The David Healy connection

Posted by Squiggles on July 30, 2002, at 11:45:31

I don't know how to instruct you yet
on links, but i found one in the ng's
which are public propriety on the NET and
therefore I site here, in case you wish to
contact these "activists":
Subject:
The BBC has released a special featuring David Healy and Andy Vickery along
Date:
Tue, 30 Jul 2002 07:49:31 -0700
From:
Paul@montgummery.idiot
Organization:
Altopia Corp. - Usenet Access - http://www.altopia.com
Newsgroups:
alt.support.depression.manic, alt.support.schizoaffective,
alt.support.depression.medication, sci.med.pharmacy

The BBC has released a special featuring David Healy and Andy Vickery along
with the Matt Miller's case, the Forsyth case, the Reginold Payne case in the
UK, the Joseph Wesbecker case and the David Hawkins case in Austrailia.
You can watch this special online by going to the following address:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/weekinweekout/prozac.shtml
I continue to stand behind my statement that the hypothesis behind this group
of drugs is backwards and because of that they are not of benefit to any
patient. But even though I disagree with the statements made on this show
that these drugs are good for some, it is an absolutely excellent piece that
I encourage all of you to watch and share with others. Dr. Healy is doing a
wonderful job of getting this information into mainstream medicine and should
be commended for it.
For those of you in the Salt Lake City area I will be doing a show with Mark
Taylor, the first boy shot at Columbine, Monday morning, July 29 at 8:00AM on
KTKK radio with Dr. Jack Stockwell.
Dr. Ann Blake Tracy, Executive Director,
International Coalition for Drug Awareness
www.drugawareness.org and author of Prozac: Panacea
or Pandora? - Our Serotonin Nightmare (800-280-0730)
Week In Week Out
Mind Games
An eminent psychiatrist from Wales has risked his reputation to take on major
drug companies over his belief that a group of anti-depressants can provoke
suicidal tendencies in a minority of patients.
On their introduction, Selective Serotonin Re-Uptake Inhibitors, or SSRIs,
were heralded as a so-called 'magic bullet' solution to depression.
Prescriptions of SSRIs such as Prozac and Seroxat have increased considerably
in the UK since the mid-1990s, to around 18,000 prescriptions last year.
BBC Wales' award-winning current affairs programme Week In Week Out
highlights concern that, although these drugs have proved beneficial for many
patients, a small sub-group of patients may be susceptible to severe
withdrawal symptoms after they stop taking one type of drug, and intense
agitation leading to suicidal ideation when taking others.
Pharmaceutical companies strenuously deny the claims and insist that the
drugs are a safe, effective treatment.
However Doctor David Healy, of the University of Wales College of Medicine,
claims his own clinical research into one of the SSRI group of drugs, Lustral
- or Zoloft as it is known in the US - shows that it can cause suicidal
thoughts in some patients.
Dr Healy, who is director of the North Wales department of psychological
medicine at Bangor, was offered a top research job in the Canadian city of
Toronto, which was withdrawn after he delivered a lecture in which he claimed
that SSRIs could cause a minority of patients to feel suicidal. After a
lengthy dispute, he has now reached an out-of-court settlement with his
prospective Canadian employers.
Dr Healy conducted his own clinical research study on Lustral two years ago,
using a group of colleagues who were not suffering depression. Two of the
volunteers became severely agitated and disturbed, and one even developed
suicidal thoughts.
This volunteer, Isobel Logan, tells the programme, "I really thought, 'I just
want to hang myself.' I felt so low, so depressed."
Dr Healy, who has given expert testimony in a number of high-profile medical
negligence cases associated with SSRIs in the US, says, "The extraordinary
finding was that when you give these drugs to people who aren't suited to
them, you can make healthy volunteers agitated and suicidal on these drugs,
within a week or two of them being on the drug."
However, Dr Healy?s research has been criticised in some quarters.
Meanwhile, a Cardiff firm of solicitors is considering launching a possible
class action against the makers of Seroxat, GlaxoSmithKline. Medical
negligence lawyer Mark Harvey, of Hugh James Solicitors, has been contacted
by around 150 people from across the UK who claim to have experienced
problems with Seroxat, including severe withdrawal symptoms when they tried
to stop taking the drug.
Mother-of-two Paula Boddington tells the programme that she suffered
electric-shock type sensations in her head and an irrational compulsion to
harm herself when she tried to come off the drug.
Mark Harvey tells the programme, "People have often gone into their doctors,
either feeling stressed or having mild panic attacks, and the doctor says,
this tablet will give you a nice pick-you-up, and they feel good ... then
they find that, when they go to come off the drug, the doctor understandably
thinks that (the withdrawal symptoms) are the original condition, so they
re-prescribe, and then they get into this vicious circle where they are
taking the tablets more and more, feeling worse and worse."
But GlaxoSmithKline, manufacturers of Seroxat, deny that the drug is
addictive.

--
DSM IV is the fabrication upon which
psychiatry seeks acceptance by medicine
in general. Insiders know it is more
a political than scientific document.
To its credit it says so
--Loren R. Mosher, M.D.

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