![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Jan. 2nd, 2005 01:32 pmBritain Tightens Antidepressant Rules
LONDON (Reuters) - British health authorities tightened warnings on popular Prozac-type antidepressants on Monday, urging doctors to use them sparingly and consider non-drug interventions, such as counseling.
Journal Tells FDA Lilly Knew of Prozac Risk
LONDON (Reuters) - The British Medical Journal said on Friday it has sent documents to U.S. health regulators that appear to suggest a link between the antidepressant Prozac and suicidal behavior.
In its Jan. 1 issue, the journal said an anonymous source had provided "missing documents" that included reviews and memos appearing to show that officials at Eli Lilly and Co., the drug's maker, knew in the 1980s that it had "troubling side effects."
Now, normally I wouldn't put such faith in an anonymous source, except it the documents in question apparently have to do with activation syndrome, which is a direct result of the serotonin re-uptake inhibiting properties of the drugs themselves. I've always been a little suspicious that, knowing that the very name for them from the very beginning of this was "selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors" (SSRIs), that no one bothered to study the effects of serotonin re-uptake inhibition before 2003. That's a bit ridiculous. Even an amateur would realize that large doses might result in anxiety or manic symptoms.
Is everyone genuinely so concerned with profit that they don't care about the consequences anymore? If one was in pharmaceuticals because it was their life's work, then the health of the end patients would be top priority. Causing harm would be a failure to research properly, and for me, at least, that would be a great, humbling shock. Or are the youth of today so enamoured of themselves that they seriously think that there is a quick fix biochemical cure, and that they are so brilliant that they will be the ones to find it (which would, logically, be a matter of statistics and luck and have nothing to do with brilliance at all), and that any evidence to the contrary is simply garbage?
I think perhaps children should be ushered into vocations where they, individually, would be satisfied with "mediocrity" (not in quality of work, but in recognition of it). I, for instance, would be perfectly happy to be a general surgeon of no consequence to the national media. In fact, I would prefer it that way. To have your friends, family, colleagues, and patients see you as more than competantly skilled is one thing. Being lauded on day-time talk-shows or the evening news is another thing entirely. If I wanted that, I wouldn't be going for medicine at all. Who knows what I'd be going for, but the fact is, most doctors don't become the slightest bit famous at all.
Or, perhaps, it's even deeper than that. I have noticed among doctors, especially among psychiatrists, a belief in their own infallibility. They can't ever admit to being wrong. They will pursue obviously unsuccessful treatments, beyond the point where they would even be effective under normal circumstances. In one example very close to me: mild depression, instead of being treated with 50mg of zoloft for six months (a normal dose), gets the treatment of 150mg of zoloft, 300mg of trazodone ("for sleep") for 2.5 years, and then, after a new breakdown, slight adjustment of the dosages and an added 8mg of perphenazine (an antipsychotic).
The 8mg of perphenazine would be a temporary hospitalization dose for a severe schizophrenic episode, while a normal maintenence dose would be 4mg at the highest. The patient in question does not have any symptoms of psychosis. In fact, a little research shows that the perphenazine was initially prescribed to "prevent obsessive thoughts of suicide".
At this point, I want to bash my head against the wall. You do not prescribe hospitalization doses of antipsychotics to a nonpsychotic patient to treat depressive symptoms. That's even worse than the trazodone, which is prescribed at six times the normal dosage "for sleep". Trazodone is an antidepressant with extreme drowsiness as a common side effect. You do not prescribe excess amounts of medicines for their side effects.
LONDON (Reuters) - British health authorities tightened warnings on popular Prozac-type antidepressants on Monday, urging doctors to use them sparingly and consider non-drug interventions, such as counseling.
Journal Tells FDA Lilly Knew of Prozac Risk
LONDON (Reuters) - The British Medical Journal said on Friday it has sent documents to U.S. health regulators that appear to suggest a link between the antidepressant Prozac and suicidal behavior.
In its Jan. 1 issue, the journal said an anonymous source had provided "missing documents" that included reviews and memos appearing to show that officials at Eli Lilly and Co., the drug's maker, knew in the 1980s that it had "troubling side effects."
Now, normally I wouldn't put such faith in an anonymous source, except it the documents in question apparently have to do with activation syndrome, which is a direct result of the serotonin re-uptake inhibiting properties of the drugs themselves. I've always been a little suspicious that, knowing that the very name for them from the very beginning of this was "selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors" (SSRIs), that no one bothered to study the effects of serotonin re-uptake inhibition before 2003. That's a bit ridiculous. Even an amateur would realize that large doses might result in anxiety or manic symptoms.
Is everyone genuinely so concerned with profit that they don't care about the consequences anymore? If one was in pharmaceuticals because it was their life's work, then the health of the end patients would be top priority. Causing harm would be a failure to research properly, and for me, at least, that would be a great, humbling shock. Or are the youth of today so enamoured of themselves that they seriously think that there is a quick fix biochemical cure, and that they are so brilliant that they will be the ones to find it (which would, logically, be a matter of statistics and luck and have nothing to do with brilliance at all), and that any evidence to the contrary is simply garbage?
I think perhaps children should be ushered into vocations where they, individually, would be satisfied with "mediocrity" (not in quality of work, but in recognition of it). I, for instance, would be perfectly happy to be a general surgeon of no consequence to the national media. In fact, I would prefer it that way. To have your friends, family, colleagues, and patients see you as more than competantly skilled is one thing. Being lauded on day-time talk-shows or the evening news is another thing entirely. If I wanted that, I wouldn't be going for medicine at all. Who knows what I'd be going for, but the fact is, most doctors don't become the slightest bit famous at all.
Or, perhaps, it's even deeper than that. I have noticed among doctors, especially among psychiatrists, a belief in their own infallibility. They can't ever admit to being wrong. They will pursue obviously unsuccessful treatments, beyond the point where they would even be effective under normal circumstances. In one example very close to me: mild depression, instead of being treated with 50mg of zoloft for six months (a normal dose), gets the treatment of 150mg of zoloft, 300mg of trazodone ("for sleep") for 2.5 years, and then, after a new breakdown, slight adjustment of the dosages and an added 8mg of perphenazine (an antipsychotic).
The 8mg of perphenazine would be a temporary hospitalization dose for a severe schizophrenic episode, while a normal maintenence dose would be 4mg at the highest. The patient in question does not have any symptoms of psychosis. In fact, a little research shows that the perphenazine was initially prescribed to "prevent obsessive thoughts of suicide".
At this point, I want to bash my head against the wall. You do not prescribe hospitalization doses of antipsychotics to a nonpsychotic patient to treat depressive symptoms. That's even worse than the trazodone, which is prescribed at six times the normal dosage "for sleep". Trazodone is an antidepressant with extreme drowsiness as a common side effect. You do not prescribe excess amounts of medicines for their side effects.
