The human cost of well-organized crime

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – Tony’s Story – 03/06/13

This is the most difficult and most heartfelt radio interview I have ever conducted. I talk with the surviving wife and the surviving mother of Tony Orban, an outstanding soldier and police officer driven to tragic violence and then to suicide by the antidepressant Zoloft (sertraline). As Tony’s medical expert I grew to know and to care about him and his family. A poignant reminder of the human cost of violence induced by psychiatric drugs.

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – Tony’s Story – 03/06/13
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution





via Ann Blake-Tracy's website SSRI Stories:

Police: Officer showed anger, boredom during alleged rape

Summary:

Paragraph 21 reads:  "Orban also told police that he had taken two anti-depressants that morning, Zoloft and Neurontin, before spending the hours leading up to attack drinking beer and margaritas with his old friend, Jelinek."

SSRI Stories Note:  The Physicians Desk Reference states: antidepressants can cause a craving for alcohol and alcohol abuse.  Also, the liver cannot metabolize the antidepressant and the alcohol simultaneously,  thus leading to higher levels of both alcohol and the antidepressant in the human body. Also, the mania caused by the Zoloft can result in violence and hostility. 

Soldier Cases this is just a fraction of them...
Suicide SSRIs 2008-05-05 Iraq/U.S.A. ++Soldiers Have More Post War SuicidesThan Combat Deaths in Iraq & Afghanistan
Crime Against Humanity Chantix 2008-06-17 U.S.A. ++Soldiers with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Recruited to Test Drug the FDA Says Causes Suicide
Suicides Not Mentioned 2010-04-04 Iraq/Afghan/U.S.A. ++Soldiers: Suicides Among 20 to 24 Year Olds: 4 Times the Average: FDA Black Box For Suicidality
Ineffective SSRIs & Atypical Antipsychotic As Add-On 2011-08-30 Global ++Soldiers: 89% of Soldiers with PTSD are Taking SSRIs: Add-On of Atypical A/P Ineffective
Mania, Suicide & Violence SSRIs & SNRIs 2010-02-25 Iraq/Afghan/U.S.A. ++Soldiers: Veteran's Govt. Meeting: More Soldiers Kill Themselves Than Killed in Combat
Murder Med For Depression 2009-07-28 Iraq/Texas +Soldier Kills 5 at Baghdad Psychiatric Center on May 11th, 2009
Murder-Suicide Antidepressant 2010-08-19 Iraq/Wisconsin +Soldier, Served in Iraq: Now With National Guard Kills Wife, Child & Self: On A/D's For Two Weeks
Death Paxil/Seroquel & Benzo 2008-06-08 U.S.A. +Soldiers [Twelve] Die in Sleep from PTSD Meds As Uncovered by the Father of One of the Soldiers
Suicides SSRIs 2010-02-24 Iraq/Afghan/U.S.A. +Soldiers: Dept. of Defense Studying Link Between High Suicide Rate Among Vets & Medications
Murder Med for Depression 1999-09-03 Kentucky Soldier Accused of Beating Fellow Soldier
Murder Attempt Antidepressant & 14 Other Meds for PTSD 2010-04-27 Iraq/Nevada Soldier Ambushes Deputy

via Salem-News.com:

Jun-07-2008 15:50

Dr. Phil Leveque 

The VA is more dangerous than a battle in Iraq.

(MOLALLA, Ore.) - It appears that battle veterans are getting it in the neck again (I'm saying this because this is a family Website).

Around June 1st 2008, The Charleston North Carolina, Gazette newspaper reported four battle veterans with PTSD dying from prescriptions given them by VA clinics. The medications wrere Paxil, Klonopin and Seroquel.

The father of one of the victims, Stan White, researched this and found eight more dead victims in the Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia area. This doesn't seem to bother the VA but we/somebody should question on what is going on. As a physician/pharmacist and victim of VA hospital medical abuse, I think I know what is causing these deaths and I believe these reports are the "tip of the iceberg". Whoever is "taking care" of these battle veterans and I believe it is psychologists or social workers rather than physician/psychiatrists.

Therein lies the problem. A medical adage is, if one pill doesn't work, take two and if that still doesn't work take more ir add a similar medication. This is standard operating procedure (SOP) in the VA rather than good medical care. The combination can be/is lethal.

The deaths of those 12 veterans should be a red flag of danger but I suspect VA psychologists are color blind also.

The article in the newspaper brought about 17 letters to the editor which indicate the readers know more than the VA caretakers.

one writer wrote "Seroquel turns one into a zombie". A physician, Dr. Ann Blake Tracy wrote "two of this type of drug should never be given together." She questions the rationale of the "doctors".

Another mother wrote of her son's death from Zyprexa v which is in the same family.

Another wrote of the recent article that anti-depressants don't work. Another relates the same of Progentin which was pulled from use.

It is time for a real evaluation of VA treatment for PTSD battle veterans. Although they represent less than one percent of the population, they produce 20 percent of the deaths by suicide- multiple tragedies.

Yes, treatment by the VA is far more dangerous than combat in Baghdad. Hoorah and blessings to my brothers in the Infantry.

As a final statement, my 400+ Vietnam Veterans say marijuana works better (and safer) than ANY of the above drugs. 

                                                   

Got a question or comment for Dr. Leveque?

Email him: Newsroom@Salem-News.com

More information on the history of Leveque can be found in his book,General Patton's Dogface Soldier of Phil Leveque about his experiences in WWII.Order the book by mail by following this link: Dogface Soldier.

If you are a World War II history buff, you don't want to miss it.

hat tip: Ginger Breggin

Dr. Breggin says: This is the most difficult and most heartfelt radio interview I have ever conducted. I talk... fb.me/2Y0bWroUs
— Ginger Breggin (@GingerBreggin) March 6, 2013

The Military's Billion-Dollar Pill Problem

The Military's Billion-Dollar Pill Problem via MensJournal.com

'via Blog this'

Suicide triggers lawsuit against Veterans Administration

Kelli Marie Grese

via Air Force Times:
Sister’s suicide triggers lawsuit against VA

By Patricia Kime - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Dec 6, 2012 18:38:38 EST

a few excerpts:

On Veterans Day 2010, former Navy corpsman Kelli Marie Grese, 37, swallowed an unknown quantity of the antipsychotic Seroquel — her fourth suicide attempt in eight months using the same drug.

That time, she succeeded. She never regained consciousness.

Her death is the subject of a $5 million lawsuit filed against the Veterans Affairs Department in the U.S. District Court in Newport News, Va., alleging VA physicians failed to monitor her medications and prescribed them excessively.

Her twin sister, Darla Grese, also a former Navy corpsman, filed the suit, saying physicians at Hampton VA Medical Center, Va., ignored her pleas to quit doling out prescriptions to her sister, a known addict deemed at “moderate risk for suicide.”

“I’m hoping better attention will be placed on how many pills are being written and quantities,” said Darla Grese.

Darla Grese said she filed the lawsuit because she would like to see VA doctors communicate better and pay closer attention to their own patients’ records.

“I don’t understand how a physician can write a prescription for 450 pills and two months later write another prescription for 450,” she said. “Something’s broken. The system is broken.”

Sister’s suicide triggers lawsuit against VA - Air Force News 

hat tip: Carl Elliot

The Drugging of U.S. Troops

Broken Warriors is an ongoing series on mental health issues in the military.

via NextGov:

ARMY WARNS DOCTORS AGAINST USING CERTAIN DRUGS IN PTSD TREATMENT

By Bob Brewin April 25, 2012
Flickr user deanslife 

The Army Surgeon General's office is backing away from its long-standing endorsement of prescribing troops multiple highly addictive psychotropic drugs for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder and early this month warned regional medical commanders against using tranquilizers such as Xanax and Valium to treat PTSD.

An April 10 policy memo that the Army Medical Command released regarding the diagnosis and treatment of PTSD said a class of drugs known as benzodiazepines, which include Xanax and Valium, could intensify rather than reduce combat stress symptoms and lead to addiction.

The memo, signed by Herbert Coley, civilian chief of staff of the Army Medical Command, also cautioned service clinicians against prescribing second-generation antipsychotic drugs, such as Seroquel and Risperidone, to combat PTSD. The drugs originally were developed to treat severe mental conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The memo questioned the efficacy of this drug class in PTSD treatment and cautioned against their use due to potential long-term health effects, which include heart disorders, muscle spasms and weight gain.

Throughout more than a decade of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, the military services have relied heavily on prescription drugs to help troops deal with their mental health problems during and after deployment. In a June 2010 report, the Defense Department's Pharmacoeconomic Center said 213,972, or 20 percent of the 1.1 million active-duty troops surveyed, were taking some form of psychotropic drug -- antidepressants, antipsychotics, sedative hypnotics or other controlled substances.

The Army, in a July 2010 report on suicide prevention, said one-third of all active-duty military suicides involved prescription drugs.

Madison Ruppert Interviews Dr. Yolande Lucire on End the Lie Radio

End the Lie Radio with Madison Ruppert - Episode 11

via Dove Press:

Antidepressant-induced akathisia-related homicides associated with diminishing mutations in metabolizing genes of the CYP450 family

Authors: Lucire Y, Crotty C

Published Date August 2011 Volume 2011:4 Pages 65 - 81

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/PGPM.S17445

Yolande Lucire, Christopher Crotty
Edgecliff Centre, Edgecliff, NSW, Australia

Purpose: To examine the relation between variant alleles in 3 CYP450 genes (CYP2D6, CYP2C9 and CYP2C19), interacting drugs and akathisia in subjects referred to a forensic psychiatry practice in Sydney, Australia.
Patients and methods: This paper concerns 10/129 subjects who had been referred to the first author’s practice for expert opinion or treatment. More than 120 subjects were diagnosed with akathisia/serotonin toxicity after taking psychiatric medication that had been prescribed for psychosocial distress. They were tested for variant alleles in CYP450 genes, which play a major role in Phase I metabolism of all antidepressant and many other medications. Eight had committed homicide and many more became extremely violent while on antidepressants. Ten representative case histories involving serious violence are presented in detail.
Results: Variant CYP450 allele frequencies were higher in akathisia subjects compared with random primary care patients tested at the same facility. Ten subjects described in detail had variant alleles for one or more of their tested CYP450 genes. All but two were also on interacting drugs, herbals or illicit substances, impairing metabolism further. All those described were able to stop taking antidepressants and return to their previously normal personalities.
Conclusion: The personal, medical, and legal problems arising from overuse of antidepressant medications and resulting toxicity raise the question: how can such toxicity events be understood and prevented? The authors suggest that the key lies in understanding the interplay between the subject’s CYP450 genotype, substrate drugs and doses, co-prescribed inhibitors and inducers and the age of the subject. The results presented here concerning a sample of persons given antidepressants for psychosocial distress demonstrate the extent to which the psychopharmacology industry has expanded its influence beyond its ability to cure. The roles of both regulatory agencies and drug safety “pharmacovigilantes” in ensuring quality and transparency of industry information is highlighted.

Keywords: adverse drug reaction, drug therapy, safety pharmacogenetics, CYP1A2, CYP3A4 CYP2D6, CYP2C9, CYP2C19, drug metabolism, public health, suicide, violence, human rights

Download entire article PDF from Dove Press

Pepsi Advertisement found at Bonkers Institute 

Every Parent Who Has a Child or Teenager Needs to Read This!

Leonie Fennel lost her son, Shane Clancy, to suicide in 2009.  She now spends her time working to inform other parents of the suicidal risk of SSRIs; a class of drugs used for depression.  She does this to honor her son's memory.  I can't help but be humbled to know that she is honoring her son's memory by trying to save strangers.  She lost her son and wasn't even aware that committing suicide is a well-known risk of the drug, Cipramil, or Celexa when Shane was prescribed the drug.  After Shane died, Leonie found out that the risk of the drug causing suicidal and homicidal behavior---particularly in young people---was well known to the drug's maker, Lundbeck.  This is a well known serious, negative effect of all SSRI and SSNRI antidepressants.

The Government drug safety regulators approve the drugs and work for the people in the U.S., in the UK, in Ireland and in New Zealand were aware of the fatal risks; and the drugs were approved in each country, with this risk known to the regulators.   Across the globe, regulatory authorities determined they had no duty to inform the general public, or the prescribing professionals, of fatal risks known to be inherent with this class of drug.

Here in the U.S., the FDA claims it hasd no duty to disclose that SSRI and SSNRI drugs can be fatal; it's a "trade secret."  How in the hell can a fatal risk be kept a secret from the people who are prescribed the drugs?  It is the FDA's job to determine whether the drugs are safe and efficacious treatments for the conditions the FDA approves them for.  No treatment is without risks, it is also the FDA's duty to ensure that risks are identified and fully disclosed---period.  How can the identified risks of FDA approved drugs be something that the FDA hides from the American people?  The FDA works for the people, not for the drug companies.  The FDA drug approval process is obviously corrupted by the drug industry negligent .  Time and again, the FDA has failed to protect the American people by approving drugs on insufficient and/or corrupt data. The FDA does not require prescribing professionals to report adverse events associated with FDA approved drugs.  The FDA does not actually require drug makers to do the 'required' after market drug trials on the drugs approved through the PDUFA process.  In effect, and in fact, the FDA has not been fulfilling it's protective or regulatory duties for decades; it continues to fail these duties, with seeming impunity.

Another mother, Maria Bradshaw, lives in New Zealand.  Maria's son, Toran Henry, committed suicide due to a toxic reaction from fluoxetine, also known as Prozac, and Serafem.  Maria, is the co-founder of 'CASPER' or, Community Action on Suicide Prevention Education and Research in New Zealand.  Maria stated, "I'm looking for an end to giving kids who are sad or distressed, drugs that double their risk of suicide. I'm looking for the appalling rate of child suicide in my country to be reduced. I want my son, my only child, to have a legacy and I need to feel I'm still his mother and promoting his best interests and this is the only way I know how to parent a dead child."  


I am humbled by these two mother's tremendous effort to inform other parents about what each of them has  learned after their sons were dead.  These mother's are driven, by the tremendous love they have for their children.  They know that love alone cannot prevent suicide, and they know that what we do not know about prescription drugs puts our children at risk, and can even kill them.   Leonie and Maria know that no parent should grieve the loss of a child because of not being fully informed about known risks.  What these mother's were not told about the drugs prescribed their sons prevented them from protecting their sons from the risk. 

Their sons, Toran Henry and Shane Clancy, will never be forgotten...We all owe Leonie and Maria a tremendous debt of gratitude.  These moms share their stories to warn other parents about drug dangers in hopes of sparing them and their children from experiencing what they have.  I am humbled to know of these remarkable women.  These mothers have experienced tremendous loss due to the betrayal of professionals who abdicated their primary ethical duty when researching, seeking regulatory approval and marketing SSRI drugs.  I am inspired by their tremendous effort for all of us.

Be sure and read the list Leonie has posted on "Lundbeck's Hall of Shame."

Far too many lives have already been lost...

via Leonie Fennel's Blog:

Lundbeck's Hall of Shame
"Since Shane died in 2009 we have tried, and will continue to try, to warn the public that antidepressants can cause suicide and/or homicide. We have Professor Healy’s expert report which states that, in his opinion, Cipramil caused the events of 2009 (It’s attached to the side-bar on the right if anyone needs any information). During the last 2 years and 5 months, we have had to contend with denials and rebuttals from Lundbeck (surprise, surprise) and Ireland’s Psychiatric body, the College of Psychiatry of Ireland; Statements such as this one from Prof. T. Dinan…"
read Leonnie's blog Lundbeck's Hall of Shame


via crookreport.co.uk

photo credit

This makes me fighting mad: Military continues off-label drug use

via Broken Warriors
BY BOB BREWIN 09/28/2011

This is the fifteenth story in an ongoing series.

a few excerpts:

"The U.S Central Command continues to back the use of Seroquel, a powerful antipsychotic, to treat insomnia in troops deployed to combat zones despite an expert panel's recommendation six months ago to cease the practice. The drug, known generically as quetiapine, has been linked to adverse effects, including heart failure.

In May, the Defense Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee at its semiannual meeting said that the Food and Drug Administration had not approved any drugs in the class known as atypical antipsychotics, which includes Seroquel, for treatment of insomnia. Nonetheless, CENTCOM has approved the use of Seroquel in low, 25-milligram doses to treat sleep disorders.

In minutes of that meeting signed Aug. 5 by Dr. Jonathan Woodson, assistant secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, and posted to its website the same day, the committee said, "the use of low-dose AAPs [atypical antipsychotics] should be discouraged due to the lack of supportive evidence, risk of adverse events (metabolic and cardiac) and lack of monitoring (e.g. EKG) for adverse events in theater."

The Defense Health Board, a federal advisory group chartered to provide independent advice to the secretary of Defense, recommended in a draft report last month that Defense review its current guidance on the off-label or non-FDA-approved use of drugs, including Seroquel.
The pharmacy committee urged CENTCOM to use less dangerous drugs to treat insomnia. It said, "Other drug options to treat insomnia are available on the CENTCOM formulary, which have a lower risk of adverse events than the AAPs." Researchers at Vanderbilt University and the Nashville Veterans Affairs Medical Center reported in a January 2009 New England Journal of Medicine article that patients prescribed atypical antipsychotics, including Seroquel, had a significantly higher risk of sudden death from cardiac arrhythmias and other cardiac causes than patients who did not take these medications."

"An Army doctor who declined to be identified for publication, said he found it "quite remarkable that despite clear opposition to the continued use of the antipsychotics by [Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for] Health Affairs, and the [Pharmacy and Therapeutics] Committee, CENTCOM and the services continued to defend their use, all the while without anything but weak anecdotal evidence of efficacy."  read

hat tip:
D. Bunker at Psychiatry, It's a Killing

Bunker has a whole lot more on his site check it out!

What is an Award? Two awards, one is unearned and one is earned heroically

via: NIMH
For the second time in less than a year, the National Institute of Mental Health and its researchers have been honored by the White House. On August 25th, NIMH and eight suicide prevention organizations were named recipients of the administration’s Champions of Change initiative.  here is what I thought of this God Bless America  This announcement bothered me on so many levels.  I wondered, how much is this collaboration costing?  So I found out.

via NIMH: NIMH and the U.S. Army have entered into a memorandum of agreement (MOA) to conduct research that will help the Army reduce the rate of suicides. NIMH Director Thomas R. Insel, M.D., Army Secretary Pete Geren, and Army Chief of Staff Gen. George W. Casey Jr. signed the MOA on October 23, 2008.

The MOA allows for a $50-million, multi-year study on suicide and suicidal behavior among soldiers, across all phases of Army service. It will be the largest single study on the subject of suicide that NIMH has ever undertaken.

The joint project will strengthen the Army’s efforts to reduce suicide among its soldiers by identifying risk and protective factors for suicidal thinking and behavior. It will help the Army develop more effective intervention programs and target them where they are most needed.

Benefits of the study will go beyond the Army. The study’s findings will also inform our understanding of suicide in the U.S. population overall, and may lead to more effective interventions for both soldiers and civilians. Every year, an average of 30,000 Americans die by suicide.

Specific details of the project are still being worked out in the NIMH Division of Services and Intervention Research.

STARRS The Army Study to Access Risk and Resilience in Service Members at NIMH


via Army STARRS a nonprofit website:

Army Study To Assess Risk and Resilience in Service members

Army STARRS is the largest study of mental health risk and resilience ever conducted among military personnel.

Beginning in 2011, Army STARRS investigators will look for factors that help protect a Soldier’s mental health and those factors that put a Soldier’s mental health at risk. Army STARRS is a five-year study that will run through 2014; however, research findings will be reported as they become available so that they may be applied to ongoing health promotion, risk reduction, and suicide prevention efforts. Because promoting mental health and reducing suicide risk are important for all Americans; the findings from Army STARRS will benefit not only servicemembers but the nation as a whole.

Army STARRS Preliminary Data Reveal Some Potential Predictive Factors for Suicide

Early examination of data from the U.S. Army’s Total Army Injury and Health Outcomes Database (TAIHOD) has revealed potential predictors of risk for suicide among soldiers. Preliminary results were provided by researchers leading the ongoing Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers (Army STARRS). Army STARRS, a partnership between NIMH and the U.S. Army, is the largest study of mental health risk and resilience ever conducted among military personnel.

The TAIHOD database includes information from Regular Army soldiers (not Guard or Reserve Component soldiers) and covers the period between 2004 and 2008. Army STARRS researchers compared data on all suicides, accidental deaths, and combat deaths in an effort to identify patterns and predictors among the three types of deaths.

The following findings are preliminary. They involve relatively few descriptive predictors and do not account for complex events or interactions. Researchers plan to do additional work with a much larger historical dataset and with survey data from the All Army Study and the New Soldier Study (two Army STARRS components) to test these initial findings.

The main preliminary findings include the following: read here.

                                    What is missing?  

Any mention of the psychotropic drugs used to "treat" symptoms of PTSD, depression, anxiety, etc. as being a factor deserving consideration.   I find it strange that on the Army STARRS website there is no mention of prescription drugs AT ALL-- that I could find.  I would imagine that the TAIHOD database should also be collecting the information about psychotropic drug treatment that the troops are receiving; what drugs and combinations of drugs are prescribed, to those who have attempted or committed suicide/homicide; as well as information about illicit drug and alcohol use.  It is more than strange, (to say the least) that these relevant factors are apparently not being investigated.

Now this is a study that is attempting to determine what factors make an individual resilient; factors such as ethnicity, gender, deployment history are being examined.  The psychotropic drugs prescribed to our troops is a factor, although it is apparently not one being considered.  Psychotropic drugs are still being used as "first line treatment" for symptoms of PTSD, in spite of the fact that this "Standard Practice" in known to be ineffective and costly: it is fiscally, socially and medically unsound; yet it is still Standard Practice.

via Next Gov:"The Veterans Affairs Department continues to issue contracts to purchase an anti-psychotic drug to treat post-traumatic stress disorder despite research showing the drug, risperidone, is no more effective than a placebo."read Va Awards... for debunked PTSD drug

summary:  

This Champions of Change award is given shortly before the half way point of a six year joint collaboration.  In the three years since the Army approached the NIMH, the suicide rate has doubled among Military personel.  We still are losing high numbers of sons and daughters, who have served Our Country to suicide---strangely,  the ineffective and unsafe teratogenic drugs prescribed to troops that are known to cause suicide, are not a factor being investigated.

The fact that psychotropic drugs known to cause suicide are not a factor considered relevant  to this joint endeavor, means that the NIMH deserves special recognition: 

A Champion of Change Award

for changing nothing, is not an earned Award.

via Borepatch: Semper Fi

Thank you for your service to the United States of America Sergeant Meyer!

via The Marines page Medal of Honor

“I am extremely pleased by the news that the President has announced that he will award the Medal of Honor to Sergeant Dakota Meyer.

Sergeant Meyer embodies all that is good about our nation's Corps of Marines. He is a living example of the brave young men and women whose service, fidelity and sacrifice make us so proud.

Sergeant Meyer's heroic actions on September 8, 2009 in the Ganjgal village in Afghanistan serve as an inspiration to all Marines and will forever be etched in our Corps' rich legacy of courage and valor.

Speaking on the behalf of all Marines, I congratulate Sergeant Meyer on this auspicious news and look forward to his award ceremony here in Washington, DC in mid-September.”

— General James F. Amos, 35^th Commandant of the Marine Corps

This isn't about me.  If anything comes out of this for me, it's for those guys."  
Sgt. Dakota Meyer