The Institutionalized Quackery of Antidepressants
Last year was a bad year for the pharmaceutical industry and mainstream medicine. The bestselling SSRI antidepressants were revealed to be no better than sugar pills. Not only are they useless to most people but the pharmaceutical companies have also been caught manipulating and hiding studies to create the impression that they are effective and safe although the direct opposite is true.
Hiding studies? Sounds like a conspiracy theory.
Unfortunately it is very real. The New England Journal of Medicine published a paper that investigated studies on SSRI antidepressants. It exposed how 22 negative study results were either buried or manipulated to look good, while all 37 positive trials were proudly published in full by pharmaceutical companies. 1
Burying negative studies is exactly the kind of practice that usually ends up causing a couple of hundred thousands deaths. Vioxx is a recent example among many.
If studies are buried, how are doctors going to be able to correctly judge the benefit of the drugs they are asked to prescribe? Compounding the problem is a sad state of affairs; pharmaceutical sales reps and their marketing material are normally not geared towards objectively informing physicians of risks and benefits. A study of the advertising material and marketing brochures sent out by drug companies to GPs in Germany has shown that about 94% of the information in them have no scientific basis. 2
It doesn’t look good when large corporations knowingly kill people for profit, but maybe we are starting to get used to it in the case of pharmaceutical companies? Or is there another reason why they are allowed to continue doing it?
… AND AN UPPERCUT…
Another heavy blow was dealt by a review pronouncing that Prozac and a number of other similar modern antidepressants simply do not work. The review combined the results of 47 trials and found only very minimal benefits over placebo, except for the most depressed patients. 3
SSRI antidepressants are a tremendous commercial success — but they don’t work any better than sugar pills! How is that possible?
Part of the success of SSRI antidepressants can be attributed to the successful advertising campaign that created the image of the “Happy Pill” — an image that bolstered the use of Prozac and similar drugs as recreational mind-altering drugs rather than medicine. Pharmaceutical companies also used the normal “disease-mongering” tactic in promoting antidepressants, expanding the depression diagnosis to include all kinds of normal reactions to problems in everyday life.
In the ads, they elevated unproven theories about depression to scientific fact, but now we know they hoodwinked millions of people all over the world into taking a dangerous and ineffective medication. They were so successful that we now face the problem of having SSRI medication in drinking water at levels that create problems for aquatic life. And the frogs are not smiling.
The incongruence between the scientific literature and the claims made in FDA-regulated SSRI advertisements is remarkable, and possibly unparalleled.
– Serotonin and Depression: A Disconnect Between the Advertisements and the Scientific Literature, Jeffrey R. Lacasse, Jonathan Leo.
Let’s get back to the review I just mentioned. They found that modern antidepressants do not work for most patients. This is damaging for the manufacturers, but there was another thing the study exposed that might hit them even harder in the end — even more buried data.
Well, that’s it! Pop goes the weasel. No more dilly dallying. Rules and regulations now must be put into place to ensure pharmaceutical companies do not again swindle us into believing problematic or marginally effective drugs are wonder drugs — and since many popular pharmaceuticals are only marginally effective, pharmaceutical companies might be in for some well-deserved rough times..
STILL STANDING
Maybe. Or maybe not. The Vioxx scandal was thought to be the last straw that was going to break the back of the Pharma Industry influence at the FDA. A landmark drug safety bill was drafted to protect the public.
Finally! That was about time. It is estimated that Vioxx caused over a 100.000 deaths in the U.S. alone. This tragedy must galvanize anyone into doing the right thing.
So, what happened to the bill? It was watered down by senators that received millions in campaign contributions from the pharmaceutical industry. The bill that finally passed did not sufficiently address the underlying problems.
Is it really true? Are the senators corporately controlled jumping jacks? You can be the judge. The pharmaceutical companies spent $855 million on lobbying from 1998 to 2006, according to the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity. Senators that very consistently have shown themselves to protect pharmaceutical industry interests also happen get very large contributions from this industry. (Richard Burr $520,694, John Kerry $304,888, Joe Lieberman $281,040, Arlen Specter $259,699, Orrin Hatch $241,850, Chuck Grassley $216,599, Max Baucus $199,000, Chris Dodd $192,025, Tom Carper $183,794, Mike Enzi $174,338, all since 2001) 4
So maybe the popular practice of burying data still is not going to stop, and the institutionalized quackery of antidepressants is going to be allowed to continue.
QUACKERY
Quackery? Yes. Quackery. I don’t know what else to call it.
Doctors are prescribing drugs for depression that are no more effective than sugar pills, claiming the drugs are correcting chemical imbalances in the brain, in particular levels of serotonin, when in fact there is no real supporting evidence at all for the “chemical imbalance theory of depression”. 5
“Nothing has harmed the quality of individual life in modern society more than the misbegotten belief that human suffering is driven by biological and genetic causes and can be rectified by taking drugs or undergoing electroshock therapy. [...] If I wanted to ruin someone’s life, I would convince the person that biological psychiatry is right — that relationships mean nothing, that choice is impossible, and that the mechanics of a broken brain reign over our emotions and conduct. If I wanted to impair an individual’s capacity to create empathetic, loving relationships, I would prescribe psychiatric drugs, all of which blunt our highest psychological and spiritual functions.”
– Peter R. Breggin, M.D., in the Foreward to Reality Therapy in Action by William Glasser, M.D. (Harper Collins, 2000), p. xi.
Also, there are no tests in use that can confirm the need for drugs to influence the serotonin levels of a patient. These drugs are prescribed anyway. The only thing we know about them is that they achieve their impact through the disruption of normal brain function, and we can only hope that this will have beneficial results for the unlucky patient who starts taking them.
If this isn’t quackery, I don’t know what is. If it quacks like a duck, it must be a duck.
THE CHEMICAL IMBALANCE THEORY
The only evidence we have that supports the serotonin hypothesis is the claimed curative effects of SSRIs — if they relieve your depression, the problem must have been your serotonin levels to begin with. That is just as wrong as claiming that the miniscule reduction in cardiac events provided by statins proves that high cholesterol is the cause of heart disease.
“… there is not a single peer-reviewed article that can be accurately cited to directly support claims of serotonin deficiency in any mental disorder, while there are many articles that present counterevidence.”
– Serotonin and Depression: A Disconnect Between the Advertisements and the Scientific Literature, Jeffrey Lacasse, Jonathan Leo, November 8, 2005, PLoS Journal.
The purported effectiveness of SSRI’s has been used to prop up the failing chemical imbalance theory, especially in superficial media reports and in pharmaceutical advertisements. We now know that modern antidepressants are mostly ineffective. The evidence supporting the chemical imbalance theory is now in the same realm as the evidence supporting paranormal events. We might as well return to the belief that evil spirits and demons cause depression. Or we could try to develop more realistic models.
Even if we manage to find proof in the future that an imbalance in brain chemicals do cause depression, the failure of SSRI medication proves that this imbalance is not the root cause of depression.
THE REAL CAUSE OF DEPRESSION
There are many theories and hypotheses regarding the cause of depression
For the last 50 years, the dominating theory has been the monoamine hypothesis. This hypothesis proposes that depression is caused by an imbalance in monoamines in the brain, particularly noradrenalin, and serotonin. However, the hypothesis could not explain why up to two or three weeks of continued medication was needed to alleviate depressive symptoms, even though monoamine changes often occur within one or two days. It also failed to explain the efficacy of drugs that enhance serotonin reuptake, an effect opposite to the SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) antidepressants.
Other theories involve the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) Axis, the neurotrophic theory, the neurogenesis and neuroplasticity hypotheses and the recent macrophage theory of depression.
The macrophage theory of depression involves the role of the immune system and inflammatory changes and seems more fruitful than most other theories partly because it ties together many of the aspects of the other theories, but also because it provides a framework that explains a very large part of the features of major depression, including neuronal loss, and some surprising effects of antidepressant medication. It also opens up interesting avenues for new treatments and explains the mechanisms of many different routes to depression, such as the effects of acute infection, the depression that predates the outbreak of Alzheimer’s as well as the role of stressful events and effects of diet.
The theory suggests depression is caused by chronic neuroinflammation.
- Inflammation seems to be at the root of a host of diseases. Why not eliminate it altogether?
Inflammation serves a useful function as long as it is reigned in by the immune system.
Whack your friend over the nose and observe the redness and swelling produced. The immune system is alerted, sends in teams of repair units that mop up dead and injured cells and stimulate healing. When the job is done, the inflammation ceases and all is well. The nose goes back to normal.
This is inflammation as it should work. Chronic inflammation on the other hand never ceases and impairs normal organ function and wreaks damage over time.
NEUROINFLAMMATION
Neuroinflammation is a rapidly expanding field and because it is new, the number of published articles is limited; a search at Pubmed for neuroinflammation results in a little over 400 articles. However, the rapidly expanding knowledge base has already revolutionized our understanding of neurodegenerative diseases.
Neuroinflammation incorporates a wide spectrum of complex cellular responses that include activation of microglia and astrocytes and elaboration of cytokines and chemokines, complement proteins, acute phase proteins, oxidative injury, and related molecular processes. These events may have detrimental effects on neuronal function, leading to neuronal injury with, consequently, further glial activation and ultimately neurodegeneration.
– Robert E Mrak and W Sue T Griffin, Welcome to the Journal of Neuroinflammation!
The new theory of depression involving neuroinflammation opens up the doors to exciting new treatment opportunities, but it presents a problem for the FDA, the CDC and the pharmaceutical companies in that it may illuminate practices and policies that may well have led to increased rates of depression and neurodegenerative disease.
How?
The agencies miserably failed to evaluate the risks and monitor the effects over time of an expanded vaccination program with increasing amounts of adjuvants, mercury preservative and the ever-present vaccine contamination in the form of viruses, mycoplasma and viral components. In particular, they failed to take into account the long-term damage wreaked by smoldering neuroinflammation caused by these vaccine ingredients. The effects of repeated vaccinations can predispose the brain towards a state of chronic inflammation and depression.
Vaccination has saved countless lives, but we should not become complacent and turn a blind eye to potential problems. Risks need to be mapped so that we can avoid them. If it turns out that mercury in thimerosal primes and activates microglia in the brain, causing a state of ongoing neuroinflammation and plays a part in autism, it is better to find out sooner rather than later.
If thirty vaccines in the first year of life can predispose a child for asthma, allergies and neurodegenerative diseases, let us do what we can to minimize those risks. We need to now as much as possible about the risks of vaccination in order to have the best vaccination program possible. We should not allow the CDC, FDA and the IOM to bury data, block certain avenues of research and cover up their failures.
Have they really been doing that? Let us see what they say about that themselves.
ASLEEP AT THE SWITCH
Quotes from internal FDA emails show they realized they had dropped the ball. They had failed to calculate the total amounts of the mercury preservative thimerosal injected in infants to check if there could be a problem with the mercury exposure limit in the expanded vaccination programs. When they did perform these very simple calculations, they knew they were in trouble. They had allowed infants to be injected with a mercury preservative at roughly 80 times the allowed safety level at a time when their brain was still developing. “Asleep at the switch” and “asleep at the switch for decades” were the phrases the FDA used in their emails to describe their own failure:
“Finally, in my own personal opinion — and as a heads-up because I believe it could come up — the greatest point of vulnerability on this issue is that the systematic review of thimerosal in vaccines by the FDA could have been done years ago and on an ongoing basis as the childhood immunization schedule became more complex. The calculations done by FDA are not complex. I’m not sure if there will be an easy way out of the potential perception that the FDA, CDC and immunization policy bodies may have been ‘asleep at the switch’ re: thimerosal until now.”
— Dr. Peter Patriarca, CBER/FDA (email sent to Dr. Lawrence Bachorik, FDA).
An epidemiological study at the CDC found an alarmingly strong connection between thimerosal-containing vaccines and neurodevelopmenal problems, including autism. An emergency conference was held to discuss the problem and somewhere along the line, a decision was made to handle the situation in a “LOW KEY, SYSTEMATIC, DELIBERATE PRIVATE-PUBLIC APPROACH” — in other words, to cover it up.
This FDA email hints about this strategy:
From: Patriarca, Peter
Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 1999, 9:42 AM
To: 'rhb2@cdc.goc; 'jlc1@cdc.gov'
Subject: FW: "Vaccine preservative WG"
PLEASE GIVE TO MARTY MYERS ASAP.
Marty: I have developed a "quick-and-dirty" pros and cons analysis for the AAP policy statement:
The AAP should release its policy statement in more-or-less current form:
PROS
Will demonstrate that the AAP reacted urgently to recently uncovered information, and to disclose this information to practitioners and consumers.
Will demonstrate that the AAP adopt the most conservative position possible when it comes to protecting American children.
Will force manufacturers to develop "crash" programs for removal of all thimoresal from all vaccines.
CONS
Will raise questions about FDA being ‘asleep at the switch’ for decades by allowing a potentially hazardous compound to remain in many childhood vaccines, and not forcing manufacturers to exclude it from new products. It will also raise questions about various advisory bodies regarding aggressive recommendations for use. [We must keep in mind that the dose of ethylmercury was not generated by “rocket science”. Conversion of the percentage thimerosal to actual micrograms of mercury involves ninth grade algebra. What took the FDA so long to do the calculations? Why didn’t CDC and the advisory bodies do these calculations when they rapidly expanded the childhood immunization schedule?]
Will precipitate a vaccine shortage, leaving many children unimmunized. Removal of thimoresal could delay the availability of sufficient supplies of vaccines for at least 2 years, pending proper studies.
Thimerosal has benefits. It is there for a reason. Precipitous removal may generate problems for vaccine stability (affecting efficacy), and component inactivation (affecting safety). Proper studies must be done before it can be removed from products without a thimerosal-free presentation.
Will precipitate a worldwide crisis in confidence in vaccines. This is especially true for whole-cell DTP vaccines, which are still being used throughout much of the world. Thimerosal is used in these vaccines as an inactivating agent for pertussis cells.
ALTERNATIVE APPROACH: LOW KEY, SYSTEMATIC, DELIBERATE PRIVATE-PUBLIC APPROACH
PROS
Already going on for quite some time.
Shows careful consideration to all benefits and risks (as enumerated above) with rational and deliberate plan of action.
Consistent with European position.
CONS [...]
Since then we have had a continued effort to obfuscate and hide the truth. The lead researcher in charge of the epidemiological study at the CDC was employed by a large well-known vaccine manufacturer, and the data from the study was reworked, weakening the link between vaccines containing thimerosal and neurodevelopmental problems. The IOM has called for a halt to all studies that look into the possibility of link between thimerosal exposure and autism.
INDUSTRY INFLUENCE
A large number of people at CDC and other agencies have been found to have improper financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry. This is a well-established fact and it would be naive to think it does not cause any problems.
The Vioxx-scandal again springs to mind. Another concrete example of what this kind of industry influence can cause is the rotavirus vaccine tragedy. The CDC were aware of the incidence of the serious complication of intussusception, a bowel obstruction, in prelicensure trials of the vaccine. There were also concerns about children developing high fevers and failing to thrive. Despite this the rotavirus vaccine was approved by the advisory committees of the FDA and the CDC.
When the vaccine was put into use, ninety-nine children suffered from severely painful intussusception, in two cases even leading to death, causing the vaccine to be withdrawn.
Why would they knowingly approve an unsafe vaccine? It turns out that a large part of the members of the advisory committees approving the rotavirus vaccine had financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry. Either they owned shares in vaccine manufacturers or worked for them. One member even held a rotavirus vaccine patent.
The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons investigated the matter and concluded that the FDA and CDC might have ignored or concealed data that highlighted the problems.
This industry is not worried about causing smoldering neuroinflammation. In fact, they would welcome it! If most of the subsequent complications manifest themselves 30 years later in the form of serious neurological diseases — perfect. That’s money in the bank. Twice.
THE CONVENIENT COMPLEXITIES OF THE HUMAN BODY
We now know that cytomegalovirus (CMV) from African green monkey kidney tissue contaminated polio vaccines. We are still living with the silent epidemic this has caused. CMV is the most common infectious cause of infant deaths in the United States as well as a common cause of mental retardation, hearing and visual impairment with an estimated 8,000 children affected every year. CMV has been linked to several cases of autism.
Foreign viruses, mycoplasma and various viral components contaminate up to 60% of vaccines. Some of these organisms are able to deceive the immune system and are very difficult to detect using normal testing.
Patients with complex neurological and psychiatric diseases have been shown to be infected with stealth adapted viruses 6 and mycoplasma. DNA sequencing has confirmed their origin to be contaminated vaccines. We now have a much better understanding why so many heavily vaccinated Gulf War veterans came down with neurological diseases.
The fact that we are now starting to understand the processes involved in these disease syndromes scare the pants off of the pharmaceutical companies. They desperately want the nebulous and poorly understood chronic disease syndromes to remain poorly understood and nebulous, partly because they do not want to be held liable for causing them and partly because it is a very convenient state of affairs for them as well as for the food industry and the GM-food giants. They can launch an endless line of dangerous products without proper safety testing, relying on the fact that they will not be held accountable for the consequences — in fact; they will benefit financially from the diseases this generates in the end.
DIFFUSE DISEASE SYNDROMES
As it turns out, there are similar complex mechanisms at play in many different diffuse disease syndromes such as Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome CFS, Autism and Neurodegenerative disease. Some of these mechanisms have been uncovered in the search for an explanation for the tremendous increase in the cases of autism. There is now a formidable collection of biological studies that document the processes involved. The strength of these studies is further increased by the fact that the new disease models they describe also give suggestions for working treatments.
The emerging picture is very clear, if a little complex. It explains the existence of many parallel causes for these diseases and disease syndromes. Here is a simplified graph of the interrelationships uncovered by this research:
CONCLUSION
So, if you accept the fact that the immune system is intimately involved in depression and that overreacting brain microglia lead to an increase in inflammatory cytokines, elevated brain glutamate, free radical activity, lipid peroxidation, and neuronal death, and that depression appears to a large degree to be caused by chronic brain inflammation, then you also have to accept that the effects of repeated vaccinations can predispose the brain towards a state of chronic inflammation and depression which in the end also could lead to neurodegenerative disease and dementia. 7 8 9 10
Vaccine adjuvants prime microglia. Mercury in the form of thimerosal primes and activates microglia, deactivates vitamin B12 and inhibits glutamate transfer proteins, increasing the potential for excitotoxicity as well as causing glutathione depletion which leads to increased free radical damage and an inhibition of detoxification systems, causing a heightened sensitivity to toxins and environmental pollutants.
Add to this the foreign viruses, mycoplasma and viral components that contaminate up to 60% of vaccines, toss in some pesticides in the equation and the smoldering inflammation could become a voracious fire that consumes the brain from within.
There is no pain involved, and no obvious signs like smoke billowing from your head, only a slow unnoticeable mental decline, bouts of depression, and a disease endpoint in the form of Alzheimer’s, ALS or Parkinson’s disease that prematurely ends your life. Who will be able to prove that the combined effect of childhood vaccinations, the pesticides you used in your garden and a couple of yearly flu-shots caused this to happen?
So what do we have?
Pharmaceutical companies cause a surge in brain inflammation, depression, brain degeneration, and dementia through the lucrative sale of low quality vaccines. They then launch SSRI medication on false grounds to cash in from the cases of depression they caused in the first place, while hiding the risks of SSRI drugs to bolster sales, burying data to hide the fact that the drugs are ineffective, in the end making them the bestselling class of drugs of all times, leaving us with a wake of suicide, homicide, and other “side effects.”
Thanks a billion.
CONSEQUENCES
Who should be blamed for allowing the sale and prescription of ineffective and dangerous antidepressants to grow into one of the biggest cash-cows for the pharmaceutical industry?
Big Pharma are in the business of making money for their shareholders — this is their highest priority. If they can get away with what they are doing, they will continue doing it. If we do not expect corporations to conduct their business according to high ethical standards, the blame must be directed at the regulatory agencies that allow them to continue.
Everybody knows negative studies are buried. Everybody knows that positive results are created through innovative data manipulation. Everybody knows doctors fail to report side effects. Ninety to ninety-nine percent of serious side effects are never reported. The system is broken.
Some may argue that if we complacently sit back in front of the television popping candy, prozac and statins, while our children watch Jerry Springer in the next room, we are part of the problem and deserve what we are getting.
However, we do not deserve being swindled by an industry using manipulative drug advertisements. We do not deserve corruption among lawmakers or within the FDA.
And we certainly do not deserve the consequences: 11:
NO BENEFIT, PROMINENT SIDE EFFECTS
There are no benefits, and SSRI side effects include suicidality, violence, and homicide. The pharmaceutical companies still managed to make this into bestseller class of drugs. They must recruit their salesmen from the nether regions of hell.
In Columbine, Colorado, Eric Harris, and Dylan Klebold were on antidepressant drugs when killing 12 and wounding 23 people. Virginia Tech shooter Cho Seung Hui killed 32 fellow students. He was on antidepressant drugs. Antidepressant drugs have not been properly evaluated for use on children and studies show an increased tendency for violent acts. This is why the U.K. has banned the prescribing of Antidepressant drugs to children.
Documents that are claimed to originate from Eli Lilly 12, suggest that Eli Lilly knew for fifteen years that Prozac users had a higher risk for suicide compared to other antidepressants. How much higher? Twelve times. The documents also indicate they knew that almost one in a hundred of Prozac users reported causing an intentional injury — this is eight times the rate associated with other antidepressants. Ely Lilly kept a lid on these results and managed to turn Prozac into a very successful drug, sales-wise, knowing all the time that these sales would precipitate a large number of suicides, homicides, and other violent acts.
Other side effects are gastrointestinal and uterine bleeding, birth defects, a decrease in bone density, fertility problems, severe withdrawal, anxiety, agitation, panic attacks, insomnia, irritability, hostility, aggressiveness, impulsivity, akathisia (psychomotor restlessness), hypomania, mania, sexual dysfunction, abnormal dreams, sleep disorder, menstrual cramps, menstrual disorder, impotence, anorgasmia, bronchitis, sinus congestion, coughing, migraine, and the life-threatening condition, serotonin syndrome, which can manifest itself as agitation, hallucinations, tachycardia, labile blood pressure, hyperthermia, hyperreflexia, incoordination, nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting.
Infants exposed in the womb may develop complications that often lead to prolonged hospitalizations because of respiratory problems, apnea, cyanosis, seizures, temperature instability, feeding problems, vomiting, hypoglycemia, hypotonia, hypertonia, hyperreflexia, tremors and constant crying.
Women who take Paxil in early pregnancy have a 2-fold increased risk of having an infant born with a cardiac defect.
Infants exposed to SSRIs in late pregnancy have a 6 times greater risk of developing persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN), which results in the death of approximately 10 to 20 percent of the infants that are affected. Recently, the CDC took part in a campaign to downplay these risks, promoting the use of SSRIs for pregnant mothers. 13
Seven of every ten people who take antidepressants have impaired driving ability. 16% have severe motor impairments after taking the drugs. So besides the suicides and homicides, we might also have to add an unknown number of deaths caused by drug-induced accidents.
We have endured all this, and there is no benefit? Happy pill? The only happy people in sight are pharma executives, laughing all the way to the bank.
Are we going to allow this to continue? Where do we draw the line?
DISINFORMATION
What can be done? Raise the awareness of the enormous possibilities that exist for prevention of disease. Counteract the belief in quick pharmaceutical fixes and put a stop to the widespread pharma influence in governmental agencies. The goals of these agencies must be to prevent disease and protect the public from danger.
The problem is that the pharmaceutical industry wields tremendous power. Most medical research is funded in some way or another by pharmaceutical companies, directly or indirectly. They spend huge amounts of money on marketing and lobbying in many shapes and forms. The TV and print media are routinely used to disseminate their point of view and with the CDC on their side and the amount of marketing leveled at the public, negative reports are simple drowned in a torrent of disinformation engineered to bolster sales. And it works all too well.
They are also pretty successful in saturating the internet and news sites with disinformation. One small example of this is the infamous Quackwatch network. 14
Other methods used is the intentional crippling of websites by using denial-of-service attacks or simply vandalizing the site. This has happened to sites critical of GM-foods and www.mercola.com, to name just a few. High volume Viagra spam originates from pharmaceutical companies, so it should come as no surprise that they use any means available on the internet to increase profits.
To sum it up, they hide, falsify, and misrepresent the results of studies, defraud the public into buying their dangerous drugs, attack and vandalize internet sites, threaten and harass dissenting experts and apply pressure directed towards the termination of their employment. 15
But wait, there is more! Deception, bad faith conduct, abuse of judicial process, and perhaps even fraud in trials involving SSRI antidepressants allegedly causing suicide and homicide.
Eli Lilly was caught corrupting the judicial process in what is known as the “Fentress Case” involving a Kentucky man, Joseph Wesbecker, who was on Prozac when he went to his workplace and opened fire with an assault rifle, killing 8 people and injuring 12 others before he turned the gun on himself. 16 In the end they settled the case. It has been suggested that a very large sum was paid out.
THE GOOD NEWS
The good news is that the new theories for depression give some power back to us. When we have a better understanding of the mechanisms involved, it is much easier to identify strategies that will help us to prevent and cure depression. Besides getting help and support to deal with and manage real-life problems, you can add neuroprotective functional foods to the diet. Blueberries, curcumin 17 and resveratrol 18 have well documented neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory effects. There are numerous ways of protecting against inflammation, free radical damage, and excitotoxicity. It is possible to support important biochemical pathways using something as safe, cheap, and effective as vitamin-B complex. Vitamin B12 and folate have been suggested to be effective in the treatment of depression. 19
Vitamin D, called the sunshine vitamin as it is generated when the skin is exposed to the midday sun, has also been found to give significant improvement in depression scores in studies, suggesting it could have a role in seasonal affective disorders. 20 21 22 23
Protection from excitotoxicity can for example come in the form of gingko biloba, methylcobalamin B12, magnesium or the avoidance of dietary excitotoxins such as MSG and aspartame.
Levels of a signaling molecule known as brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, is lower in major depression and schizophrenia. It has been suggested that most of the effective treatments or therapies for depression work through their stimulation of BDNF. 24 How do you go about raising BDNF levels? Pantethine, a form of vitamin B5, raises BDNF levels as do omega-3 fatty acids and the spice curcumin.
Even a simple thing as exercise is more effective than SSRI-drugs in relieving depression. As it happens, exercise also elevates levels of BDNF.
So why then do so many leave the doctor’s office armed only with a prescription for antidepressants? The system is broken. And we know why.
But, the pharmaceutical companies have been caught with their pants too far down their ankles this time. There is only one possible outcome. Their iron grip of regulatory agencies, media and healthcare in general now has to be broken. The former director of the FDA has timed his perjury in front of congress perfectly. The latest scandals and the emerging realization that pharmaceutical companies, the CDC and the FDA have been covering up the fact that they are also responsible for the autism epidemic, all this will be the start of a process that will seriously cripple their morally bankrupt business with disease. And in the end, this will bring new power and knowledge into the hands of health professionals, at long last enabling them to start working to prevent disease rather than solely helping pharmaceutical companies to capitalize on it.
Is that too much to ask?
Important note: Stopping medication is difficult and dangerous to do on your own. Do not stop taking antidepressants without consulting your physician. It is dangerous to rapidly reduce the dosage of this type of drug.
- 1 Turner, Erick H., Matthews, Annette M., Linardatos, Eftihia, Tell, Robert A., Rosenthal, Robert, Selective Publication of Antidepressant Trials and Its Influence on Apparent Efficacy, N Engl J Med 2008 358: 252-260. ¶
- 2 Annette Tuffs, Only 6% of drug advertising material is supported by evidence. BMJ 2004;328:485 (28 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7438.485-a ¶
- 3 Initial Severity and Antidepressant Benefits: A Meta-Analysis of Data Submitted to the Food and Drug Administration, Kirsch I, Deacon BJ, Huedo-Medina TB, Scoboria A, Moore TJ, et al., PLoS Medicine Vol. 5, No. 2, e45 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050045 ¶
- 4 USA TODAY, Senators who weakened drug bill got millions from industry ¶
- 5 Jeffrey R Lacasse and Jonathan Leo, Serotonin and Depression: A Disconnect between the Advertisements and the Scientific Literature. PLoS Med. 2005 December; 2(12): e392. ¶
- 6 W. John Martin, Stealth Adaptation of an African Green Monkey Simian Cytomegalovirus, Center for Complex Infectious Diseases, Rosemead, California, 91770, Experimental and Molecular Pathology, Volume 66, Issue 1, April 1999, Pages 3-7. ¶
- 7 Russell L. Blaylock, M.D, A Possible Central Mechanism in Autism Spectrum Disorders: Interaction of Activated Microglia, Excitotoxicity, Reactive Oxygen and Nitrogen Species, Lipid Peroxidation Products and the Role of Elevated Androgen Levels in Autism Spectrum Disorders. ¶
- 8 BBC News, Brain inflammation link to autism Full study here. ¶
- 9 Russell L. Blaylock, M.D., Chronic Microglial Activation and Excitotoxicity Secondary to Excessive Immune Stimulation: Possible Factors in Gulf War Syndrome and Autism. ¶
- 10 Godbout JP et al. Exaggerated neuroinflammation and sickness behavior in aged mice after activation of the peripheral innate immune system. The FASEB J 2005; 19: 1329-1331. ¶
- 11 Peter R. Breggin, Suicidality, violence and mania caused by selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs): A review and analysis, International Journal of Risk & Safety in Medicine 16 (2003/2004) 31–49 31. ¶
- 12 CNN Health, Papers indicate firm knew possible Prozac suicide risk ¶
- 13 Evelyn Pringle, Lawyers and Senttlements, CDC Leads SSRI Disinformation Media Blitz ¶
- 14 Tim Bolen, The Bolen Report, The Quackwatch scam: The Six Components of the 2008 Quackbuster Operation… ¶
- 15 David Healy, Let them eat Prozac. ¶
- 16 Healy D, Herxheimer A, Menkes DB (2006) “Antidepressants and Violence: Problems at the Interface of Medicine and Law.” PLoS Med 3(9): e372 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0030372 ¶
- 17 Milan Fiala, Enhancement of innate immunity by curcuminoids and hormones as a therapeutic strategy in neurodegenerative disorders, Future Neurology, March 2007, Vol. 2, No. 2, Pages 125-127 (doi:10.2217/14796708.2.2.125) ¶
- 18 Eduardo Candelario-Jalil, Antonio C Pinheiro de Oliveira, Sybille Gräf, Harsharan S Bhatia, Michael Hüll, Eduardo Muñoz and Bernd L Fiebich, Resveratrol potently reduces prostaglandin E2 production and free radical formation in lipopolysaccharide-activated primary rat microglia, Journal of Neuroinflammation 2007, 4:25, (doi:10.1186/1742-2094-4-25).
“These findings suggest that the naturally occurring polyphenol resveratrol is able to reduce microglial activation, an effect that might help to explain its neuroprotective effects in several in vivo models of brain injury.” ¶ - 19 Neurotransmitter.net: Unipolar depression, vitamin B12, and folate. ¶
- 20 Gloth FM 3rd. Vitamin D vs broad spectrum phototherapy in the treatment of seasonal affective disorder. J Nutr Health Aging. 1999;3(1):5-7. ¶
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Posted: April 8th, 2009 at 22:10 →
FANTASTIC!
Posted: May 27th, 2009 at 07:44 →
Thanks!