Posted by Squiggles on May 13, 2006, at 19:09:46
In reply to Re: Statistical question on SSRIs - ADDENDUM » Larry Hoover, posted by Squiggles on May 13, 2006, at 9:59:43
Preliminary remarks:
I am still reading this 400-plus page
FDA document. I confess, it is as
riveting as "Inherit the Wind".My computer is covered with notes, which
I hope to allude to in a discussion later.Here is my initial response, in case you
are reading this thread:1. I am surprised by the lack of curiousity
in medicine for individual cases regarding
why some people took Prozac and then killed themselves. Some of the big guns seem to be satisfied with statistical data as an explanation. And I suppose if the question is why 4 million others did not commit suicide, statistics is relevant the validity of the suicidality propabability. Or that depression in itself carries with it that risk - but that is obvious. People would not take antidepressants if they were not depressed in the first place, and they must have been alive when taking them.The question that I have not seen (with the exception of the Bulimia case), in these really tragic, gruesome, horrible cases presented here by an admittedly mostly biased group -- the question i have not seen raised is DID ANY OF THESE PEOPLE STOP, INTERRUPT, OR SKIP a PROZAC pill? I bring this up because my personal experience has been that akathisia (which really looks more like MANIA in these cases) is almost inevitable with ANY AD or benzodiazepine when stopping the drug or reducing the dose too fast. That I think would provide an explanation - a medical explanation based on how the body reacts given that all these bodies were more or less the same -- a contention that was not studied but by Dr. Nemeroff presumed not to be the case (i.e. with his introduction of extraneous factors such as "multiple personality disorder", "frontal lobe epilepsy", etc. Alternatively, some other explanation (e.g. Dr. Sheldon Preskorn talking about the lack of some
enzyme in some people rather than others) might explain the metabolism of a drug. Someting specific like that, i think would be more satisfactory that a smorgasbord offer of various conditions that may or may not affect how people respond to a certain drug. After all, the point here is that Prozac more likely than other drugs (I believe Dennis Clarke said that the FDA documented 500 cases of suicide, which 10-20 times that of the FDA's history).2. Rosedale (around p. 90) seems to insinuate that Scientologists somehow had something to do with the Prozac-induced reactions. But no evidence is offered for this presumption. I find this disturbing and curious.
That's all for now.
Squiggles
poster:Squiggles
thread:640557
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060510/msgs/643628.html