiddaman about what has happened to Ian Hudson
Self-employed Feb 2024 – Present · 10 mos Consultant – Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Sep 2019 – Feb 2024 · 4 yrs 6 mos Senior Adviser
https://x.com/antidepeffects/status/1860712689581859112
Hudson testified in this case – Paxil Maker Held Liable in Murder / Suicide
https://www.wisnerbaum.com/blog/2001/july/paxil-maker-held-liable-in-murder-suicide/
Healy has written and lectured widely on his view that all SSRIs – Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft – should carry warning labels. He says the drugs, viewed as relatively harmless when they came on the market in the 1980s, could trigger suicidal and violent behavior in some patients. On the stand in Wyoming, Healy testified that his own studies show that SSRIs could cause one in four healthy volunteers to become agitated, in some cases suicidal. And he said internal SmithKline documents from studies conducted at the company’s request by Beecham labs supported his findings.
Not even a $3 Billion fines has shaken or stirred the SSRI market…
It is well worth clicking on the link above for this Tweet about Ian Hudson. It encapsulates a big element of the problem and why it is close to impossible to get any recognition for any side effect of any mental health drug
David
Le Docteur n’est pas disponible!
UK Parliament discusses the issue of Seroxat with MHRA
Thursday 20 January 2005
PROFESSOR SIR ALASDAIR BRECKENRIDGE CBE, PROFESSOR KENT WOODS
and DR JUNE RAINE
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200405/cmselect/cmhealth/uc42-v/uc4202.htm
Dr Taylor: So we really have not got anybody here who can answer that specific question?
Extract:
Q783 John Austin: I also note that we do not have Dr Ian Hudson with us this morning, although he was listed as one of the witnesses. Is there a reason why not?
Professor Sir Alasdair Breckenridge: Yes, Dr Hudson is one of our delegates at the CHMP, the Committee on Human Medical Products at the EMEA and he is there today. He is fulfilling a different role for the Agency down there.
Q784 John Austin: Would he have been able to answer the questions and would he have been aware?
Professor Sir Alasdair Breckenridge: I cannot answer that on his behalf.
Q785 John Austin: What was his role at that time?
Professor Sir Alasdair Breckenridge: I cannot answer that question. I do not know that.
Q786 Chairman: He is a colleague in the Agency —-
Professor Sir Alasdair Breckenridge: He is the head of licensing in the Agency.
Q787 Chairman: Obviously he played a very key role in this respect and you have no knowledge of what that role was? You have not discussed it with him at all?
Professor Sir Alasdair Breckenridge: No, I have not discussed it with him. He was appointed to the Agency in 2000 because he was the best candidate for the job to head up the Licensing Division.
Q788 Chairman: And in advance of today’s session, where no doubt you would have anticipated that this issue would have been raised, you have not discussed the possible involvement he may or may not have had?
Professor Sir Alasdair Breckenridge: I have not discussed that with Dr Hudson at all. I do not know whether any of my colleagues have, but I have not.
Q789 Dr Taylor: Would you be expected to be aware of everything that goes on in, for example, the expert working groups because we are told quite clearly that the expert working group on SSRIs was given evidence more than 18 months ago that withdrawal did cause suicidal hostility. Is it beyond the possibility of a job as large as yours to keep tabs on absolutely everything that goes on?
Professor Sir Alasdair Breckenridge: Well, it is, but I have an interest in the field, having served on the Committee on the Safety of Medicines, and I am aware of the recommendations as they went through, but I was not a member of the working group and it was not my role to be at them.
Dr Taylor: So we really have not got anybody here who can answer that specific question?
Q790 John Austin: I think it would have been useful if Dr Hudson had been here because, as far as I understand, he was at SmithKline Beecham and his department was responsible for the collection of adverse reaction information such as there was with Seroxat.
Professor Sir Alasdair Breckenridge: Yes, I know that, but I —-
Q791 John Austin: So he would have been a very key witness.
Professor Sir Alasdair Breckenridge: But I have not discussed that with Dr Hudson.
Q792 John Austin: So you must admit that it is very unfortunate he is not with us today?
Professor Sir Alasdair Breckenridge: Well, I apologise for that, but I think there was some confusion about who was going to attend and I think the Clerk was told that this was where Dr Hudson was going to be.
Q793 Chairman: It is a little bit strange then with an issue as sensitive as this that there appears to have been no discussion within the Agency. Does Professor Woods want to come in at this point?
Professor Woods: Yes, I would like to answer that because I do have some information which might be helpful to you. As Chief Executive, I have discussed with Dr Hudson his previous role within GSK in relation to the specific question of Seroxat and he assures me that he has had no direct personal involvement in those safety issues. However, because of his role within the company, we agreed, and have since scrupulously observed, that he should have no role within the Agency in any decision-making concerned with Seroxat.
Lady Gabriella Kingston warns about ‘side effects’ of antidepressants after husband took his own life
Thomas Kingston, who married the daughter of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent in 2019, was found dead with a gun close to his body in February.
Tuesday 3 December 2024 23:01, UK
https://news.sky.com/story/lady-gabriella-kingston-warns-about-side-effects-of-antidepressants-after-husband-took-his-own-life-13266217
Lady Gabriella Kingston has warned about the “side effects” of antidepressants as a coroner ruled her husband took his own life.
Thomas Kingston, who married the daughter of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent at Windsor Castle in 2019, died from a “severe traumatic wound to the head” at his parents’ home in the Cotswolds on 25 February this year.
A gun was found next to his body.
Lady Gabriella cried while she sat in Gloucestershire Coroner’s Court as a statement was read out on her behalf.
She said her husband had “seemed normal” in his final weeks and that she believed he had an “adverse reaction” to pills he had been taking.
Mr Kingston, a 45-year-old financier, had initially been given sertraline, a drug used to treat depression, and the sleeping tablet zopiclone by a GP at the Royal Mews Surgery, the inquest into his death heard on Tuesday.
The GP practice is based at Buckingham Palace and is used by royal household staff.
Mr Kingston had visited the practice after complaining of trouble sleeping due to stress at work, the inquest at Gloucestershire Coroner’s Court heard.
He later returned to the surgery and said the drugs were not making him feel better before the doctor moved him from sertraline to citalopram – a similar drug,
In the days leading up to his death, Mr Kingston had stopped taking medication, and toxicology tests showed caffeine and small amounts of zopiclone in his system.
In a statement read out by Katy Skerrett, senior coroner for Gloucestershire, Lady Gabriella, 43, said: “[Work] was certainly a challenge for him over the years but I highly doubt it would have led him to take his own life, and it seemed much improved.
“If anything had been troubling him, I’m positive that he would have shared that he was struggling severely.
“The fact that he took his life at the home of his beloved parents suggests the decision was the result of a sudden impulse.”
‘Adverse reaction to the pills’
She continued: “The lack of any evidence of inclination, it seems highly likely to me that he had an adverse reaction to the pills that led him to take his life.
“I believe anyone taking pills such as these need to be made more aware of the side effects to prevent any future deaths.
“If this could happen to Tom, this could happen to anyone.”
Lady Gabriella said her husband had “seemed normal” in his final weeks, apart from early in the day after previously taking zopiclone, which she said made him seem “almost hungover”.
In her statement, she described their marriage as “deeply loving and trusting” and said he had never expressed any suicidal thoughts to her or others.
Dad broke down in tears
Recording a narrative conclusion, Ms Skerrett said: “Mr Kingston took his own life using a shotgun which caused a severe traumatic wound to the head.
“The evidence of his wife, family and business partner all supports his lack of suicidal intent.
“He was suffering adverse effects of medication he had recently been prescribed.”
She said she intended to draft a prevention of future deaths report, which would be sent to medical bodies.
Mr Kingston’s father, William Martin Kingston, broke down in tears as he described finding his son in the locked bathroom of a detached annexe, having used a crowbar to break down the door.
He told the coroner that leading up to his son’s death there did not appear to have been any searches for suicide, and no will or note was left, describing the method as “very ragged” which was simply “out of character”.
Dr David Healy, a psychiatric medical expert who gave evidence to the hearing, said zopiclone could also cause anxiety, while sertraline and citalopram were both selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), and essentially the same.
‘Guidelines and labels not clear enough’
Dr Healy said Mr Kingston’s complaints that sertraline was continuing to make him anxious was a sign SSRIs “did not suit him”, and he should not have been prescribed the same thing again.
He said the guidelines and labels for SSRIs were not clear enough about going on the drugs in the first place, or what the effect could be when moving from one to another.
“We need a much more explicit statement saying that these drugs can cause people to commit suicide who wouldn’t have otherwise,” he said.
Addressing the coroner, Martin Porter, counsel for the family, said: “The family don’t blame [his GP], she was acting as good doctors do.
“But the question is whether there is sufficient advice to doctors on SSRIs.”
Following Mr Kingston’s death, the King and Queen sent their “heartfelt thoughts and prayers” to both families.
Prince Michael was a first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II.
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK
My son died by suicide at 22 – I wish I’d known the dangers of antidepressants
After a GP prescribed citalopram over the phone, I campaigned to change the guidelines and stop more lives being lost
Ann Feloy
09 December 2024 8:05am GMT
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/wellbeing/mental-health/son-suicide-antidepressants/
My son, Oliver, lived life to the full. He was bright, talented and popular. He was an amazing jazz singer, he loved travelling and had friends all over the world.
Oliver had no history of depression, but had suddenly started to feel low and increasingly anxious.
A GP prescribed the antidepressant citalopram over the phone without seeing him. Four days later, on February 14 2017, two days before his 23rd birthday, he took his own life – leaving our family and all his friends absolutely devastated.
As a mother, I now know there are questions I should have asked, signs I could have seen and a conversation I could have had. That is why I am sharing my story.
I have no doubt that my son had an adverse reaction to citalopram. He had had no previous mental health issues and took the medication just four days before ending his life so tragically, when he had his whole life ahead of him.
There is more and more evidence about the adverse risks of taking antidepressants, including suicide. I was very sad to hear that Thomas Kingston, the son-in-law of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, had taken his own life, and I can see so many parallels with his death and my beloved son’s.
Oliver brought me joy and happiness from the moment he was born. He was so loving and kind, I don’t remember us ever falling out. He was great fun and had so much charisma he would light up the room.
He gained four As at A-level and a first-class honours degree in History at UCL. He loved travelling and had an amazing gap year in Thailand, Australia, New Zealand and South America.
In August 2016, he got a place with the British Council teaching English for a year at a school in Shanghai. I thought, great, I’d just taken a teaching job in Dubai, so we’d be closer. My husband, Chris, was at home in Worthing and our other son, Samuel, then 26, was a business risk analyst in London.
Oliver had been to Shanghai twice and knew it well, but when he arrived he was placed in a school on the outskirts on his own, where he felt very isolated.
When he came home at Christmas, he seemed very low. He had no history of depression. The doctor thought it might be his thyroid, but the tests were fine.
At the end of January 2017, we spent a few days together in Dubai. We went swimming and visited the Burj Khalifa, the tallest tower in the world, but he wasn’t himself and seemed really lost. We had always been close and he was concerned whether he’d done the right thing spending the year in China. He was getting increasingly anxious about going back on his birthday on February 16.
I said, “Oliver, if you don’t want to go back to China, you don’t have to.” I tried coming up with solutions, suggesting he come back and do an MA. But he felt this huge sense of responsibility and didn’t want to let anyone down.
Chris and I were worried. So, when Oliver said a doctor had prescribed an antidepressant over the phone, we trusted it would make him better.
Then, on February 14, 2017, I received a phone call from my husband, Chris, saying Oliver had taken his life.
I didn’t cry. I think your brain sort of shuts down. Certainly, mine did. There was almost an unworldliness about the whole time. A friend came with me on the plane journey and I met my husband at the airport. I have lost relations, but I have never known grief like it. We had this outpouring of love from friends and the local community. People left meals on our doorstep and we just stayed in the house.
My husband went into absolute remorse, distress and grief; for two years he couldn’t leave the house without having panic attacks. Eventually, he took up running and whenever he’d feel low he would go out and run until the feeling disappeared. My reaction was very different. I felt a huge surge of love and deep connection with Oliver and with a sense of God. I discovered a greater purpose and profound insight, which I think came through love.
Oliver was loved by so many. The funeral, on March 4, had around 700 people – it was packed. For two years, I didn’t go into Worthing. I felt too exposed, too vulnerable. I wanted to be anonymous, so I went to London.
The GP surgery didn’t contact me. I said, “Why didn’t you get in touch? Vets send a card when a pet dies.” They said, ‘We didn’t like to intrude on your grief’ which I thought was appalling.
I also had nothing from the British Council. When Oliver died, his friends in China had to pack up his belongings and close his bank account. There was no support from the British Council, which I find shocking. In the end, I asked my local MP to arrange a meeting. I said, “You should have taken better care of my son. Where was the support?” Nothing came from it. I think they wanted to brush it under the carpet.
So, I turned my focus to suicide prevention instead.
When I discovered that suicide is the biggest killer of men under 45, I gave up teaching and started to campaign, leading to a change in the NICE medical guidelines, so doctors should now see first-time patients, who are 25 and under, face to face when they prescribe antidepressants. I believe doctors should warn people, young people in particular, about side effects such as akathisia, which can lead to suicidal thoughts. I co-created Talking About Suicide: 10 Tools, a 90-minute programme that people can access all over the world to stop more lives being lost. Nearly 6,000 people have had the training already.
I’ve also been to Downing Street and developed a suicide awareness programme for medical students. I believe it should be part of the core curriculum in every medical school (it has been delivered in eight out of 47).
After the funeral, one of Oliver’s friends, Rory, raised more than £30,000.
We wanted to create a positive legacy, so we created the charity Olly’s Future, to raise awareness and develop suicide prevention initiatives. Our motto is “love and light” which he brought to this world in abundance. I’ve won a Points of Light award for my work and had letters from Rishi Sunak, the then prime minister, and King Charles.
As a mother, I also felt I needed to have understood how to have spoken to my son and the signs to have looked out for. Oliver said to me, “I feel like I am a burden”. I didn’t realise the significance of that. I now know that was a key thing to follow up on. I should have said, “Are you thinking about suicide?”. But it never crossed my mind. Like any other young person, I thought he was just going through a really difficult time.
What I would say to other parents is be open, be direct and ask clearly. You have got to have an honest conversation and hear the truth, as painful as it might be, to get the right help.
Oliver left his travel journals close to where he died. There was so much detail, it was wonderful to hear his voice. I felt it was his gift to me, to all of us. With the help of friends, I created a book and documentary for what would have been his 30th birthday.
Seven years on, I am still processing the grief and trying to make sense of it.
I’ve learnt love is greater than anything, it is stronger than death, it endures, grows, it is what makes us human. Our other son, Sam, has had two lovely children, Magnus and Mabel, with his partner Diana, and we have become grandparents. I have also learnt to only do and spend time with people who make me happy because I don’t have the resilience that I used to and I can quickly go quite sad.
My faith has deepened and is so important now. The loss has given me my sense of purpose and I’m clear why I’m here. We have a choice of how we respond to things that happen to us and I’ve channelled the love that Oliver gave me into this work. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t be doing this.
I feel truly blessed to have had him as my son.
As told to Ruth Addicott
For further support contact the Samaritans or text SHOUT to 85258 which is a 24/7, text-support service.
By KATINKA BLACKFORD NEWMAN FOR THE DAILY MAIL
Published: 02:33, 10 December 2024 | Updated: 04:57, 10 December 2024
My dad took the same antidepressant pills as Lady Gabriella Windsor’s husband – and he also took his life within days’: Why everyone needs to know about the risks, and the warning signs you’re having a serious adverse reaction
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-14174221/pills-Lady-Gabriella-Windsors-husband-risks-signs-adverse-reaction.html
Six weeks before Thomas Kingston took his life on February 25 this year, he went to his GP complaining of sleep problems.
He was prescribed zopiclone, a sleeping tablet, and a few weeks later, after complaining of work stress, he was also given sertraline, a type of SSRI (a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) – the most commonly prescribed class of antidepressants.
But the sertraline reportedly made the 45-year-old financier more anxious and he stopped taking it, so his GP switched him to citalopram, another SSRI drug.
His wife, Lady Gabriella Windsor, told an inquest last week that her husband had ‘seemed normal’ in the weeks leading up to his death. The weekend that he died he was at his parents’ home in Gloucestershire and was apparently in good spirits – his last message to his wife was ‘all is good here’.
What would make a man who, according to his wife, had ‘seemed normal’, climb the stairs of his family home, lock himself in a bathroom and take his life with a shotgun?
His family were in no doubt that his death was caused by what Lady Gabriella described as ‘an adverse reaction to the pills’.
The coroner came to the same conclusion: ‘The evidence of his wife, family and business partner all supports his lack of suicidal intent. He was suffering adverse effects of medication he had recently been prescribed.’
His widow also said: ‘If this can happen to Tom it can happen to anyone.’
The tragedy of this is that she is right. I hear countless similar stories from the heartbroken relatives of people who have taken their lives after suffering a reaction to antidepressants, mainly SSRIs.
They contact me through antidepressant risks.org, a not for profit website I set up with leading experts to warn people that while these drugs can benefit some, they can be lethally dangerous to others. And the lives of people such as Thomas Kingston are being needlessly lost because people haven’t been warned of the signs of an adverse reaction to the drugs.
Nearly nine million people in the UK are taking antidepressants. Listed as a ‘common’ side-effect of citalopram (one of the drugs Thomas Kingston took), ‘suicide attempt’ occurs in between one to ten per cent of cases, according to drugs.com, an independent medicine information website.
There is similar data for the other SSRIs. While the official view is that it’s mental health that makes those taking the drugs suicidal, some experts believe that the drugs themselves are to blame.
The family of 60-year-old John Collins, who killed himself six years ago, believe his medication was behind his death – and his GP agrees with them.
His son, Liam, is co-founder of The Coaching Masters, a successful global online life-coaching academy. As well as being a successful entrepreneur, the 35-year-old Brit is well known as an actor, appearing with Benedict Cumberbatch in the short film Little Favour and other lead roles.
I first heard about Liam and his father in 2019, quite unexpectedly, when Liam was speaking at a conference on life coaching, with an audience of more than 1,000 entrepreneurs, telling them about the hardest day of his life.
His calm self-assurance wavered with emotion as he described the events of October 29, 2018: ‘That was the day I lost my best friend, my father, in a way I couldn’t explain.’ He went on to describe how he was on the phone to his mother, Denise, a hypnotherapist, when she said there was someone at the door. It was the police, who’d come to tell her that John had killed himself by stepping in front of a train.
His mother was crying so much she couldn’t talk and so she passed the phone to the police to tell Liam. But Liam couldn’t take in what the police officer was telling him.
‘Anyone who had known my dad would understand why,’ he said.
‘My dad loved life more than anyone I’ve ever met. He was grateful for his home, his wife, his business [he was a self-employed plumber], his kids. If anyone ranked people likely to take their life, my dad would be right at the bottom.’
As Liam continued to tell the audience about the events that led up to his father’s suicide, I already knew what he was going to say next.
He said: ‘Ten days before his death, my dad had phoned his doctor because he had trouble sleeping. Over the phone, the doctor prescribed an antidepressant and sleeping tablets. Later I discovered that for some people, antidepressants can cause them to want to kill themselves in just a few days.’
My certainty of how Liam’s story was going to unfold was because I’ve heard this kind of story countless times. I also have first-hand knowledge of how antidepressants can cause people with no history of mental illness to become suicidal, as I have previously written about in Good Health. Like John Collins, it was sleepless nights that caused me to go to my doctor in 2012.
The doctor told me an antidepressant would help and prescribed me escitalopram, an SSRI. I had such a severe adverse reaction to the drug that after just a few doses I went into a four-day toxic delirium, in which I hallucinated that I had killed my children and had an uncontrollable urge to take my own life.
I was admitted to a private hospital and forced to take more drugs. For an entire year I experienced the chemically induced despair and suicidal thoughts these drugs can cause in the estimated one to ten per cent who can’t tolerate them.
My nightmare ended when I was admitted to another hospital and was taken off all seven drugs I had been prescribed. Within three weeks, I had completely recovered.
I know how lucky I am to survive my adverse reaction: many don’t.
One sign of an adverse reaction is a drug-induced toxic effect called serotonin syndrome, which is characterised by ‘temperature dysregulation’ (where your body goes from feeling very hot to feeling cold and shivery) and a clouding of consciousness (where you experience delirium and confusion).
The expert report from Thomas Kingston’s inquest said that serotonin syndrome was the most likely factor leading to him taking his life.
Another sign is akathisia, which means ‘an inability to sit still’. It can occur when people go on drugs such as antidepressants, or if they change the dose or come off it altogether.
As well as a compulsion to move, sufferers experience a sense of sheer terror. The condition is so excruciating that it’s been known to drive sufferers to end their lives within hours of taking a pill.
During my year on antidepressants and antipsychotics, I had akathisia. The fact that I was detained in hospital probably saved my life, because there were times when it was so intolerable I would have taken my life to end the agony.
It’s thought to be caused by an irritation of the nervous system, affecting dopamine, the neurotransmitter (chemical messenger in the brain) involved in controlling movement.
‘Antidepressants mostly affect neurotransmitters such as serotonin, but this can in turn affect dopamine,’ says Dr Mark Horowitz, a clinical research fellow in psychiatry at North East London NHS Trust.
Dr Horowitz has personal experience of akathisia after he came off an antidepressant. ‘It was so bad I ran until my feet bled to get some relief from it,’ he says.
It is clear that Liam’s father suffered from this excruciating condition – although like so many people, his family were unaware of the dangers.
I met Liam recently in his immaculate penthouse flat in south London, where he lives with his wife Claudia, 31, a relationship coach, and their children, Posey, four, and Axton, six months.
With its large roof terrace overlooking the city, it reflects his success. Liam grew up in a working-class family in south-east London, and as he speaks about his father, he says life growing up ‘was tough – there were five of us in a small terrace council house and we were poor.
‘
My parents did an amazing job at hiding that fact and did everything they could to provide. It was a warm place but with many struggles.’ John ‘was a glass half full person’ Liam says. ‘He dealt with everything with immense humour. He was always cracking jokes and was just hilarious.’
Liam is adamant his father never experienced depression. ‘He was one of the most mentally resilient people I know; he was never anxious,’ he says.
In October 2018, two weeks before John took his life, Liam recalls the moment that began the downward spiral that ended with his suicide.
He says: ‘I was at Mum and Dad’s house for dinner when the phone rang. My dad took it and I could hear his twin brother, Jim, saying: ‘Are you sitting down?’ ‘
Jim had been told he had only a few months to live.
‘Jim had a cancerous lump on his throat for years, so although the news was shocking, it wasn’t unexpected,’ says Liam.
‘Of course, my dad was upset, but his first reaction was he wanted Jim to have as good a time as possible before he died.
He wanted to take him to Egypt to see the pyramids because that was his lifelong dream. He was focused and energetic, booking flights and making plans.
‘He came to stay with us in London so we could take Jim out to dinner and we had a great time.’
The next day, without his family knowing, John asked his doctor for sleeping tablets and was given the antidepressant citalopram, as well as zopiclone. The same drugs taken by Thomas Kingston.
A few days later, Liam, Claudia and Jim went to stay at his parents’ house in Essex for the weekend.
Liam recalls: ‘As soon as we arrived I noticed Dad was totally different. We were all sitting in the living room but he wouldn’t join us, he wouldn’t sit down. He was fidgety and pacing up and down; he couldn’t hold a conversation.’
Liam is describing akathisia. He continues: ‘Usually he’d be cracking jokes and laughing his head off. But it seemed painful for him to sit still and he kept on getting up to walk around. That was the last time I saw Dad.’
A week later John took his life.
‘The CCTV footage [from the train station] shows him walking up and down the platform looking confused, as if in a psychotic haze,’ says Liam.
As the family tried to piece together anything that could give them clues as to why John took his life, Denise rang the GP.
She discovered her husband had been given citalopram ten days before his suicide. ‘He’d told the doctor that he was having trouble sleeping because his brother was ill,’ says Liam. ‘He didn’t go there for an antidepressant.
‘My dad was a typical working-class man and would have thought, ‘If the doctor has told me to take an antidepressant then I need to do what he says’.
‘Mum did a bit of research and discovered that these pills can make you suicidal. We Googled ‘side-effects of antidepressants’ and we found akathisia.’
Liam and his mother went to see the GP, who was ‘apologetic’ and admitted it was a rare side-effect of the drugs. ‘He said that prescribing my dad an antidepressant was the worst decision of his life,’ recalls Liam.
‘The tragedy is that my dad wasn’t depressed, he just couldn’t sleep. He had just bought an espresso machine and was drinking five of them before bed – that’s why he couldn’t sleep.
‘As a life coach, I ask clients questions about their lifestyle. If the doctor had done the same, that simple question could have saved Dad’s life.’ While he believes his father should never have been prescribed an antidepressant in the first place, lives could be saved if patients taking them are properly informed, say experts.
Dr Horowitz says: ‘GPs need to warn patients more explicitly about the risks of akathisia and suicidality on starting, stopping or changing the dose of an antidepressant and also switching from one medication to another.’
He adds: ‘Part of the reason GPs are not able to give enough information is because current warnings given by the drug regulator, the MHRA, on suicidality and antidepressants are wholly inadequate. They give the impression it is the patient’s condition that causes suicide on starting a drug, not a reaction to the drug itself.’
Liam channeled his grief into expanding his coaching business. Four months after his father died, he met fellow coach and entrepreneur Lewis Raymond Taylor, and they formed the Coaching Masters, an online business, that has since trained over 10,000 coaches from 85 countries.
‘Something positive had to come out of that experience,’ says Liam. ‘My dad passed away before I had children. I know I’m a great dad because I learned from the best. But his loss could so easily have been prevented.’
Dr Alison Cave, Chief Safety Officer at the MHRA told Good Health: ‘As with all medicines, SSRIs have the potential to cause side-effects which are described in the product information leaflets supplied with the medicine.
‘Following concerns raised by patients and families about how the risk of suicidal behaviours is communicated in the patient leaflets, we have established a new independent expert group to advise The Commission on Human Medicines, which provides expert advice to government ministers.
‘We always remind patients not to stop taking any medication without talking to their healthcare professional first.’
For information and support on akathisia, visit missd.co and akathisiaalliance.org
This disastrous advice from MHRA and Alison Cave can only increase the number of suicides.
Akathisia has very little to do with dopamine.
DH
8. QUESTION 8 – GSK
https://www.gsk.com/media/1607/question_08_2004.pdf
8.1.2. Akathisia
It has been proposed that SSRIs, such as paroxetine, may induce agitation or akathisia like events soon after therapy is started and that the distress this causes in an already vulnerable group leads to suicidal behaviour [Healy, 1994]. However this suggestion is not supported by the findings from the adult clinical studies with paroxetine or the postmarketing adverse event data.
Hence, establishing whether paroxetine (or a concurrent medication or underlying psychiatric disorder) is the most likely cause of the onset of akathisia-like symptoms in any individual patient may not be straightforward. However, given that an association between the onset of akathisia or agitation and the development of suicidal behaviour is not supported by the data on paroxetine, there is not an absolute need for therapy to be immediately withdrawn. Rather, the physician will need to consider the range of management options available in the context of the severity of the akathisia symptoms and the potential benefit the patient may derive from continued therapy.
No additional guidance regarding the management of patients presenting with akathisia-like symptoms is considered appropriate, as the prescribing physician should consider each individual patient on a case-by-case basis.
Annie
You are wonderful. This is a fabulous find. For those of you wondering what is going on – the GSK link above dates back to 2004 – 20 years later MHRA, FDA and all SSRI companies are saying the same thing. If the patient gets agitated or worse, there is no evidence our drug is really causing it and stopping treatment would be a mistake – as it would deprive the patient of the benefit they would get by sticking in there a bit longer.
And note they are referring to an Its-as-plain-as-the-nose-on-my-face Healy article from 1994 – 30 years ago that if a person gets akathisic or worse on treatment that you are setting the patient up to commit suicide if you don’t stop the treatment right away.
This is exactly what happened Thomas Kingston whose doctor Dr Morgan unfortunately had been influence if not persuaded by this GSK (and other SSRI) company lines
David
As the world watches, the news encircling the death of a Healthcare Insurance Executive, United Health, The Times of India, publishes a statement and video by United Health. CEO, Sir Andrew Witty.
I’d like to give you little bit of advice around the media… ..
TOI World Desk / TIMESOFINDIA.COM / Updated: Dec 7, 20 ..
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/unitedhealth-group-ceo-reacts-to-celebration-after-brian-thompson-killing-highly-disrespectful/articleshow/116077562.cms
During the media fall-out about Paroxetine/Seroxat, there was a black-out from GSK, by top executives at GlaxoSmithKline.
“I’d like to give you little bit of advice around the media… ..
Instead of words “may” “might” “some”
Why not use Pharma language that is presented in PLIs –
Mild symptoms and signs
Moderate symptoms and signs
Severe symptoms and signs
And give them probabilities as outcomes
Instead of words such as likely, unlikely, rare, common, or numbers such 1 in 100, 1 in 1000, 1 in …..
And remove age groups altogether
Add – ALL AGES
Since studies are not done for all possible case scenarios and all possible human variations
And check ALL AGES for baseline health – bloods, vitamins, minerals, hormones, immune, allergy, kidneys and liver function
One venipuncture invasive procedure and one pot of urine is not an excessive cost to establish a foundation for proper care
– prior to starting ssri, snri, anti-psychotics, sedaties, stimulants, anxiolytics, or any other psychiatric related drugs to be used especially if off-label/experimental such as anti-epileptics, anti-migrain, et cetera
Ensure kidneys and liver are in good working order – ALL AGES
Mandate that a PIL is printed out and physically given by the prescriber to their “patient”
Always check for other substances being used – OTC, behind the counter, herbal, naturopathic,
Create a mandatory checklist that all of the above have been attended to
A basic consultation has a time allocation of 15 minutes but if necessary an extended consultation time should be taken by the prescriber
Suggested ideas only
– but would make a big difference for people in distress, knowing that the essential basics will be performed no matter what
Where there is no witness (carer, parent, friend …. ) there ought to be encrypted recordings, transcripts made that can be used as evidence for best medical practice and can be used as comparison to prescribers’ notes should there be the legal need or other investigative need
All sessions should be recorded in one to one consultations with prescribers – GPs, Psychiatrists, Practitioners, Assistants …..
Privacy and confidentiality should be maintained AND NO assumptions should be made about “loved ones” being pure of heart and selfless and helpful
But when he referred to public criticism as “mere noise” and “not in tune with reality,” it stood out. Those comments were brief, lasting only a few seconds in the three-minute video, but they left a mark – a significant reputational misstep.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollymcpherson/2024/12/08/why-overlooking-public-criticism-could-be-unitedhealths-big-mistake/
came across as cold and overly corporate.
‘We understand that you were actively “bleeding out,” but this does not exempt you from exploring lower-cost care pathways,’ the post said.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14172007/UnitedHealth-group-CEO-Andrew-Witty-defend-denials-coverage.html
Of course, it could have been Witty.
Vee, the PIL leaflets underscore teams of lawyers, trying to exempt Pharma from legal action, and your comment is a very good start to dismantling the Health jeopardy involved from those ignoring it and those who think it unimportant.
More input, from those like Vee, could set us on a new course, of dismantling, all that has gone before.
Addressing ‘cold corporate’, is the right place to begin.
Paroxentine/Seroxat, has been the most publicly exorcised antidepressant in history, and this came from ‘cold corporate’ and doing what ‘United Health’, are now doing.
This is almost about medical assistance in dying.
Trials of Moderna’s mRNA vaccine MResvia in toddlers were suspended in July.
We now know why:
There was more serious respiratory disease in the vaccinated group.
This harks back to the 1960’s Pfizer trials of their infamous Lot 100 0f formalin-inactivated RSV virus vaccine in which 2 young boys died of enhanced lung disease.
In what should be an interesting show, tomorrow (Thursday 12 Dec) there will be a meeting of the FDA Vaccine advisory group to discuss this at 13.30 GMT. (Live, a recording should be available later.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0bNPpqAy-M&authuser=0
There will be some interesting interactions no doubt between canny Chairperson Hana El Sahly, who is more than a match for the FDA’s Peter Marks.
Also, through the revolving door, Matthew Snape will be performing.
[Professor of Paediatrics and Vaccinology at the Oxford Vaccine Group (OVG) before moving to Moderna in August 2022, has been appointed Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to Public Health, particularly during COVID-19 while working at the OVG.]
and see https://rxisk.org/it-is-hard-for-thee-to-kick-against-the-pricks/
Great work, Peter – Selley emphasised the need for rigorous oversight in light of past failures.
This has raised alarms among doctors who’ve been following the development of RSV vaccines closely.
Peter Selley, a retired GP said, “The worry is that this, and other RSV vaccines given to pregnant women, might produce the same antibodies in the babies that cause this enhanced disease.”
Maryanne Demasi, reports
Moderna’s mRNA vaccine against RSV takes a tumble
The latest trial data demonstrates the dangerous speed of innovation.
https://blog.maryannedemasi.com/p/modernas-mrna-vaccine-against-rsv?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1044435&post_id=152985589&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1q23na&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
The FDA has responded to the latest data by convening a meeting of its Advisory Committee (VRBPAC), scheduled for December 12, 2024, to examine the implications of RSV vaccines in vulnerable groups, including infants and pregnant women.
For parents, the idea that a vaccine could worsen the disease it is meant to prevent, is profoundly unsettling. For scientists, it calls into question the long-term reliability of mRNA as a platform for combating diverse diseases.
The stakes are high—not only for the future of RSV vaccines but for the reputation of mRNA technology as a whole.
The FDA meeting can be watched here: