A Fog of Drugs and War

More than 110,000 active-duty Army troops last year took antidepressants, sedatives and other prescription medications. Some see a link to aberrant behavior.

Article by Kim Murphy | Los Angeles Times
SEATTLE - U.S. Air Force pilot Patrick Burke's day started in the cockpit of a B-1 bomber near the Persian Gulf and proceeded across nine time zones as he ferried the aircraft home to South Dakota.

Every four hours during the 19-hour flight, Burke swallowed a tablet of Dexedrine, the prescribed amphetamine known as "go pills." After landing, he went out for dinner and drinks with a fellow crewman. They were driving back to Ellsworth Air Force Base when Burke began striking his friend in the head.

FOR THE RECORD:
An earlier version of this story said that Bart Billings, a former military psychologist, hosts an annual conference at Camp Pendleton on combat stress. He now holds the conference at other venues.

"Jack Bauer told me this was going to happen - you guys are trying to kidnap me!" he yelled, as if he were a character in the TV show "24."

When the woman giving them a lift pulled the car over, Burke leaped on her and wrestled her to the ground. "Me and my platoon are looking for terrorists," he told her before grabbing her keys, driving away and crashing into a guardrail.

Burke was charged with auto theft, drunk driving and two counts of assault. But in October, a court-martial judge found the young lieutenant not guilty "by reason of lack of mental responsibility" - the almost unprecedented equivalent, at least in modern-day military courts, of an insanity acquittal.

Four military psychiatrists concluded that Burke suffered from "polysubstance-induced delirium" brought on by alcohol, lack of sleep and the 40 milligrams of Dexedrine he was issued by the Air Force.

In a small but growing number of cases across the nation, lawyers are blaming the U.s. military's heavy use of psychotropic drugs for their clients' aberrant behavior and related health problems. Such defenses have rarely gained traction in military or civilian courtrooms, but Burke's case provides the first important indication that military psychiatrists and court-martial judges are not blind to what can happen when troops go to work medicated.

After two long-running wars with escalating levels of combat stress, more than 110,000 active-duty Army troops last year were taking prescribed antidepressants, narcotics, sedatives, antipsychotics and anti-anxiety drugs, according to figures recently disclosed to The Times by the U.S. Army surgeon general. Nearly 8% of the active-duty Army is now on sedatives and more than 6% is on antidepressants - an eightfold increase since 2005.

"We have never medicated our troops to the extent we are doing now.... And I don't believe the current increase in suicides and homicides in the military is a coincidence," said Bart Billings, a former military psychologist who hosts an annual conference on combat stress.

The pharmacy consultant for the Army surgeon general says the military's use of the drugs is comparable to that in the civilian world. "It's not that we're using them more frequently or any differently," said Col. Carol Labadie. "As with any medication, you have to look at weighing the risk versus the benefits of somebody going on a medication."

But the military environment makes regulating the use of prescription drugs a challenge compared with the civilian world, some psychologists say.

Follow-up appointments in the battlefield are often few and far between. Soldiers are sent out on deployment typically with 180 days' worth of medications, allowing them to trade with friends or grab an entire fistful of pills at the end of an anxious day. And soldiers with injuries can easily become dependent on narcotic painkillers.

"The big difference is these are people who have access to loaded weapons, or have responsibility for protecting other individuals who are in harm's way," said Grace Jackson, a former Navy staff psychiatrist who resigned her commission in 2002, in part out of concerns that military psychiatrists even then were handing out too many pills.

For the Army and the Marines, using the drugs has become a wager that whatever problems occur will be isolated and containable, said James Culp, a former Army paratrooper and now a high-profile military defense lawyer. He recently defended an Army private accused of murder, arguing that his mental illness was exacerbated by the antidepressant Zoloft.

"What do you do when 30-80% of the people that you have in the military have gone on three or more deployments, and they are mentally worn out? What do you do when they can't sleep? You make a calculated risk in prescribing these medications," Culp said.

The potential effect on military personnel has special resonance in the wake of several high-profile cases, most notably the one involving Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, accused of murdering 17 civilians in Afghanistan. His attorneys have asked for a list of all medicines the 38-year-old soldier was taking.

"We don't know whether he was or was not on any medicines, which is why [his attorney] has asked to be provided the list of medications," said Richard Adler, a Seattle psychiatrist who is consulting on Bales' defense.
While there was some early, ad hoc use of psychotropic drugs in the Vietnam War, the modern Army psychiatrist's deployment kit is likely to include nine kinds of antidepressants, benzodiazepines for anxiety, four antipsychotics, two kinds of sleep aids, and drugs for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to a 2007 review in the journal Military Medicine.

Some troops in Afghanistan are prescribed mefloquine, an antimalarial drug that has been increasingly associated with paranoia, thoughts of suicide and violent anger spells that soldiers describe as "mefloquine rage."

"Prior to the Iraq war, soldiers could not go into combat on psychiatric drugs, period. Not very long ago, going back maybe 10 or 12 years, you couldn't even go into the armed services if you used any of these drugs, in particular stimulants," said Peter Breggin, a New York psychiatrist who has written widely about psychiatric drugs and violence.

"But they've changed that.... I'm getting a new kind of call right now, and that's people saying the psychiatrist won't approve their deployment unless they take psychiatric drugs."

Military doctors say most drugs' safety and efficacy is so well-established that it would be a mistake to send battalions into combat without the help of medications that can prevent suicides, help soldiers rest and calm shattered nerves.

Fueling much of the controversy in recent years, though, are reports of a possible link between the popular class of antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) - drugs such as Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft, which boost serotonin levels in the brain - and an elevated risk of suicide among young people. The drugs carry a warning label for those up to 24 - the very age of most young military recruits.

Last year, one of Culp's clients, Army Pfc. David Lawrence, pleaded guilty at Ft. Carson, Colo., to the murder of a Taliban commander in Afghanistan. He was sentenced to only 121/2 years, later reduced to 10 years, after it was shown that he suffered from schizophrenic episodes that escalated after the death of a good friend, an Army chaplain.

Deeply depressed and hearing a voice he would later describe as "female-sounding and never nice," Lawrence had reportedly feared he would be thrown out of the Army if he told anyone he was hearing voices - a classic symptom of schizophrenia. Instead, he'd merely told doctors he was depressed and thinking of suicide. He was prescribed Zoloft, for depression, and Trazodone, often used as a sleeping aid.

The voices got worse, and Lawrence began seeing hallucinations of the chaplain, minus his head. Eventually, Lawrence walked into the Taliban commander's jail cell and shot him in the face.

"They give him this, and they send him out with a gun," said his father, Brett Lawrence.

Up until the Burke case, there had been few if any recent rulings exonerating military defendants claiming to be incapacitated by medications.

Burke's case may have marked a turning point. Four Army doctors concluded that he wasn't mentally responsible for his actions - a finding none of them would have made had he been merely drunk.

"Three drinks over an entire evening is not enough to black somebody out, but I don't remember 99% of what happened over the rest of that evening," Burke said in an interview. "It was kind of like I was misfiring on the cylinders."

***

Both the American Psychological Assn. and the American Psychiatric Assn. in a 2010 congressional hearing urged the Army to stay the course on psychotropic drugs.

The real danger, said the psychologists' spokesman, M. David Rudd, dean of the college of social and behavioral science at the University of Utah, is if soldiers are frightened out of access to potentially life-saving medication.

The Army surgeon general's office said no one without specific approval is allowed to go on deployment using psychotropic drugs, including antidepressants and stimulants, until they've been stabilized. Soldiers who need antipsychotic agents are not allowed to go to combat.

But are those precautions enough? Julie Oligschlaeger said her son, Chad, a Marine corporal based at Twentynine Palms, came home from his second tour in Iraq in 2007 complaining of nightmares and hallucinations. He was taking Trazodone, Fluoxetine, Seroquel, Lorazepam, and propranolol, among other medications.

"I didn't realize how many pills he was on until it was too late," said Oligschlaeger. "He sometimes would slur his words, and I would think, 'OK, are you drinking? What is going on?' And he'd say, 'Oh, I'm taking my pills, and I'm taking them when I'm supposed to.' I never thought to look."

In 2008, two months before Chad was scheduled to get out of the Marines, start college, and marry his fiancee, the young corporal was found dead on the floor of his room in the barracks. An autopsy concluded the death was accidental due to multiple-drug toxicity - interactions among too many drugs.

At the memorial service, Oligschlaeger looked her son's commander in the eye and reminded him that Chad had waited in vain for a bed in a combat stress treatment facility. "I asked him, 'Why didn't you have your eyes on your Marine?'" she said. "He didn't answer me. He just stood there with his hands behind his back. And he looked at me." - read original article by LA Times

Article by Kim Murphy | Los Angeles Times

 

Prescription Meds Can Put on Unwanted Pounds

FRIDAY, March 2 (HealthDay News) -- Medications taken by millions of Americans for mood disorders, high blood pressure, diabetes and other chronic conditions can have an unhealthy side effect: weight gain.

While other choices exist for some types of drugs, adjusting medications is not simply a matter of switching, said Ryan Roux, chief pharmacy officer with the Harris County Hospital District, in Houston.

In the late 1990s, Dr. Lawrence Cheskin conducted early research on prescription medicines and obesity.

"Some medicines make an early, noticeable difference, causing patients to become ravenously hungry, while changes are subtle for others. A few months taking them and you've gained 10 pounds," said Cheskin, now director of the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center, in Baltimore.

To help increase awareness, Roux and his pharmacist group have compiled a list of "weight-promoting" and "weight-neutral or weight-loss" drugs.

Antidepressants that promote weight gain include Paxil (paroxetine), Zoloft (sertraline), amitriptyline (Elavil) and Remeron (mirtazapine).

Wellbutrin (bupropion) and Prozac (fluoxetine) are considered weight-neutral or weight-loss drugs.

"Generally, older antidepressants are typically more prone to cause weight gain than the newer SSRIs [selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors]," Cheskin said.

Mood-disorder drugs that can add weight include the antipsychotics Clozaril (clozapine), Zyprexa (olanzapine), Risperdal (risperidone) and Seroquel (quetiapine). Lithium, valproic acid (Depakote) and carbamazepine (Tegretol) can also put on the pounds.

Drugs with hormonal effects, such as antipsychotics and steroids, are among the biggest culprits in weight gain, Cheskin said. "They work on the brain, and appetite control is largely a brain function. They make you more hungry," he said.

Both experts agreed that less-than-perfect adherence to prescribed medications is common, regardless of whether they affect a patient's weight.

With antipsychotic meds, Roux said, a challenge is that once people feel better they may stop taking them. When drugs like Zyprexa -- used in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder -- cause weight gain of 20 pounds and upward, that's another barrier to treatment adherence.

Blood pressure medicines that can cause weight gain include Lopressor (metoprolol), Tenormin (atenolol), Inderal (propranolol), Norvasc (amlodipine) and clonidine (Catapres).

Cheskin said dietary changes can help counterbalance the effects of these medications. "I recommend increasing fiber content and water, and lowering calorie density. Spread out calories over several meals, five or six a day, instead of saving it all for dinner."

Corticosteroids such as prednisone and methylprednisolone, are important for treating conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, asthma and some types of cancer, but they're notorious for adding weight.

"With steroids, you're talking about putting on fat stores," Roux said. Extra weight may deposit around the body's trunk, he said, and people often retain salt and fluid.

Rather than giving up on the drug, Cheskin said, "Please talk to your doctor to see if there's an alternative. With steroids, you might be able take them every other day or in smaller doses. But there's no real substitute for steroids if you need steroids."

Diabetes drugs, including oral medications like Actos (pioglitazone) and Amaryl (glimepiride), promote weight gain, as does insulin.

"With insulin, a lot of it is the chicken and the egg," Cheskin said. "People who are obese become diabetic, and people who are diabetic have mechanisms that make them less responsive to dietary changes."

Weight-loss or weight-neutral alternatives exist for oral diabetes meds: Byetta (exenatide), Januvia (sitagliptin), Symlin (pramlintide), Precose (acarbose) and metformin (Biguanides).

Epilepsy drugs prevent seizures. Some, like carbamazepine and Neurontin (gabapentin), can cause weight gain. Possible alternatives are Lamictal (lamotrigine), Topamax (topiramate) and Zonegran (zonisamide).

Roux said women taking birth control pills also may be "big gainers."

Switching to weight-neutral drugs won't work for everyone, Roux cautioned.

"They have different mechanisms of action, and their particular disease state might not be controlled," he said. "First and foremost is the disease state that's causing the biggest hindrance upon their lifestyle. That should be the first order of business."

People should talk to their health care providers if they're troubled by weight gain, Roux said.
"I advocate patients talking with the pharmacist first, so they don't just arbitrarily stop their medication before their next [medical] appointment," Roux said. "It should not be an embarrassment either to a patient or a provider to try to dig in, to get into a person's specific comfort level with their medication."

And, Cheskin added, "with all the attention on the environmental factors causing obesity, people may not be aware that what we're prescribing for you may not help and may push someone in the wrong direction." - read full article

Article written by Lisa Esposito, HealthDay Reporter, Philly.com/Health

 

Could Ambien Increase Your Risk of Death?

Feb. 28, 2012 - For the millions of Americans who use sleeping pills, a new study suggests the prescription medications may be doing more harm than good.

About 10 percent of Americans take some kind of sleep aid at night. Scripps Health researchers found that people who take any of a range of sleeping pills, or hypnotics, have a four-fold increase in death.  Even people who took very low doses – as few as 18 pills a year – had a greater mortality risk.

Ambien was the most widely prescribed sleep aid, although other drugs such as Lunesta, Sonata, Restoril, barbituates and sedative antihistamines were also included in the research.  

The researchers tracked over 10,000 patients from the Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania who were prescribed sleeping pills for an average of 2.5 years and compared them to people who were matched for age, lifestyle and underlying health problems. Other research has indicated that women are more likely to take sleep aids than men, particularly women between the ages of 40 and 59. The average age for all the participants in the study was 54.

The headline is frightening, but it’s not a cause-and-effect study. It's an association. Scientifically, that means just because you take an Ambien doesn’t mean you’re going to die. But people who take the pills have an increased risk because of a number of associated factors: possible mixed drug overdoses; depression; anxiety; impaired motor and cognitive skills (if someone takes a pill by accident and drives); and sleep apnea. 

A big limitation in the study is that all the data was based on prescriptions, which doesn’t mean the pills were actually taken or whether the prescriptions were even filled. Also, the researchers couldn’t be certain whether the participants who didn’t receive sleeping pill prescriptions were taking over-the-counter antihistamine sleep drugs or non-prescribed hypnotics. While the Scripps study is provocative and flawed, there have been numerous other studies showing an increased risk of mortality from sleep medications.

On TODAY Tuesday, the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association responded, saying, “Prescription medicines undergo thorough clinical trials regulated by the FDA and are FDA-approved on the basis of their safety and effectiveness. Biopharmaceutical research companies also work closely with the FDA throughout the life of approved medicines, continuing to monitor the medicines for safety issues.”

However, it goes to the bigger picture that we are overmedicated as a society. More people are on anti-anxiety medications and sleeping aids than any time in history. A lot of people take sleep aids because we have a conventional wisdom that everyone needs eight hours of sleep at night. When we have insomnia, we panic. Working women, in particular, have no downtime, so it's not surprising that we're self-medicating. 

My advice to people who take sleep aids is to remember: These things and alcohol or other anti-anxiety medicines don’t mix. That's where a lot of people get into trouble.

Everything you put in your mouth can have a downside. Use the sleeping aids sparingly. If you’re using them all the time, think about what you can change in your life so you don’t have to rely on medication. read org. article

Article written by Dr. Nancy Snyderman
Chief Medical Editor, NBC

 

Why Antidepressants Don't Work for Treating Depression

Here's some depressing recent medical news: Antidepressants don't work. What's even more depressing is that the pharmaceutical industry and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have deliberately deceived us into believing that they DO work. As a physician, this is frightening to me.  Depression is among the most common problems seen in primary-care medicine and soon will be the second leading cause of disability in this country.The study I'm talking about was published in The New England Journal of Medicine. It found that drug companies selectively publish studies on antidepressants. They have published nearly all the studies that show benefit -- but almost none of the studies that show these drugs are ineffective.

That warps our view of antidepressants, leading us to think that they do work. And it has fueled the tremendous growth in the use of psychiatric medications, which are now the second leading class of drugs sold, after cholesterol-lowering drugs.

The problem is even worse than it sounds, because the positive studies hardly showed benefit in the first place. For example, 40 percent of people taking a placebo (sugar pill) got better, while only 60 percent taking the actual drug had improvement in their symptoms. Looking at it another way, 80 percent of people get better with just a placebo.

That leaves us with a big problem -- millions of depressed people with no effective treatments being offered by most conventional practitioners. However, there are treatments available. Functional medicine provides a unique and effective way to treat depression and other psychological problems. Today I will review seven steps you can take to work through your depression without drugs. But before we get to that, let's take a closer look at depression.

What's in a Name?
"Depression" is simply a label we give to people who have a depressed mood most of the time, have lost interest or pleasure in most activities, are fatigued, can't sleep, have no interest in sex, feel hopeless and helpless, can't think clearly, or can't make decisions.

But that label tells us NOTHING about the cause of those symptoms. In fact, there are dozens of causes of depression -- each one needing a different approach to treatment. Depression is not one-size-fits-all, but it is very common.

Women have a 10 to 25 percent risk and men a five to 12 percent risk of developing severe major depression in their lifetime. ) One in ten Americans takes an antidepressant. The use of these drugs has tripled in the last decade, according to a report by the federal government. In 2006, spending on antidepressants soared by 130 percent.

But just because antidepressants are popular doesn't mean they're helpful. Unfortunately, as we now see from this report in The New England Journal of Medicine, they don't work and have significant side effects. Most patients taking antidepressants either don't respond or have only partial response. In fact, success is considered just a 50 percent improvement in half of depressive symptoms. And this minimal result is achieved in less than half the patients taking antidepressants.

That's a pretty dismal record. It's only made worse by the fact that 86 percent of people taking antidepressants have one or more side effects, including sexual dysfunction, fatigue, insomnia, loss of mental abilities, nausea, and weight gain.

No wonder half the people who try antidepressants quit after four months.

Now I want to talk to you about the reasons why doctors and patients have been deceived by the "antidepressant hoax." Despite what we have been brainwashed to believe, depression is not a Prozac deficiency!

How We have Been Deceived by the Antidepressant Hoax
Drug companies are not forced to publish all the results of their studies. They only publish those they want to. The team of researchers that reported their findings in The New England Journal of Medicine took a critical look at all the studies done on antidepressants, both published and unpublished. They dug up some serious dirt ...

The unpublished studies were not easy to find. The researchers had to search the FDA databases, call researchers, and hunt down hidden data under the Freedom of Information Act. What they found was stunning.

After looking at 74 studies involving 12 drugs and over 12,000 people, they discovered that 37 of 38 trials with positive results were published, while only 14 of 36 negative studies were published. Those that showed negative results were, in the words of the researchers, "published in a way that conveyed a positive outcome."

That means the results were twisted to imply the drugs worked when they didn't.

This isn't just a problem with antidepressants. It's a problem with scientific research. Some drug companies even pay or threaten scientists to not publish negative results on their drugs. So much for "evidence-based" medicine! I recently had dinner with a step-uncle who runs a company that designs research for drug companies. He designs the study, hires the researcher from an esteemed institution, directs the study, writes up the study and the scientist just signs his or her name after reviewing it.

Most of the time, we only have the evidence that the drug companies want us to have. Both doctors and patients are deceived into putting billions of dollars into drug companies' pockets, while leaving millions with the same health problems but less money.

The scientific trust is broken. What can we do? Unfortunately, there is no easy answer. But I do think functional medicine, on which my approach of UltraWellness is based, provides a more intelligent way of understanding the research. Rather than using drugs to suppress symptoms, Functional Medicine helps us find the true causes of problems, including depression.

I see this in so many of the patients I have treated over the years. Just as the same things that make us sick also make us fat, the same things that make us sick also make us depressed. Fix the causes of sickness -- and the depression takes care of itself.

Consider a few cases from my practice ...

A 23-year-old had been anxious and depressed most of her life and spent her childhood and adolescence on various cocktails of antidepressants. Turns out, she suffered from food allergies that made her depressed.

Food allergies cause inflammation, and studies now show inflammation in the brains of depressed people. In fact, researchers are studying powerful anti-inflammatory drugs used in autoimmune disease such as Enbrel for the treatment of depression.

After she eliminated her IgG or delayed food allergies, her depression went away, she got off her medication -- and she lost 30 pounds as a side effect!

Here's another story ... A 37-year-old executive woman struggled for more than a decade with treatment-resistant depression (meaning that drugs didn't work), fatigue, and a 40-pound weight gain. We found she had very high levels of mercury. Getting the mercury out of her body left her happy, thin, and full of energy.

Or consider the 49-year-old man with severe lifelong depression who had been on a cocktail of antidepressants and psychiatric medication for years but still lived under a dark cloud every day, without relief. We found he had severe deficiencies of vitamin B12, B6, and folate. After we gave him back those essential brain nutrients, he called me to thank me. Last year was the first year he could remember feeling happy and free of depression.

These are just a few of the dozens of things that can cause depression.

The roots of depression are found in the 7 keys to UltraWellness and the 7 fundamental underlying imbalances that trigger the body to malfunction. Taking antidepressants is not the answer to our looming mental health epidemic. The real cure lies in rebalancing the underlying systems in your body that are at the root of all healthy and illness.

Here are a few things you can do to start treating your depression today.

7 Steps to Treat Depression without Drugs

1. Try an anti-inflammatory elimination diet that gets rid of common food allergens. As I mentioned above, food allergies and the resultant inflammation have been connected with depression and other mood disorders.

2. Check for hypothyroidism. This unrecognized epidemic is a leading cause of depression. Make sure to have thorough thyroid exam if you are depressed.

3. Take vitamin D. Deficiency in this essential vitamin can lead to depression. Supplement with at least 2,000 to 5,000 IU of vitamin D3 a day.

4. Take omega-3 fats. Your brain is made of up this fat, and deficiency can lead to a host of problems. Supplement with 1,000 to 2,000 mg of purified fish oil a day.

5. Take adequate B12 (1,000 micrograms, or mcg, a day), B6 (25 mg) and folic acid (800 mcg). These vitamins are critical for metabolizing homocysteine, which can play a factor in depression.

6. Get checked for mercury. Heavy metal toxicity has been correlated with depression and other mood and neurological problems.

7. Exercise vigorously five times a week for 30 minutes. This increases levels of BDNF, a natural antidepressant in your brain.

Overcoming depression is an important step toward lifelong vibrant health. These are just of few of the easiest and most effective things you can do to treat depression. But there are even more, which you can address by simply working through the 7 Keys to UltraWellness.  Read full article.

Article written by Mark Hyman, M.D.

Expectant Mothers on Anti-Depressants Risk Newborns with High Blood Pressure
Thursday, January 12, 2012

Mothers who take anti-depressants during pregnancy are more likely to give birth to children with persistent pulmonary hypertension (high blood pressure in the lungs) finds a study published today on bmj.com.

Persistent pulmonary hypertension is an increase in blood pressure in the lungs leading to shortness of breath and difficulty breathing. It is a rare, but severe disease with strong links to heart failure.

The study, carried out by researchers at the Centre for Pharmacoepidemiology at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm Sweden, reviewed 1.6 million births in total between 1996 and 2007 in five Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The babies were assessed after 231 days (33 weeks).

A total of 1,618,255 singleton births were included in the study. Approximately 11,000 of the mothers filled out a prescription for anti-depressants in late pregnancy and approximately 17,000 in early pregnancy. Those who did fill out a prescription were generally older mothers who also smoked. A further 54,184 mothers were identified as having previously undergone psychiatric diagnosis but were not currently taking any medication.

Factors taken into account during the study included persistent pulmonary hypertension, maternal smoking, BMI (in early pregnancy), year of birth, gestational age at birth, birth weight and maternal diseases including epilepsy, malignancies, arthritis, bowel disease, lupus and pre-eclampsia.

The uses of several drugs were analysed which included fluoxetine, fluvoxamine, citalopram, paroxetine, sertraline, fluvoxamine and escitalopram. Although, research found that fluvoxamine had rarely been used and that none of the children with persistent pulmonary hypertension were exposed to this drug.

The results found that out of 11,014 mothers who used anti-depressants in late pregnancy just 33 babies (0.2%) were born with persistent pulmonary hypertension and out of 17,053 mothers who used anti-depressant drugs in early pregnancy, just 32 babies (less than 0.2%) were diagnosed with persistent pulmonary hypertension. A total of 114 babies whose mothers had previously been diagnosed with a mental illness were found to be suffering from the disease.

For mothers using anti-depressants, factors such as being born small for gestational age, or by C-section did not influence the likelihood of having a child with persistent pulmonary hypertension.
While the authors acknowledge that the risk of developing pulmonary persistent hypertension is low (around three cases per 1000 women which more than doubles if anti-depressants are taken in late pregnancy) they still advise caution when treating pregnant women with SSRIs.

In an accompanying editorial, researchers from the Motherisk Program Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and the School of Pharmacy at the University of Oslo support the view that mothers who take SSRIs in late pregnancy are more likely to give birth to children with persistent pulmonary hypertension. Read full article.

Contacts:
Research: Helle Kieler, Karolinska Institutet, Centre for Pharmacoepidemiology, T2, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden

Article by BMJ - Helping doctors make better decisions.

Low Levels of Vitamin D Linked to Teen Delusions, Hallucinations

Now, a presentation at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry signals the importance of testing those who suffer from psychotic symptoms-delusions (fixed and false beliefs) and hallucinations-for vitamin D deficiency.

A group of researchers led by Dr. Barbara L. Gracious, a psychiatrist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, presented data at that meeting showing that adolescents who were vitamin D deficient showed a fourfold (400 percent) increased rate of psychotic symptoms, compared to other adolescents with normal vitamin D levels who sought psychiatric treatment at the University of Rochester, in New York. 

In other words, in the group of adolescents asking for psychiatric help that Gracious studied, low vitamin D was very, very powerfully connected to the likelihood that they would report symptoms like delusions (like paranoia) or hearing voices or seeing visions.

Delusions and hallucinations are among the most serious symptoms we psychiatrists treat. And the idea that vitamin D deficiency could be so substantially linked to psychotic symptoms is a tantalizing prospect. It suggests that it is time to routinely measure the Vitamin D levels of those complaining of such symptoms.

When vitamin D levels are found to be low, they should, of course, be corrected. Whether or not this will lessen psychotic symptoms remains to be definitively proven.

The vitamin D-mental health connection is particularly interesting given the fact that millions of Americans report symptoms of seasonal affective disorder-depression that typically seems to recur each late fall, or early winter-when exposure to sunlight is limited. Vitamin D plummets, of course, when people are deprived of sunlight.

Gracious’ findings are yet another reason why psychiatry would be wise to drop all resistance to considering the impact of vitamin and nutritional deficiencies of one kind or another on mental well-being.

We know, after all, that Deplin, an altered form of folic acid that can reach the nervous system without being metabolized, shows powerful promise in the treatment of mood disorders. Indeed, Deplin, which I have written about on FoxNews.com before, is already approved by the FDA as a “medical food” that can be used to treat depression. We also know that taking high doses of fish oil can impact mood and may significantly decrease aggression.

These findings on vitamins and other nutrients come at a time when psychiatry’s traditional medications-like serotonin reuptake inhibitors and antipsychotic medications-are under siege. Recent studies have questioned whether many of these agents are any better than placebos. A large study of the very common use of the antipsychotic Risperdal in veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) showed it had essentially no value at all. Yet, such medications can be very, very expensive and can have very serious side effects, including movement disorders, suicidal thinking, cardiac abnormalities and significant weight gain.

I am not saying that traditional psychoactive medications are not important. Used judiciously, with expertise, in the right patients, they can be lifesaving. I’m certain of that. But it is time to open our minds to treatments based on vitamins and other nutrients, as well as other alternative ways of affecting the brain, like repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS, about which I have also written at FoxNews.com).

It is possible that a large percentage of those who now suffer from major depression, for example-even when that depression is severe enough to spark psychotic symptoms- soon be most effectively treated with psychotherapy, magnetic therapy and nutritional/vitamin therapy. That’s would represent a massive shift in the way psychiatry treats that illness. And other illnesses may be no different. More

Written By Dr. Keith Ablow, Published November 02, 2011 | FoxNews.com

Combination of Antipsychotic and Antidepressant Drug May Increase Risk of CV Mortality

People taking anti-psychotic drugs and anti-depressant drugs have a much higher risk of dying during an acute coronary event of a fatal arrhythmia than the rest of the population, finds a Finnish study published in the European Heart Journal. The study showed that the combined use of both antipsychotic and antidepressant drugs was associated with an even greater risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD) during a coronary event. We've known for some time that mental disorders increase the risk of cardiovascular mortality, but it hasn't been clearly established if psychiatric disorders, such as depression or schizophrenia, predispose to the occurrence of cardiovascular events or if they increase the patient's vulnerability to suffer fatal outcomes during the event.  For the first time, this study has shown us that it is the increased vulnerability during the event that is the determining factor," said Heikki Huikuri, the study's principal investigator from the Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oulu (Oulu, Finland). "It points to an urgent need to improve screening for cardiovascular risk factors in psychiatric patients."

The study shows, he added, that where possible, the combination of anti-psychotic and anti-depressant medications should be avoided, and that off-label use of psychotropic drugs in the treatment of pain and sleep disorders should be restricted.

The study was part of the larger Finnish Genetic Study of Arrhythmic Events (FinGesture), a prospective case-control study designed to compare genetic and other risk profiles of the victims of sudden cardiac death with the survivors of acute coronary events.  Between 1998 and 2009 FinGesture collected data on 2732 consecutive victims of out of hospital sudden death from an area in Northern Finland, with each case having autopsy confirmation of sudden cardiac death during an acute coronary event. The control group was composed of 1256 patients treated at the University Hospital of Oulu who survived acute myocardial infarction.  Information about the victims' latest medication was collected from medico legal autopsy reports and questionnaires answered by relatives.

The results showed that 9.7% of patients in the sudden death group had used antipsychotics in comparison to 2.4% in the control group (OR 4.4. 95% CI 2.9-6.6; P<0.001). For antidepressants 8.6 % of patients in the sudden death group had used this class of drugs compared to 5.5% in the control group (OR 1.6, 95% CI 1.2-2.2).

The analysis showed that differences in the use of psychotropic medications between the two groups remained significant after adjusting for the use of cardiovascular drugs such as aspirin, beta blocking medication and angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors.

In the study, victims of SCD used both tricyclic anti-depressants (TCAs) and anti-psychotics more frequently, but excess use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and newer antidepressants was not found to be significant. "This clearly shows us that the mental disorder itself was not the reason for the association, but rather that it was the drugs used to treat these patients that made sudden cardiac death more probable," said Huikuri.

Some anti- psychotic drugs have been shown to cause prolongation of the QT interval in the electrocardiogram, which can lead to malignant polymorphic ventricular arrhythmias, torsades de pointes, and ultimately to sudden death. At the cellular level, drugs have be association with inhibition of potassium channels, which correlates with prolongation of the QT interval.

 "There's a real need to ensure that drug safety studies for new antipsychotic and antidepressant medications are undertaken in conditions of ischemia to reflect the situation found in a myocardial infarction," said Josep Brugada, from Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, Spain, who was the author of the editorial accompanying the paper.

In the editorial, Brugada wrote that he believed psychotropic drug users represent a high risk population for coronary events due to the combination of two factors². First they are at increased risk of suffering proarrhythmic effects from the drugs taken and second, they have an increased presence of classical cardiovascular risk factors. Studies, he said, have shown that these patients have a higher incidence of diabetes and dyslipidaemia than the general population, and are more likely to have hypertension and lead sedentary life styles. "I am convinced that it's the combination of these two factors which places this population at greater risk of cardiovascular death than the general population," he said.

Such observations point to the need for cardiologists and psychiatrists to establish reliable links between the two specialities.  "Psychiatrists need to screen their patients routinely for cardiovascular risk factors and, if found to be high, refer to cardiologists," he said. "Equally, cardiologists should be alert for psychiatric problems and refer to psychiatrists. For patients with heart disease, guidelines need to be developed to establish which types of antipsychotic drugs and antidepressants should be used in different circumstances." - view original article

Source: European Heart Journal

GPs Need More Awareness About Benzodiazepines

GPs generally tend to view benzodiazepines as relatively innocuous and can be unaware of their high level of abuse and street use, the founding Professor of General Practice at University College Cork has warned.

Speaking ahead of the ‘Benzodiazepines: An Integrated Response’ conference, Prof Colin Bradley told Irish Medical Times that while GPs were aware on one level of the dangers of the drug, others were not quite aware of their prevalence.

“A lot of GPs would think that while not entirely desirable, benzodiazepines are not that dangerous,” he commented.

The conference, a community outreach drug awareness project open to the public, takes place at the Best Western Montenotte Hotel (Garden Suite) in Cork City, next Wednesday (November 9) from 6.30pm to 9pm. It is a collaboration between Cork City Partnership and Cork Local Drugs Task Force (CLDTF).

Prof Bradley said the low level of risk perception was perpetuated because some GPs had some patients on benzodiazepines for some time without it seemingly doing them any great harm. It was also difficult for GPs to identify the minority for whom the drug might be doing harm, he added.

Prof Bradley, who was on the Commission on Benzodiazepine Prescribing and the Cardiovascular Strategy Review Group, will review its 2001 recommendations and guidelines to GPs, highlighting the lack of any apparent progress on reducing benzodiazepine use and abuse 10 years later.

According to Prof Bradley, some 10 per cent of medical cardholders were on benzodiazepines in 2001, and 10 years on not much has changed in terms of the volume of benzodiazepines prescribed. This, he said, could be attributed to the fact that GPs have few therapeutic options owing to the way the health service has been reconfigured, with access to specialist services only available through consultants.

Furthermore, more appropriate treatments - for example, for patients with mild to moderate symptoms - such as counselling, mental health and psychology services were already oversubscribed by patients with more severe conditions.

There was a need for a follow-on engagement with GPs in order to maintain awareness and the ICGP, which will address the same issue at its Winter Meeting on November 26, has started reviewing the issue, said Prof Bradley.

Dr Terry Lynch, the author of Beyond Prozac who has just published Selfhood: A Key to the Recovery of Emotional Wellbeing, Mental Health and the Prevention of Mental Health Problems, will be guest speaker at the conference. View article.
By Lloyd Mudiwa / Irish Medical Times

Painkillers Over-the-Counter Pain Relievers May Block Some Antidepressants

People with depression encounter a lot of pharmaceutical frustration. For largely unknown reasons, roughly one in three patients receive no benefit from any antidepressant. A recent study, however, suggests that something as simple as over-the-counter painkillers could play a role. Ibuprofen, aspirin and other anti-inflammatory drugs may disrupt the action of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), the most commonly prescribed type of antidepressant.

Antidepressants alter brain chemistry. SSRIs increase the amount of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the space between brain cells. Neuroscientist Jennifer L. Warner-Schmidt of the Rockefeller University and her colleagues noticed that certain proteins in the brain that interact with SSRIs had the potential to be influenced by anti-inflammatory drugs such as pain relievers.
The team embarked on a series of experiments in rodents to explore this idea. In one test, researchers measured how long it takes a mouse to overcome its fear of a new, open space and move toward food placed in the center. Mice that had been given the SSRI Citalopram for two weeks approached the food more than twice as quickly as unmedicated mice. But mice given ibuprofen with the SSRI for two weeks headed for the food nearly as slowly as unmedicated mice, Warner-Schmidt and her colleagues report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.

The researchers also examined information from a previous study of patients with treatment-resistant depression. The study evaluated how the participants responded to a 12-week course of Citalopram and noted other medication use. Patients who had taken an anti-inflammatory drug or acetaminophen during their SSRI treatment were significantly less likely to experience relief from their symptoms than patients who had not.

The researchers are planning studies to figure out how exactly the pain medications interfere with the SSRIs and to determine how big a dose of painkillers is detrimental. But the evidence so far “is clinically important,” Warner-Schmidt says. “It’s a piece of information that doctors should keep in mind when looking at an individual who is not responding to an SSRI.” - view article

Article by Aimee Cunningham Scientific American

Drug Deaths Now Outnumber Traffic Fatalities in U.S., data show

September 17, 2011 - Fueling the surge are prescription pain and anxiety drugs that are potent, highly addictive and especially dangerous when combined with one another or with other drugs or alcohol.

Propelled by an increase in prescription narcotic overdoses, drug deaths now outnumber traffic fatalities in the United States, a Times analysis of government data has found.

Drugs exceeded motor vehicle accidents as a cause of death in 2009, killing at least 37,485 people nationwide, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While most major causes of preventable death are declining, drugs are an exception. The death toll has doubled in the last decade, now claiming a life every 14 minutes. By contrast, traffic accidents have been dropping for decades because of huge investments in auto safety.

Public health experts have used the comparison to draw attention to the nation's growing prescription drug problem, which they characterize as an epidemic. This is the first time that drugs have accounted for more fatalities than traffic accidents since the government started tracking drug-induced deaths in 1979.

Fueling the surge in deaths are prescription pain and anxiety drugs that are potent, highly addictive and especially dangerous when combined with one another or with other drugs or alcohol. Among the most commonly abused are OxyContin, Vicodin, Xanax and Soma. One relative newcomer to the scene is Fentanyl, a painkiller that comes in the form of patches and lollipops and is 100 times more powerful than morphine.

Such drugs now cause more deaths than heroin and cocaine combined.

"The problem is right here under our noses in our medicine cabinets," said Laz Salinas, a sheriff's commander in Santa Barbara, which has seen a dramatic rise in prescription drug deaths in recent years.

Overdose victims range in age and circumstance from teenagers who pop pills to get a heroin-like high to middle-aged working men and women who take medications prescribed for strained backs and bum knees and become addicted.

A review of hundreds of autopsy reports in Southern California reveals one tragic demise after another: A 19-year-old Army recruit, who had just passed his military physical, took a handful of Xanax and painkillers while partying with friends. A groom, anxious over his upcoming wedding, overdosed on a cocktail of prescription drugs. A teenage honors student overdosed on painkillers her father left in his medicine cabinet from a surgery years earlier. A toddler was orphaned after both parents overdosed on prescription drugs months apart. A grandmother suffering from chronic back pain apparently forgot she'd already taken her daily regimen of pills and ended up double dosing.

Many died after failed attempts at rehab - or after using one too many times while contemplating quitting. That's apparently what happened to a San Diego woman found dead with a Fentanyl patch on her body, one of five she'd applied in the 24 hours before her death. Next to her on the couch was a notebook with information about rehab.

The seeds of the problem were planted more than a decade ago by well-meaning efforts by doctors to mitigate suffering, as well as aggressive sales campaigns by pharmaceutical manufacturers. In hindsight, the liberalized prescription of pain drugs "may in fact be the cause of the epidemic we're now facing," said Linda Rosenstock, dean of the UCLA School of Public Health.

In some ways, prescription drugs are more dangerous than illicit ones because users don't have their guard up, said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Sgt. Steve Opferman, head of a county task force on prescription drug-related crimes. "People feel they are safer with prescription drugs because you get them from a pharmacy and they are prescribed by a doctor," Opferman said. "Younger people believe they are safer because they see their parents taking them. It doesn't have the same stigma as using street narcotics."

Lori Smith said she believes that's what her son might have been thinking the night he died six months shy of his 16th birthday. Nolan Smith, of Aliso Viejo, loved to surf, sail and fish with his brother and father. He suffered from migraines and anxiety but showed no signs of drug abuse, his mother said.

The night before he died in January 2009, Nolan called his mother at work, asking for a ride to the girls basketball game at Aliso Niguel High School. Lori told him she couldn't get away.

When Nolan didn't come home that evening, his parents called police and his friends. His body was found the next morning on a stranger's front porch.

A toxicology test turned up Zoloft, which had been prescribed for anxiety, and a host of other drugs that had not been prescribed, including two additional anti-anxiety drugs, as well as morphine and marijuana.

All investigators could give the family were theories.

"They said they will have parties where the kids will throw a bunch of pills in a bowl and the kids take them without knowing what they are," Lori said. "We called all of his friends, but no one would say they were with him. But he must have been with someone. You just don't do that by yourself."

The triumph of public health policies that have improved traffic safety over the years through the use of seat belts, air bags and other measures stands in stark contrast to the nation's record on prescription drugs. Even though more people are driving more miles, traffic fatalities have dropped by more than a third since the early 1970s to 36,284 in 2009. Drug-induced deaths had equaled or surpassed traffic fatalities in California, 22 other states and the District of Columbia even before the 2009 figures revealed the shift at the national level, according to the Times analysis.

The Centers for Disease Control collects data on all causes of death each year and analyzes them to identify health problems. Drug-induced deaths are mostly accidental overdoses but also include suicides and fatal diseases caused by drugs.

The CDC's 2009 statistics are the agency's most current. They are considered preliminary because they reflect 96% of death certificates filed. The remaining are deaths for which the causes were not immediately clear.

Drug fatalities more than doubled among teens and young adults between 2000 and 2008, years for which more detailed data are available. Deaths more than tripled among people aged 50 to 69, the Times analysis found. In terms of sheer numbers, the death toll is highest among people in their 40s.

Overdose deaths involving prescription painkillers, including OxyContin and Vicodin, and anti-anxiety drugs such as Valium and Xanax more than tripled between 2000 and 2008.

The rise in deaths corresponds with doctors prescribing more painkillers and anti-anxiety medications. The number of prescriptions for the strongest pain pills filled at California pharmacies, for instance, increased more than 43% since 2007 - and the doses grew by even more, nearly 50%, according to a review of prescribing data collected by the state.

Those prescriptions provide relief to pain sufferers but also fuel a thriving black market. Prescription drugs are traded on Internet chat rooms that buzz with offers of "vikes," "percs" and "oxys" for $10 to $80 a pill. They are sold on street corners along with heroin, marijuana and crack. An addiction to prescription drugs can be costly; a heavy OxyContin habit can run twice as much as a heroin addiction, authorities say.

On a recent weekday morning, Los Angeles County undercover sheriff's deputies posing as drug buyers easily purchased enough pills to fill a medicine cabinet on a sidewalk a few blocks south of Los Angeles City Hall.

The most commonly abused prescription drug, hydrocodone, also is the most widely prescribed drug in America, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. Better known as Vicodin, the pain reliever is prescribed more often than the top cholesterol drug and the top antibiotic.

"We have an insatiable appetite for this drug - insatiable," Joseph T. Rannazzisi, a top DEA administrator, told a group of pharmacists at a regulatory meeting in Sacramento.

In April, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy announced initiatives aimed at stanching prescription drug abuse. The plans include a series of drug take-back days, modeled after similar programs involving weapons, in which consumers are encouraged to turn leftover prescription drugs in to authorities. Another initiative would develop voluntary courses to train physicians on how to safely prescribe pain drugs, a curriculum that is not widely taught in medical schools.

Initial attempts to reverse the trend in drug deaths - such as state-run prescription drug-monitoring programs aimed at thwarting "doctor-shopping" addicts - don't appear to be having much effect, experts say.

"What's really scary is we don't know a lot about how to reduce prescription deaths," said Amy S.B. Bohnert, a researcher at the University of Michigan Medical School who is studying ways to lower the risk of prescription drugs.

"It's a wonderful medical advancement that we can treat pain," Bohnert said. "But we haven't figured out the safety belt yet."  View original article

Article written by Lisa Girion, Scott Glover and Doug Smith, Los Angeles Times

 

When Medicine Makes You Sick
The prescription drug you've been on for years can have sudden, scary side effects.

Los Angeles civil attorney Lisa Herbert (not her real name), 61, was shopping at Trader Joe's one evening in June 2009 when she suddenly became disoriented. For an hour she wandered the aisles in a haze, filling her cart with chocolate cupcakes and frozen tamales. At home she talked incessantly, yelled at her roommate, and-convinced she had found an ingenious way to clean the apartment-yanked a fire extinguisher off the wall and sprayed the kitchen and bathroom with a thick white foam.

By morning Herbert's mental clarity had returned, along with a deep embarrassment and confusion over what had caused such bizarre behavior. The answer - which her ever-vigilant doctor immediately suspected - was drug toxicity, a gradual buildup of prescription medication in her bloodstream.

Herbert, who has multiple sclerosis, had been taking baclofen for the past six years to control muscle spasms in her legs. She had taken the same dose all that time with no ill effects, but three months before her disorienting episode, she had begun a strict, low-carb diet and had proudly shed 15 pounds. Because she was thinner yet still taking the same dose of  baclofen, the drug had built up to toxic levels.

Drug toxicity is a common and significant health problem, yet it often goes undetected by both patients and doctors, who don't suspect it as the cause of such symptoms as mental disorientation, dizziness, blurred vision, memory loss, fainting, and falls. Although drug toxicity may result when a medication dose is too high, it can also happen because a person's ability to metabolize a drug changes over time or, in the case of Herbert, because she simply didn't need as much of the drug at her lower weight.



Older people are at high risk for drug toxicity, but younger people can suffer symptoms as well. Drug toxicity is "a major public-health issue even for people in their 40s and 50s," says Mukaila A. Raji, M.D., chief of geriatric medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. "Most drugs are eliminated from the body through the kidneys and liver, but starting around the fourth decade we start accumulating fat and lose muscle mass, accompanied by a progressive decline in the ability of our kidneys and liver to process and clear medications. All of this makes us more prone to drug toxicity." According to findings from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, age-related loss of kidney function often starts even earlier, in your 30s, and gets worse with each passing decade.



Despite the well-established connection between aging and drug toxicity, physicians sometimes fail to equate patients' symptoms with an adverse drug reaction, attributing them instead to a new medical condition. "As doctors, we see a lot of patients who come in with a general 'I don't feel well' complaint, or maybe they're confused and dehydrated, and we attribute it to a viral illness, when it's caused at least in part by the medication they're taking," says medical toxicologist Kennon Heard, M.D., an associate professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver.



Physicians' prescribing habits may also be partly to blame. "There is a tendency for physicians to prescribe a medication for every symptom, and not every symptom requires a medication," says Raji. The more medications a patient takes, the more likely one of them will build up to toxic levels, experts say.



Finally, patients often see multiple doctors who do not communicate with one another and so end up prescribing similar drugs - which, when combined, can reach toxic levels. Electronic medical records will help close the communications gap, experts say. Computerized Clinical Decision Support Systems - used by many hospitals to generate patient-specific recommendations for care - will also help. A 2005 Journal of the American Medical Association study of the systems' effectiveness showed improvements in diagnosis, drug dosing, and drug prescribing.

To avoid drug toxicity, patients should be proactive by keeping a careful record of which drugs they're taking - including over-the-counter medications - and bringing that list to every doctor visit.

They can also insist that their doctors consider drug toxicity when a new symptom arises. "Many doctors don't specifically test for drug toxicity," explains Raji, "and a simple CBC [or blood chemistry panel] won't detect it." Certain blood tests can monitor the levels and effects of several drugs, including levothyroxine (Synthroid), warfarin (Coumadin), some antibiotics, and digoxin (Lanoxin). But even so, says Raji, "the blood range of digoxin that's listed as 'normal' in medical textbooks is based on tests done on young people." In general, say medical experts, the best way to determine if drug toxicity has occurred is to eliminate or reduce the dose of a suspected medication when safe to do so - as Lisa Herbert's doctor did.

Patients should also read the safety inserts that come with their medication - before taking it. After recovering from what she calls her "cognitive flip-out," Herbert finally read her baclofen insert, discovering in the fine print the drug's rare but possible adverse effects: seizures, confusion, even hallucinations. Had she read the insert earlier, she realized, she might have saved herself and her roommate a good deal of anguish - not to mention a day's work in cleaning up one very messy apartment.

Drugs With the Highest Potential for Harm
Three classes of medications - anticoagulants (warfarin, aspirin, clopidogrel), antidiabetic agents (insulin, metformin, glyburide, glipizide, chlorpropamide), and narrow therapeutic agents (digoxin, phenytoin, lithium, theophylline, valproic acid) - account for almost half of all emergency-room visits for adverse drug events in older patients. Read original article.

Other medications that are problematic for seniors:
- Barbiturates
- Flurazepam
- Meprobamate
- Pentazocine
- Trimethobenzamide
- BelladonNa alkaloids
- Dicyclomine
- Hyoscyamine
- Amitriptyline
- Imipramine

Article by: Mary A. Fischer | from: AARP The Magazine | Sept./Oct. 2010 issue

New FDA Warning for Clacks (Citalopram)

On August 25, 2011 the FDA warned that Celexa (Citalopram) should not be used at dosages higher than 40mg per day. Studies have shown that high doses can cause abnormal changes in the electrical activity of the heart, which can be fatal. Patients with existing heart conditions, or those prone to low potassium or magnesium levels are at an even higher risk factor.

In July 2011 a study in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) stated that all Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) are more likely to cause death and issues such as heart attack, stroke, falls and seizures in older populations.

The FDA also warned that mixing antidepressants with migraine drugs can trigger a life-threatening condition called Serotonin Syndrome.

SSRIs have been shown to alter neurobehavioral development in the fetus and have been linked to an increased risk of autism.

Although antidepressants are the most popular prescription medication in the United States, most patients are not aware of the risks. Celexa was created in 1989 and went generic in 2003 after the patent expired. It has taken 22 years for the FDA to obtain enough evidence to issue the latest warning. This is another example of how a potentially unsafe medication is approved and yet the dangers are not realized for years. Written by Alesandra Rain, Point of Return, August 30. 2011

 

Can Medicines Make Me Fat?

If you want the short answer, then yes - medicines can make you fat. But only a few of them. However, it's safe to blame your bulging waistline on your never-ending migraine, depression or pain medications.

Dr Sushila Kataria, Senior Consultant in the Dept of Internal Medicine at Medanta Medicity, New Delhi helps us identify these weight gain culprits, and tells us how we can deal with the dilemma of needing medication, yet fearing what it might do to our body weight. 'Medicines which can cause weight gain are steroids, anti-psychotic drugs, anti-depressants, anti-seizure drugs, anti-migraine drugs. Diabetes medicines like insulin and some oral tablets can also cause weight gain. Other than these, not all the medicines should be blamed for weight gain,' says the doctor. Read on to understand how this affects you...

Here's a list of drugs which can lead to weight gain:

Allergy Drugs: They contain diphenhydramine which gives you instant drowsiness. Something like what most cough medicines would do, leaving you less active. You should ask your doctor and go for another antihistamine such as zyrtec which doesn't have drowsiness affect.

Antidepressant Drugs: Some antidepressant drugs might give a kick to your mood increasing your urge to eat. Best is to seek a psychiatrist help and go for antidepressants that don't lead to weight gain, such as Zyban and Wellbutrin.

Birth Control Pills: Birth control pills can easily lead to piling of pounds because they tend to cause bloating and retention. Go for a low-estrogen pill or progestin pill.

Sleeping Pills: Over-the-counter available sleeping pills such as diphen-hydramine, sominex or Tylenol Simply Sleep can be a major cause why you are gaining weight. Discuss this at length with your doctor and only take the medications prescribed by him.

Migraine Medicines: These can cause weight gain as they make you want to eat more. Oleanzipine and sodium valproat can lead to weight gain. Stay away from migraine medicines such as depakene and depakote and talk to your doctor regarding migraine medicines which are weight loss or weight neutral ones.

Steroids: Many over-the-counter available steroids can make you feel ravenously hungry. Steroids are actually good appetite boosters. They improve your appetite, so you eat more thus leading to weight gain. They also cause water retention and bloating problems. Ask your doctor specifically to prescribe you NSAIDs. However, if because of extreme pain you doctor still recommends you steroids like prednisone and all, then make sure your eating right and exercising too.  View whole article…

Article written by Mansi Kohli, Health Me Up

Antidepressant Tied to Dangerous Heart Rhythm, FDA Says

(Health Day News) -- High doses of the popular antidepressant Celexa can cause potentially fatal abnormal heart rhythms and should no longer be prescribed to patients, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday.

Doses of Celexa (Citalopram hydrobromide) greater than 40 milligrams a day can cause changes in the electrical activity of the heart, which can lead to abnormal heart rhythms, including a potentially deadly arrhythmia known as Torsade de Pointes, according to the agency.

Patients at high risk for changes in the electrical activity of the heart include those with pre-existing heart conditions (including congestive heart failure) and those prone to low levels of potassium and magnesium in the blood, the FDA said.

Even though studies have not found that doses higher than 40 mg a day offer any benefits to patients with depression, Celexa's drug labeling previously stated that some patients may require a dose of 60 mg a day, the agency noted.

The label has been revised to include the new dosage limit as well as information about the potential for abnormal heart electrical activity and rhythms.

Celexa belongs to a class of antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which also include widely used medications such as Paxil, Prozac and Zoloft. Article written copy written by Health Day - view article

 

Heat Spikes Death Rates from Drugs

With relentless heat enveloping much of the nation, no one, it seems is spared. That includes a group at especially high risk of harm from high temperatures: drug users, both therapeutic and recreational, particularly those who take stimulants like cocaine, methamphetamine and Ritalin or antidepressants and other psychiatric medications.

One study found that for every week that the temperature exceeds 75 degrees Fahrenheit, New York City will experience two extra cocaine-related deaths. And, as the temperature climbs, the number of deaths leaps proportionally.  A week like this with temperatures in the 90's and possibly 100's might tally 4-7 extra cocaine deaths in New York City alone.

“High doses of stimulants can produce extremely high body temperatures,” says Zheng-Xiong Xi, a researcher at the National Institute on Drug Abuse.  And extremely high body temperatures can kill.

While cocaine doesn't literally fry your brain, the higher the temperature climbs, the more likely it is that high doses of stimulants like coke, together with the heat, will injure brain cells and the greater the risk is for overdose death.

Two factors combine here.  First, stimulants themselves raise body temperature, which is not what you want during a heat wave. They also interfere with the body's ability to regulate temperature to cool itself down. The high body temperatures that result are one way that stimulant overdose kills- extra heat makes matters worse.

Secondly, chemical reactions that injure or kill brain cells can occur when high doses of these drugs are taken. These may be more toxic when the temperature is higher.  High doses of stimulants cause excess release of dopamine and glutamate- if these levels get high enough, the resulting chemical reactions can be deadly to cells. That process may increase overdose risk as well as contributing to long-term harm in those who survive.

Ecstasy (MDMA) is another drug that can be deadly when mixed with high temperatures- just like its chemical cousin, methamphetamine, Ecstasy can kill by overheating the body even in normal temperatures.

The legal recreational drugs aren't any better:  even a stimulant as mild as caffeine raises body temperature and alcohol does the same.

But these problems aren't only limited to recreational drug use.  Although therapeutic use of stimulants typically involves much lower doses of medication, these drugs can nonetheless seriously affect body temperature as well.

ADHD medications like Ritalin (methylphenidate), Desoxyn (methamphetamine) and Adderall (mixed amphetamines) have the same effects as their illegal variants- and are especially risky for children during heat waves.

Other medications that increase risk for heat stroke include antidepressants (all classes) and antipsychotics (newer medications like Risperdal, Zyprexa, Seroquel and Abilify may have higher risks than older drugs like Thorazine or Haldol).

So, if you are taking any of these substances for any reason, be sure to cool yourself off by limiting your time outdoors, drinking lots of water and minimizing the amount of strenuous activity that you do.  Keep careful watch over the children and elderly who take medications and be prepared to seek help if someone becomes disoriented or difficult to rouse.  Do not stop prescribed medications without medical advice- just stay as cool as possible! Read article

Article by MAIA SZALAVITZ Time Healthland on Friday, July 22, 2011

1 Billion Settlement in Paxil Birth Defect Cases

As more and more information is being revealed about the utter lack of disclosure, providing false data from clinical trails and paying physicians to write false science reports on their drugs, the FDA is considering bring criminal charges against executives in these companies. Let's hope this happens.

I was stunned about two months ago when the Mayo Clinic Issued a statement indicating they supported the use of psychiatric drugs during pregnancy amid all the information that is being revealed about the birth defects being caused by these drugs.

What pregnant women need to understand is you can treat depression during pregnancy safely with acupuncture. If you are experiencing Postpartum Depression you should call one of the compounding pharmacies that are treating women with bioidentical hormones for this hormone driven condition. The links for the compounding pharmacies I recommend are listed in my links.

Understanding the effect that hormone imbalance has on women's health and the more than 35 symptoms that have been identified as being associated with the imbalance of hormones has come about as the baby boomers have sought out help for the symptoms associated with menopause. This have brought a new understanding to a time in a women's life which in past generations lead to the misdiagnosis of mental illnesses and institutionalization of women in this age group. Thanks to those of us who have championed this wakening it's now time to bring this awareness to pregnancy which is the time in a women's life where the hormone changes that occur allow us to grow life in our wombs.

One must understand that it takes a great deal to change the thinking of a medical community. We as women are still not being recognized for the uniqueness in our endocrine systems and the need for doctors to treat the individual symptoms we each experience when our hormones are imbalanced.

There are physician who are leading these most essential changes in thinking who can be found through the referrals that you will receive from the compounding pharmacies that are spread throughout the country.

I am not certain how it is my psychiatrist back in 1981 knew about the birth defects that were being caused by these drugs and some how that understanding got lost along the way.

There is this notion that somehow it's better to go through a pregnancy taking psychiatric drugs that can lead to birth defects of your baby and even death than to be educated on the safest ways to deal with depression during pregnancy and following pregnancy.

I am an advocate of baseline hormone levels to be used as a first line diagnostic tool by every physician in this country and bring awareness for reform in the mental health community in treating trauma which puts women at risk of experiencing Postpartum

There are many similar symptoms for many conditions. It's time we started looking at the symptoms caused by hormones imbalances and those that are the pioneers of bring forth a new understanding of the symptoms of trauma.

Medicine in evolutionary and it's time for change in the perception of Postpartum that will prevent the untimely deaths of young women and their babies. Article by:SHEILA SULLIVAN on AUGUST 26, 2010Read full article

 

 

Are You Taking Too Many Meds? - CNN News

Editor's note: Americans have been led to believe -- by their doctors, by advertisers and by the pharmaceutical industry -- that there is a pill to cure just about anything that ails them. This week, the networks of CNN go deep into the politics and the pills.

(CNN) -- For Alesandra Rain, it all started with sleeplessness. In 1993 she was having marital troubles and her business wasn't doing well. Anxiety kept her up at night, so her general practitioner prescribed sleeping pills.

"It worked fabulously. I felt very relaxed and I would sleep better," Rain remembers. "I thought this was certainly the right prescription for me."

Then a few weeks later, another symptom developed.

"It was so unusual. I started having bronchitis and lung infections," she recalls. She went to a pulmonologist who prescribed an antibiotic.
Another complication soon followed.

"My heart started skipping beats, so I was referred to a cardiologist," explains Rain, who says other than a series of surgeries after a car accident, she had been completely healthy until this point in her life. The cardiologist ran a few tests and prescribed medication to treat arrhythmias.

It didn't end there.

Eventually she developed seizures. At this point, she was already taking at least six different prescriptions from three separate specialists. She went to see a neurologist who prescribed an anti-seizure medication on top of that.

"My whole day became pills and doctors and shots," she says.

Rain's insomnia returned as things continued to spiral out of control. Despite all the testing and prescriptions, she says no one could figure out the problem. She was put on temporary disability. Depression followed.

"When I finally got to a shrink of course I was depressed, because no one could figure out what was wrong with me! It never occurred to me that it might be the pills themselves."

Too many drugs, too little communication

At her worst, Rain was under the care of a general practitioner, pulmonologist, cardiologist, pain management specialist and a psychiatrist. She was spending more than $900 a month, taking 12 different types of medication, amounting to about a thousand pills a month.

"That's what I call prescription multiplication," says Michael Wincor, an associate professor of clinical pharmacy, psychiatry and the behavioral sciences at the University of Southern California.

He says it is not uncommon for patients to receive multiple prescriptions from different specialists, each focusing on a specific symptom. Wincor says it can be potentially dangerous for the patient, especially if the various physicians aren't communicating with one another.

"A patient could have adverse effects and think the medical condition is getting worse, when in fact it is a side effect of several different medications which are all interacting in a negative way," Wincor says. "When you're on more than 20 drugs all at the same time, you'd want to question whether or not that's really necessary."

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, prescription drug usage in the United States is continuing to rise. A recent report finds the number of prescriptions filled each year increased by 39% between 1999 and 2009, and the amount of money spent was $234 billion in 2008. The average American fills 12 prescriptions each year.

"Many side effects from drug interactions (not all) are exacerbations of known side effects of the single drugs that are made worse by the two drugs together," says Dr. Russ Altman, a professor of bioengineering, genetics and medicine at Stanford University.

He co-authored a study in the journal Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics that found a widely prescribed antidepressant used in conjunction with a common cholesterol-lowering medication caused unexpected increases in blood sugar levels.

Altman says most drugs are tested and approved independently, and it can be difficult to predict the side effects of drug combinations.

"It is very hard to find these in advance of release of the drug, because sometimes these effects will only manifest in the context of large numbers of patients," he explains.

"I don't think people really understand the nature of medication; the (drugs) will, by definition, have some toxic, collateral side effects," says Dr. Douglas Bremner, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Emory University. His 2008 book "Before You Take that Pill" warned patients of the risks and benefits of some commonly prescribed drugs.

Bremner says medications clearly do a lot of good and are needed in many situations, but warns that when a patient is on too many at once, there are serious questions about whether the therapeutic benefits outweigh the collateral. "When you end up on 12 prescription medications you need to seriously look at what the situation is," he says. "At that point, there's no way of knowing what's causing what anymore."

"I don't want to do this anymore"

Wincor recommends patients fulfill all their prescriptions at one pharmacy, especially if they are receiving treatment from multiple practitioners.

"Often the pharmacist is the best point person because they're the last stop before the prescription hits the hand of the patient and are ready to be taken."

He says the most important thing is to have one person who is keeping track of the various drugs and how they could interact.
If you can't have a single overall manager of treatment, experts suggest keeping a list of all your prescriptions and showing the list to any physician introducing a new medication.

Altman says, when possible, introducing new medications one at a time can help you recognize side effects and interactions earlier. You can potentially trace them to the most recent drug added, he says.

Bremner also advises patients to check out websites like Medication.com and Askapatient.com and read the experiences others have had with the medication you have just been prescribed. "Patients should become more educated about the effects and not just blindly take what is given to them."

Alesandra Rain says she reached her tipping point in 2003.
"I opened my medicine cabinet and saw it lined with prescription pill bottles," she remembers. "I looked at myself in the mirror. My skin was gray, I was hunched over in pain, my eyes were swollen and I had no quality of life. I thought, 'I don't want to do this anymore.' "

She decided to quit taking all her prescriptions cold turkey -- something neither she nor other experts recommend for any patient. "You can't go cold turkey off that many pills without doing some damage," Rain says. She eventually enrolled in a drug rehab facility that helps victims of substance abuse.

Today, Rain runs a company called Point of Return, which educates patients about the effects of prescription medications and helps them outline an "exit strategy" for safely tapering off highly addictive varieties of prescription drugs.

"I spent 10 years on the pills before I realized there was no exit strategy. It was always more drugs, never less." says Rain, who later learned the cause of her initial insomnia was a B-12 vitamin deficiency. She is now taking one daily multivitamin. "My life became nothing but a bag of pills, and I just thought there has to be a different way." Written by Sabriya Rice, CNN Medical Producer
May 31, 2011 10:22 a.m. EDT - View article.

 

 

My Favorite Mistake: Stevie Nicks

The biggest mistake I ever made was giving in to my friends and going to see a psychiatrist. It was in the mid-1980s, and I had just gotten out of Betty Ford. I was feeling buoyant and saved and fantastic. But everyone said, “We’re sure you’re going to start using again. You should go to a psychiatrist.” Finally, I said, “All right!” and went. What this man said was: “In order to keep you off cocaine we should put you on the drug that we’re using a lot these days called Klonopin.” Stupidly, I said, “All right.” And the next eight years of my life were destroyed.

Klonopin is in the Valium family, but Valium is fuzzy and Klonopin is insidious because it’s so subtle that you can hardly tell you took it. I got through 1986 and 1987. Thank God I’d already written the words for my record The Other Side of the Mirror. But what started happening was that if I didn't’t take it, my hands started to shake. I felt like I had a neurological disease or Parkinson’s. I started not being able to get to Lindsey Buckingham’s house on time, and I would get there and everybody was drinking, so I’d have a glass of wine. Don’t mix tranquilizers and wine. Then I’d sing horrific parts on his songs, and he would take the parts off. I was hardly on Tango of the Night, which I happen to love.

The next six years were terrible. Looking back on it, I think this therapist was basically a groupie. He loved hearing stories of rock and roll and he started upping my dose. He watched me go from a beautiful, 125-pound, newly sober woman who had the world at her feet to a 170-pound woman who had the lights go out in her eyes.

Finally, in 1993, I’d had enough. I said, “Take me to a hospital.” I went in for 47 days, and it made Betty Ford look like a cakewalk. My hair turned gray and my skin molted. I could hardly walk. You can detox off heroin in 12 days. Coke is just a mental detox. But tranquilizers-they are dangerous. I was terrified to leave, and I came away knowing that that would never happen to me again.

I learned so much in that hospital. I wrote the whole time I was there, stuff that I consider to be some of my best writing ever. I learned that I could have fun and laugh and cry with amazing people and not be on drugs. I learned that I could live my life and still be beautiful and fun and still go to parties and not even have to have a glass of wine. I never went to therapy again after that-why would I? More…

by: Kirstin Burns | from: Newsweek

The Benzodiazepine Withdrawal Syndrome and Its Management

SUMMARY: The literature on benzodiazepine dependence and withdrawal is reviewed with an emphasis on social and psychological considerations. The problems of when to prescribe, identifying withdrawal symptoms, effective communication with the patient, the structure of withdrawal programmes, and the use of drugs, psychological approaches and other services are discussed.

Introduction
The problems of benzodiazepine dependence and withdrawal have recently assumed a higher profile. There has been a renewal of interest in the popular press with advice to patients which can be interpreted as encouragement to sue their doctors for prescribing benzodiazepines. Recently a timely editorial in the Journal outlined a rational approach to benzodiazepine withdrawal. This review highlights the complex nature of the withdrawal syndrome and offers further guidelines on withdrawal to the general practitioner, with particular emphasis on social and psychological issues.

Identifying benzodiazepine withdrawal symptoms
Several reviews conclude that a significant proportion of, but by no means all, patients receiving therapeutic doses of benzodiazepines develop symptoms when withdrawing that indicate physical dependence. Many studies have used selected samples of patients who have had previous difficulty withdrawing. Ashton, for example, lists perceptual distortions, paresthesia and difficulty walking as occurring in all her subjects. Other reported symptoms include feelings of unreality or depersonalization, pain, visual disturbances, depression, paranoid thoughts and feelings of persecution, gastrointestinal symptoms and increased sensitivity to light, noise, taste and smell. A double-blind placebo controlled study, also using a selected sample, found all subjects experienced anxiety, tension, agitation, restlessness and sleep disturbance.

However, studies with less selected samples yielded a similar constellation of symptoms. For example, 'Iyrer and colleagues found insomnia to be the most commonly experienced withdrawal symptom (57.5% of sample), along with extreme dysphoria, impaired perception of movement, muscle pain and headache. Onyett and Turpin found sleep disturbance and headache were most frequently reported. More exceptionally, fits, confusional states and psychosis have occurred following sudden withdrawal.

Although the existence of the withdrawal syndrome is difficult to dispute, its definition and explanation are not simple. Smith and Wesson separate three categories of symptomatology: a 'sedative-hypnotice constellation which is found with high dosage and has a fairly rapid onset after withdrawal; a 'low dose' constellation beginning soon after withdrawal and improving after weeks or months; and 'symptom re-emergence' entailing a resurgence of the anxiety symptoms which continue unabated over time. The picture is further complicated by reports of 'rebound anxiety' in which the original symptoms of anxiety return, but temporarily and with greater intensity." However, the syndrome involves more than a return to a previous level of anxiety, as shown by withdrawal symptoms that are untypical of anxiety, the occurrence of the syndrome being unrelated to the patient's psychiatric history, and the patient returning to pre-withdrawal levels of anxiety a short time after withdrawal is complete. More…

Misery of the tranquilliser addicts forced to go cold turkey by GPs

Helen lay shaking and sobbing in the drug addiction detox unit. The 61-year-old businesswoman was racked with such excruciating pain she wasn’t sure she could survive it.

What’s so shocking is that unlike the other patients at the unit, who were struggling with heroin or cocaine addictions, the only  drugs Helen had ever taken were the  tranquilizers prescribed by her GP for depression and anxiety.

‘Seven years ago, my doctor gave me Valium, which I thought would just get me through a rough patch,’ recalls Helen, who is married with a daughter. ‘I had no idea they were addictive.’

Two years ago, she began to suffer from chronic dizziness - her GP sent her for brain scans and heart tests but these proved inconclusive, so Helen did her own research, and discovered that her symptoms matched the symptoms of the long-term side-effects of common tranquilizers.
‘When I went back to my GP, he said my symptoms had nothing to do with drugs and asked me why I wanted to come off them,’ says Helen.

Even when she did finally get herself into a detox unit, the drugs were withdrawn at a much faster rate than officially recommended, causing her such terrible side-effects she’s had to go back on to the drugs.

Helen is one of an estimated 1.3 million Britons addicted to prescription tranquilizers, also known as benzodiazepines.

These drugs include diazepam (known previously as Valium), Xanax, Ativan, Serax and Librium. They are commonly prescribed as a treatment for severe anxiety and insomnia - last year ten million prescriptions for benzodiazepines were issued in England alone.

They work by boosting the action of a naturally occurring brain chemical called GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid). GABA tells brain cells to slow down and stop firing, and has a calming effect on the brain, muscles and heart rate, helping to ease the insomnia that often accompanies anxiety.

But the drugs use the same addictive pathways in the brain as illegal drugs such as heroin. Patients often need progressively higher doses as the body becomes accustomed to the drug - these higher doses can cause side-effects including paranoia, fatigue, dizziness, memory problems and dulled emotions.

Because of the high risk of addiction, the UK’s Committee for Safety of Medicines issued guidelines back in 1988 advising GPs that the drugs should be prescribed for no more than two to four weeks.

Despite this, there are huge numbers of patients who’ve been left on the pills long term, even for decades, say campaigners.

The concern now, however, is that over the past year GPs have performed a drastic U-turn and, without warning, are rapidly reducing patients’ drug doses in a short space of time to get them off the drugs.

Campaigners believe this has been prompted by a Department of Health review looking into the number of prescriptions GPs are issuing for benzodiazepines.

But going ‘cold turkey’ in this way can cause severe withdrawal effects, including excruciating pain in the muscles and joints, insomnia, and even suicidal thoughts.

Barry Haslam, the chairman of Oldham TRANX, a support group for patients addicted to benzodiazepines, says the charity is taking calls from people all over the country about being suddenly and abruptly withdrawn from their tranquilizers.

Apart from the crippling side-effects, he points out that, ‘most patients are just left to go on with it on their own.

‘And even if they are offered help it’s usually a referral to a detox unit for illegal drug users, and that is just not appropriate because they bring patients off the drugs in too short a space of time.’

Official advice for health professionals (NHS Clinical Knowledge Summaries) suggests reducing a patient’s dose of benzodiazepines  by five to ten per cent every one to two weeks. Once a lower dose is reached, the reduction should be slowed.

It acknowledges that it may take a year or longer for patients to come off the drugs and stresses a patient must be stable, and willing to come off their tablets - and that the withdrawal plan should be tailored to their individual needs.

Campaigners say it’s the latter point that is crucial; patients should be allowed to proceed at their own pace and have their personal situations taken into account.

Dr Trevor Turner, a consultant psychiatrist at the East London Foundation Trust, says: ‘GPs are caught in the middle between trying to be humane prescribers - after all, some of these patients really do need this medication to function - and following clinical guidelines.
If patients do want to come off their medication they should be offered alternative therapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy, relaxation classes and maybe alternative medication such as anti-depressants.’

One of those affected by the new change of heart about benzodiazepines is Steven James. The  26-year-old writer was shocked when he received a terse phone call from his GP practice six months ago telling him he must quit his prescription tranquilizers.

‘My old doctor retired and a new doctor rang out of the blue last summer and said my pills were addictive and were only a short-term treatment,’ recalls Steven, who lives in Cardiff.

‘I was horrified as this had never been mentioned to me before.

Steven was 14 when he was first prescribed diazepam for panic attacks.

‘I was on a repeat prescription, and if I felt stressed or anxious my GP would put it up a bit more each time. No one ever mentioned I shouldn't be on them long term.’

But Steven’s new doctor was adamant he must come off the drugs, and reduced his prescription by 2mg a fortnight from his daily 45mg a day. He is now taking 20mg, but although this reduction rate was in line with official advice, Steven has found it hard to function and he suffers from  headaches, lack of concentration and panic attacks.

‘The effects are horrendous,’ he says.

In some ways, however, he’s been more fortunate than patients such as Helen, whose prescription was reduced at a much more brutal rate.

Initially undeterred by her GP’s reluctance to take her off the drugs, Helen had started to follow The Ashton Manual, an online guide to coming off benzos written by Professor Heather Ashton, an expert in benzodiazepines.

‘I gradually reduced my dosage down from 15mg a day to 1.5mg over ten months, but I was in excruciating pain,’ she says.

‘In desperation, I called my GP who said I would have to have my dosage increased to 20mg a day to stabilise my condition - which was higher than when I started out.’

So Helen rang her local drug and alcohol misuse service, who suggested she go to a residential NHS Detox Unit, and made a referral.

‘The problem is that the staff reduced my dosage far too rapidly - from 16.5mg to 8mg in two weeks, which is the speed used for illegal drugs. I was in a terrible state, crying and shaking. After a four week break, I was re-admitted and my dosage was reduced to zero.’

Eight weeks later, the pain was so bad that Helen had to go back on diazepam and is back up to 15mg.

‘I don’t want to stay on the pills - they suppress all your emotions and make you feel like you’re in a parallel universe,’ she says. ‘I will come off them eventually, but it has to be at my own pace and I need support to be able to do this.’

The solution, ultimately, is for psychiatrists, GPs and patient groups to sit down ‘and thrash out a good set of guidelines on monitoring and assessing patients’, says Dr Martin Johnson, a GP and trustee of the Patients’ Association.

A Department of Health spokesman says: ‘GPs should be prescribing benzodiazepines and managing withdrawal from these drugs based on their clinical judgment of their patients’ needs and in line with the guidance available to them.’

However, patients such as Steven and Helen say they can’t come off these drugs alone.
‘All I’m asking for is a GP or psychiatrist to be willing to help me,’ says Steven. ‘And that means more than just stopping the prescription.’ View Article

Prolonged exposure to antidepressants can induce tardive dysphoria

Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) may be related to inadequate dosing of antidepressants or antidepressant tolerance. Alternatively, there are reasons to believe that antidepressant treatment itself may contribute to a chronic depressive syndrome. This study reports a case of antidepressant discontinuation in a TRD patient, a 67-year-old white man with onset of major depressive illness at the age of 45. He was homozygous for the short form of the serotonin transporter. He was treated off and on until the age of 59 and had been on an antidepressant continuously until the age of 67. Over the previous 2 years he had been depressed without any relief by medication or 2 electroconvulsive treatments. His medications at the time of evaluation included Paroxetine 10 mg daily, Venlafaxine 75 mg daily and Clonazepam 3 mg daily. His 17-item Hamilton depression score was 22. Over the subsequent 6 months, he was started on Bupropion and then tapered off all antidepressants, including the Bupropion. His Hamilton depression score dropped to 18. The patient was not satisfied with his progress and sought another opinion to restart antidepressants. One year later, on Duloxetine 60 mg daily, he continued to complain of unremitting depression.

A possible prodepressant effect of antidepressants has been previously proposed. Fava was the first to suggest that an antidepressant-related neurobiochemical mechanism of increasing vulnerability to depression might play a role in worsening the long-term outcome of the illness. Understanding of potential mechanisms of this phenomenon can be gleaned from observations regarding the short form of the serotonin transporter (5HTTR). Patients with the short form of the 5HTTR and prolonged antidepressant exposure, may be particularly vulnerable to antidepressant-related worsening. In other words, prolonged exposure to antidepressants can induce neuroplastic changes that result in the genesis of antidepressant-induced dysphoric symptoms. The investigators propose the term 'tardive dysphoria' to describe such a phenomenon and describe diagnostic criteria for it. Tapering or discontinuing the antidepressant might reverse the dysphoric state. Antidepressant discontinuation may not provide immediate relief. In fact, it is likely that transient symptoms of withdrawal will occur in the initial 2-4 weeks following antidepressant discontinuation or tapering. However, after a prolonged period of antidepressant  abstinence,  one may see a gradual return to the patient's baseline.

Article Source Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics

 

 

 

 

 

Families on the Brink: Elders Confused on Too Many Medications

Intervening Can Keep Elders Safe 

91-year-old Maynard Merel takes ten different types of pills every day. Ask him to tell you what each pill does for him, and the chances are he'll tell you he has no idea.

Although he suffers from high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and underactive thyroid, and chronic asthma, he can't remember which pill combats which ailment, or the proper dosage he needs.

During a doctor's visit, his geriatrician reminded him that he only needed to take one thyroid pill a day. Maynard Merel was taking ten.
"We have to straighten out all of these – too many medications," said Merel's geriatrician, Dr. Barbara Paris, director of geriatrics at Mamimonides Medical Center.

Francis Merel, Maynard's wife, agreed."I think he is a mess," said Francis. "He's been taking too much of the drug. He is just lethargic."

Merel is one of many seniors at risk of dying from polypharmacy, the term for when a patient takes too many potentially unnecessary medications.

"There are a lot of patients who see multiple specialists, and nobody is coordinating their care," said Paris. "And they get into dangerous situations where the right hand doesn't know what the left is doing."

Nearly one-third of Americans ages 57 to 85 take at least five prescription drugs -- people with chronic illnesses may take more than 20. Sixty-eight percent of Americans are also taking over-the-counter medicines or supplements, according to a 2008 article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. These combinations may lead to dangerous and often unmonitored interactions.

"There are over 100K deaths per year related to polypharmacy and medication misuse and adverse reactions, which brings it to one of the leading causes of death in this country," said Paris.

Seniors can experience polypharmacy not only when they are prescribed numerous medications, but also when they start taking the medications of other family members as well.
While Paris put Merel on a new plan, which reduced three of his medications, she discovered he was taking his wife's prescription anti-depressant medication.

"One night he said 'I don't want dinner, I'm going to lie down,' and it just seemed to me to be a kind of depression," said Francis Merel. "He isn't as hotsy totsy as he used to be. ... It's not his style."

Maynard Merel needed help to manage his care. But, like many seniors, Maynard said he felt that asking for help would compromise his sense of independence. And many times, adult children find it hard to determine whether they should step in, in the belief that changes in their parent's behavior are just the natural signs of aging.

Family members can watch for signs of polypharmacy at home, according to ABC's chief health and medical editor, Dr. Richard Besser. These signs can include weight loss, depression, or lack of interest in normal activities.

Also, there are forms an elderly patient can fill out, which will allow family members to discuss the care of their loved ones with the doctor.

"You may find that your parent's doctor won't talk to you because you are not approved due to privacy laws," said Besser.

Filling out HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) release forms beforehand can assure you'll be included in conversations about your loved one's care, Besser said.

WRITTEN BY GITIKA AHUJA AND LARA SALAHI - ABC News Health

Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America

Most of us who live stressed out lives have taken recourse to Psychiatric drugs, some times. But their effectiveness remains doubtful.

Most of us who live stressed out lives have taken recourse to Psychiatric drugs, some times. But their effectiveness remains doubtful. Many a times the medical practitioners are encouraged in prescribing these drugs, in league with Pharmaceuticals and Drugs companies with commissions and other quid pro quo.

I was Chairman and Managing Director of India's largest Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Company , IDPL in 1985 and 1986 , with five units producing a wide range of bulk drugs, formulations, chemicals and surgical instruments , employing nearly 13,000 personnel .As a result of price control regime , the Indian government did succeed in keeping the prices of the life saving drugs cheap , also forcing multinationals to produce bulk drugs in India. IDPL trained a large number of Pharma industry experts , ( Dr Reddy of Reddy Laboratories was one of them) researchers, marketers and technicians .India now produces drugs amounting to 12 o 15 billion dollars and is a major exporter.

During my tenure with IDPL, I became aware of the nexus between the doctors and drug companies. How private companies keep politicians on their rolls to plead their case and other such practices. IDPL was always at a disadvantage, with the controlling ministry not supporting us .Many bureaucrats were gifted shares in private companies, whose cause they promoted.

It was clear that drugs mostly treat the symptoms and not cure the disease. But some medicines like anti-biotics are necessary in curing infections. But have been abused and over prescribed.

I am reproducing below an article edited by Gary G. Kohls, MD, with his permission, on the subject noted above. Three years ago I was forced to take Xanax and other Psychiatric drugs with indifferent results .Finally I was able to kick off the drugs with daily breathing exercises , one can learn from TV being done by Guru Ram Dev , who has done more for the health of Indians than many health ministers put together. - Article written by MWC News - Media with Conscience More...

 

So Young and So Many Pills

More than 25% of Kids and Teens in the U.S. Take Prescriptions on a Regular Basis

Gage Martindale, who is 8 years old, has been taking a blood-pressure drug since he was a toddler. "I want to be healthy, and I don't want things in my heart to go wrong," he says.

And, of course, his mom is always there to check Gage's blood pressure regularly with a home monitor, and to make sure the second-grader doesn't skip a dose of his once-a-day enalapril.

These days, the medicine cabinet is truly a family affair. More than a quarter of U.S. kids and teens are taking a medication on a chronic basis, according to Medco Health Solutions Inc., the biggest U.S. pharmacy-benefit manager with around 65 million members. Nearly 7% are on two or more such drugs, based on the company's database figures for 2009.

Doctors and parents warn that prescribing medications to children can be problematic. There is limited research available about many drugs' effects in kids. And health-care providers and families need to be vigilant to assess the medicines' impact, both intended and not. Although the effects of some medications, like cholesterol-lowering statins, have been extensively researched in adults, the consequences of using such drugs for the bulk of a patient's lifespan are little understood.

Many medications kids take on a regular basis are well known, including treatments for asthma and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

But children and teens are also taking a wide variety of other medications once considered only to be for adults, from statins to diabetes pills and sleep drugs, according to figures provided to The Wall Street Journal by IMS Health, a research firm. Prescriptions for antihypertensives in people age 19 and younger could hit 5.5 million this year if the trend though September continues, according to IMS. That would be up 17% from 2007, the earliest year available.

Researchers attribute the wide usage in part to doctors and parents becoming more aware of drugs as an option for kids. Unhealthy diets and lack of exercise among children, which lead to too much weight gain and obesity, also fuel the use of some treatments, such as those for hypertension. And some conditions are likely caught and treated earlier as screening and diagnosis efforts improve.

Gage, who isn't overweight, has been on hypertension drugs since he had surgery to fix a heart defect as a toddler, says his mother, Stefanie Martindale, a Conway, Ark., marketing-company manager.

Most medications that could be prescribed to children on a chronic basis haven't been tested specifically in kids, says Danny Benjamin, a Duke University pediatrics professor. And older drugs rarely get examined, since pharmaceutical firms have little incentive to test medicines once they are no longer under patent protection.

Still, a growing number of studies have been done under a Food and Drug Administration program that rewards drug companies for testing medications in children. In more than a third of these studies, there have been surprising side effects, or results that suggested a smaller or larger dose was needed than had been expected, Dr. Benjamin says. Those findings underscore that children's reactions to medicines can be very different than those of adults. Long-term effects of drugs in kids are almost never known, since pediatric studies, like those in adults, tend to be relatively short.

"We know we're making errors in dosing and safety," says Dr. Benjamin, who is leading a new National Institutes of Health initiative to study drugs in children. He suggests that parents should do as much research as they can to understand the evidence for the medicine, confirm the diagnosis, and identify side effects. Among the places to check: drug labels and other resources on the FDA's website, published research at www.pubmed.gov, and clinical guidelines from groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics.

When a child psychiatrist diagnosed their then 8-year-old daughter with bipolar disorder four years ago, Ken and Joy Lewis, of Chapel Hill, N.C., sought a second opinion from another child psychiatrist.

They also worked with a psychologist. Dr. Lewis, who leads a company that does early-stage drug studies, reads all the available research on each medication suggested for the girl, now 12, who has taken antipsychotics and other psychiatric medications including Risperdal and Haldol.

"If your child has a chronic problem, then you have to invest the time as a parent," he says.

Parents and doctors also say non drug alternatives should be explored where possible. Tom Wells, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences who sees patients at Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock, frequently pushes diet and exercise changes before drugs for hypertensive kids. "Obesity is really the biggest cause I see for high blood pressure in adolescents," he says. But only about 10% of families adhere to his diet and exercise recommendations, he says. More...

Article written by Anna Wilde Mathews, Wall Street Journal Health

1 in 2 Seniors on Antidepressants Face Drug Interactions

WASHINGTON - More than half of older Americans taking an antidepressant for the first time were already taking another drug that could interact with it and cause side-effects, researchers reported on Friday.

And a quarter of patients who suffered side-effects stopped taking antidepressants altogether, the study by a team at Thomson Reuters, the University of Southern California, Sanofi Aventis and elsewhere found.

"We found a concerning degree of potentially harmful drug combinations being prescribed to seniors," Tami Mark of Thomson Reuters, parent company of Reuters, said in a statement.

Other studies have found that older adults are often taking dangerous combinations of prescription drugs, but doctors are not getting the message, the researchers reported in the American Journal for Geriatric Psychiatry.

The research team used a Thomson Reuters database of claims for Medicare, the federal health insurance plan for people over 65.

They found more than 39,000 patients who started antidepressants between 2001 and 2006. "Twelve commonly reported antidepressant side effects were identified in the month after drug initiation," Mark's team wrote.

More than 25 percent of the patients were prescribed antidepressants and another drug that could cause a major interaction. Another 36 percent had potential moderate interactions.

"The most common side effect was insomnia, somnolence, and drowsiness, which occurred in 1,028 (2.6 percent) patients. The next most common side effect was dizziness, which was documented in 416 (1.1 percent) patients," the researchers wrote.

The side-effects meant patients often dropped the drug they were taking. Only 45 percent of those with documented side-effects refilled the prescription for the same antidepressant and a quarter quit taking antidepressants altogether.

Many adults are at risk of this problem, the researchers noted - other studies show that 25 percent of older adults with chronic illnesses such as arthritis or heart disease also have depression, and they have also been shown to be helped by antidepressants.

"Older adults often need to be on many medications, some of which may contribute to depression and/or interact with antidepressants. Finally, older adults metabolize medications slowly and are more sensitive to side effects than younger patients," the researchers concluded.
Reprinted from Thomson Reuters 2010.

Study: Prescription, Illegal Drugs Increasingly Common in Fatal Car Crashes

In a report released today by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), over a five-year period from 2005 to 2009, an increasing number of U.S. drivers involved in fatal car accidents have tested positive for drug use, which can include legally prescribed medications, over-the-counter drugs and illicit substances.

Of the 21,798 U.S. drivers killed in 2009 who were tested for drugs, approximately 18 percent of drivers showed evidence of drugs in their system at time of death, compared with 13 percent in 2005.

Drugs tested for by the agency include narcotics, depressants, stimulants, inhalants, hallucinogens, cannabinoids, phencyclidines (PCPs), anabolic steroids and other medications that can affect a driver's ability to operate a motor vehicle. Side effects that affect an individual's ability to drive include hallucinations, dizziness, hyperactivity, confusion, loss of muscle coordination, drowsiness, blurred vision and seizures.

"Every driver on the road has a personal responsibility to operate his or her vehicle with full and uncompromised attention on the driving task," said NHTSA administrator David Strickland in a press release. "Today's report provides a warning signal that too many Americans are driving after having taken drugs, not realizing the potential for putting themselves and others on the highway at risk."

While it may seem obvious that drugs such as amphetamines, sleeping pills and tranquilizers may impair driving abilities, many medications used to treat anxiety, depression, the flu and even seasonal allergies can create a driving hazard.

"There tends to be a response that my doctor prescribed this, which is true, but that doesn't mean you're OK to be driving," said Catherine Evans, chief of vehicular crime for the Harris County District Attorney's office in Houston, Texas.

A 2001 study from the University of Minnesota found that driving under the influence of certain antihistamines such as Benadryl can impair driving abilities to a greater extent than alcohol. Often drivers are left unaware of their impairment, extreme drowsiness or delayed reflexes.

Other potentially-hazardous medications include narcotics such as Vicodin, morphine and Demerol, tranquilizers and anti-anxiety medications such as Halcion, Valium and Xanax, muscle relaxants and sleeping pills such as Soma and Unisom, amphetamines such as Adderall, Vyvanse and Xyrem, and certain diet pills and appetite suppressants.

This is the NHTSA's first study involving drug-related driving deaths. The analysis only included drug test results from two-thirds of driver fatalities from 2009, and it is unknown as to whether drugs were the cause of the accidents or merely a coincidence. -Reprinted form drug watch nov 30, 2010

 

"Little Purple Pill" Under Microscope

Dr. Marcus Thygeson once wrote his patients countless prescriptions for heartburn drugs such as Prevacid, Prilosec and Nexium — the "little purple pills" of TV ads.

But several months ago, when his own doctor advised him to start taking the pills, he refused. "It was all I could do to get out of the office without a prescription," he said.

The Twin Cities gastroenterologist has come to see the popular pills as a symbol of the excesses of modern medicine — a powerful medication "handed out like water" in his words, amid mounting evidence that it may do many people more harm than good.

"It's a drug we've become very cavalier about," says Thygeson, president of the Center for Healthcare Innovation at Allina Hospitals & Clinics.

"Now it's like front-line therapy if you so much as belch."

The heartburn drugs, known as proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs), are designed to reduce the body's ability to pump acid into the stomach.

Today, they are among the nation's best-selling medications, with more than 119 million prescriptions written last year, in addition to over-the-counter sales. Experts have called them a godsend for ailments like acid reflux, a major cause of heartburn.

Yet there's a growing consensus that millions of people are taking the pills needlessly, or far longer than necessary, wasting billions of dollars and in some cases triggering significant side effects.

Some skeptics even dare to ask why so many Americans are taking pills, which can cost up to $200 a month, to control digestive problems that can be tied to their own bad habits, particularly at the dinner table.

"I'm not blaming patients — it's the path of least resistance," said Dr. Greg Plotnikoff, an internist at Abbott Northwestern's Penny George Institute for Health and Healing in Minneapolis. Fixing the underlying problem, he said, may require losing weight, avoiding certain foods or other lifestyle changes. A pill can seem like an easy alternative.

"When I was a resident, I was told it was a quick and easy answer to everything, and it had no side effects, and insurance was willing to pay for it," Plotnikoff said.

In the past few years, though, scientists have raised concerns about long-term side effects, such as bone fractures and pneumonia. One study in 2009 even found that the drugs, when stopped abruptly, can cause the very symptoms they were designed to prevent.

The drug manufacturers and some leading experts have disputed those findings. But insurers and doctors alike are starting to have second thoughts.

"When you put a patient on a PPI, you're essentially setting them up to be on it for a lifetime," said Thygeson. "I think we need to back away from those drugs."

In recent years, several studies have suggested that many people are taking the drug for no apparent reason. In one Michigan hospital, researchers reviewed patient charts in 2005 and concluded that 60 percent were started on acid-suppressing drugs with no valid explanation.

In May, an editorial in the Archives of Internal Medicine claimed that 53 to 69 percent of the prescriptions for acid suppressors are "for inappropriate indications."

Dr. David Peura, an industry consultant and former president of the American Gastroenterological Association, readily admits that the drugs are overused. But he said that's partly because doctors are reluctant to take patients off medicine if it seems to be working. "One of the first rules in medicine is, don't poke a skunk," said Peura, a retired academic and researcher in Virginia. "That's why I think a lot of people are probably on the medicine who probably don't need it."- BY MAURA LERNER | STAR TRIBUNE (MINNEAPOLIS) More...

 

Eminem: "I had to Learn to Write and Rap Again"

How bad was Eminem's descent into prescription drug addiction? It not only nearly robbed him of his life, it scrambled his brain so badly that he literally had to learn how to rap again, he revealed to the New York Post.

On the eve of his historic two-night stand at Yankee Stadium with Jay-Z; and his two VMA wins; the paper spoke to Slim Shady, 37, about his tumble into drug addiction and the long, hard road to redemption on his hit album Recovery.

"I had to learn to write and rap again, and I had to do it sober and 100 percent clean," Em said, explaining the more mature, focused nature of his rhymes on Recovery. "That didn't feel good at first ... I mean it in the literal sense. I actually had to learn how to say my lyrics again; how to phrase them, make them flow, how to use force so they sounded like I meant them. Rapping wasn't like riding a bike. It was [as much] physical as mental. I was relearning basic motor skills. I couldn't control my hand shakes. I'd get in the [recording] booth and tried to rap, and none of it was clever, none was witty and I wasn't saying it right."

The rapper recalled taking his first Vicodin when he was 24 or 25, back before he could afford anything he wanted. "It was easy in the beginning," he said. "I didn't have the money to get really involved in drugs. I'd do them when somebody offered them to me. As my career took off and the crowds got larger and life got faster, I reached out for that sh-- more and more. I used it as a crutch to calm my nerves. Especially the sleeping pills."

But as his addiction deepened, the drugs began affecting his art, stifling his creativity, shutting off his brain and making him so lazy he preferred watching TV to making new tracks. He said that while listening to albums such as 2004's Encore, he can hear how high he was in the music. "I think the drug use was obvious," he said.

While late partner Proof tried to get him off the pills, Em said even hearing deep concern from his childhood best friend wasn't enough to get him to come clean. "He'd say what was on his mind," Marshall said of Proof. "But as close as he was, it didn't matter. I wasn't ready to listen. There wasn't a person who could tell me I had a problem.

What came next was a nearly four-year hiatus during which the rapper first went to rehab, but then relapsed and settled into a drug funk that he was only beginning to come out of when he released last year's album Relapse. In retrospect, he realized that there were some problems with the record.

"I wasn't disappointed when I put it out. When I felt that was later, when I was reassessing my work; trying to figure out why my songs didn't sound like they used to sound," he said. "The further I got away from Relapse, I was able to hear the problems with all the accents I was using to slip in and out of characters, and how the serial killing didn't work. The joke was over; I ran it into the ground."

He realized the problem was an obvious lack of "personal honesty" on the tracks, a situation he rectified on Recovery with such hit tracks as “Not Afraid” and the Rihanna collabo "Love The Way You Lie." Once his head finally cleared, Em said, he was a new man, which might explain why he  ditched plans to make Relapse 2 and start over with Recovery..

"When I got clean and sober, it was like I was a kid again," he said. "Everything was new. Not to sound corny, I felt like I was born again. I had to learn my writing skills. I was relearning how to rap. I didn't know if my MC skills were intact. But everything was fun and suddenly I started feeling happy. I hadn't felt happy for a long time." - Article by Gill KaufmanMore...

 

Antipsychotics May Be Linked to Blood Clots

Taking antipsychotic drugs, especially newer “atypical” antipsychotics, appears to increase a user’s risk for developing potentially life-threatening blood clots.

In a new study from the U.K., antipsychotic drug use was associated with about a 30% increase in risk for deep vein blood clots or pulmonary embolism.
The risk was highest for new users of the drugs and for patients prescribed atypical antipsychotics, which include Seroquel (quetiapine), Risperdal (risperidone), and Zyprexa (olanzapine).

Compared to patients who did not take antipsychotic drugs, users of atypical antipsychotics were 73% more likely to develop the dangerous blood clots. Seroquel use was associated with a nearly threefold adjusted increase in risk among the study population.

The risk to individual patients remained quite small and the findings need to be confirmed by other researchers, study researcher Julia Hippisley-Cox, MD, of the University of Nottingham, tells WebMD. - Article By Salynn Boyles  WebMD Health News, September 22, 2010 More...

 

 

Antidepressants may damage your eyes

Doctors will admit that medications have side effects. Unfortunately, very often we don't realize the degree of side effects until the offending drugs have been on the market for many years.

Even then, there are times when the degree of negative side effects does not become apparent for another few years.

That appears to be the case with many antidepressants. Drugs known as SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) have now proven to have additional side effects other than the usual depletion of vitamins, suicide, weak bones and liver failure and sometimes even bizarre behavior.

Dr. Robert Rowen wrote of a Canadian study involving patients 65 and older.

"A Canadian team analyzed data on nearly 19,000 people 65 years old or older," he explained. Then they compared their health records to about 190,000 controls. The research team found that, overall, taking SSRIs raised the risk of cataracts by about 15 percent. That's about 22,000 cases of additional cataracts each year in the U.S. alone."

He suggested that while 15 percent alone didn't seem all that large, the results were somewhat shocking when broken down into cases per specific drug. For example, Paxil (paroxetine) elevated cataract risk by 23 percent; Effexor (venlafaxine also an SNRI) brought the odds up to 33 percent; and Luvox (fluvoxamine) increased the risk by a huge 39 percent. Rowen explained that these drugs forcibly induce greater serotonin levels in and around cells that use the neurotransmitter. Those cells in your eye's lens have serotonin receptors. Excess serotonin can induce opacity in the lens, according to Rowen.

Depression is a terrible disorder that alternative physicians feel may possibly be exacerbated by lack of proper nutrition as well as various deficiencies such as the "B" family of vitamins and vitamin D. There are unbelievable numbers of Americans who have tremendous deficiencies in vitamin D. Doctors will also check for heavy metals. They recommend high quality, mercury-free fish oil or other forms of omega 3s, magnesium, B-complex, the amino L-theanine, and extra B1 and SAMe seem to be helpful according to many alternative physicians. They also suggest avoiding sugars and caffeine. There are other remedies in their arsenal that can only be taken under the supervision of a physician and that's better than attempting to treat depression without medical or psychological help.

Regarding the problems with cataracts, I once wrote about a formula that Rowen recommends for cataracts. It involves several substances and his formula is listed on his website. I would suggest that anyone interested in seeking more information on the cataract remedy, speak with his/her ophthalmologist to have the doctor oversee the application of the drops.

In speaking of other contributions to cataracts, Rowen closes with this suggestion: "... if you are taking hormones foreign to your body, please know that there are estrogen receptors in your lens that might trigger cataracts as well. In women who had taken hormone replacement therapy (HRT), the risk for cataracts increased by 14 percent. For current hormone users, the increase in risk soars even higher to 18 percent when compared with women who never used HRT. What's more, the longer you take HRT, the higher your risk for cataracts."

Under no circumstances should a patient stop taking medications without the supervision of a physician. If a drug is working, risk vs. benefits should come into play. - Article by Dee Woods, The Reporter More...

Don't Go Cold Turkey


- Reducing your reliance on antidepressants requires patience and a doctor's involvement.

When the weight of her husband's cancer and the stress of her corporate job became too heavy to bear, Karen Huber did as many of her friends had done and started taking an antidepressant.

What she didn't realize was how difficult it would be to stop.

After a year of taking 10 milligrams of Lexapro daily, on top of 50 mg of Trazodone that she had been taking for a decade to help her sleep, Huber tried to quit cold turkey. The withdrawal symptoms were insufferable: anger and frustration so overwhelming she "could have chewed through a brick."

When Huber tried quitting again in March, she attacked it with a three-pronged strategy: She split her pills in half every couple of weeks, took nutritional supplements to mitigate her irritability, and ultimately checked into a detox center for three weeks. It took more than two months, but it worked.

"If I had known how hard antidepressants are to get off of, I would have tried to avoid them," said Huber, 54, of Little Rock, Ark.

Antidepressant usage doubled between 1996 and 2005, to 10 percent of the U.S. population, according to a study published last year in the Archives of General Psychiatry. That boom means masses of patients who face the challenges of stopping.

Though antidepressants are the most commonly prescribed medications in the U.S., there are no official published guidelines for when and how to come off them, said Dr. Michael Banov, a psychiatrist and author of the new book "Taking Antidepressants" (Sunrise River Press, $16.95).

Generally, patients should stay on antidepressants for at least nine to 12 months to reduce the likelihood of a depression relapse, Banov said. But beyond that, it's up to patients to work with their doctors on whether and how to wean themselves off the drugs. Sometimes the process is unpleasant.

About 20 percent of people who try to quit suffer what the drug companies coined "antidepressant discontinuation syndrome," which can cause symptoms including depression, anxiety, irritability, dizziness, nausea, light-headedness and electric shocks known as "brain zaps."

Symptoms can be more severe the longer you have taken antidepressants, the higher the dosage and the more sensitive your body happens to be, Banov said. They also depend on the drug. Paxil and Effexor are associated with some of the worst withdrawal symptoms because they clear out of your system quickly, leaving little time for your body to adjust to the sudden drop in the neurotransmitter serotonin. Prozac, meanwhile, takes a long time to leave your body, diffusing the withdrawal effects.

Though drug companies warn of potential withdrawal symptoms in their literature, physicians don't always alert their patients when they prescribe the meds, and many people start taking antidepressants not knowing it's so hard to stop.

"It made me angry. I felt like I hadn't been told," said Katherine Perry, 40, an English professor in Cumming, Ga., who became uncomfortably irritable and anxious when she tried to wean herself off Paxil and Wellbutrin on separate occasions.

A cruel catch to discontinuing antidepressants is that it can be hard to tell if the symptoms are from withdrawal or a return of depression, so you have to wait it out, Banov said. If it's withdrawal, the symptoms should begin to clear up in one to two weeks, though sometimes it takes six to eight. If it's depression, they'll get worse.

The key to managing withdrawal is to taper the dosage gradually. But some people need more help, especially when they're trying to come off several prescription drugs.

Wendy Honeycutt was put on antidepressants after the suicides of her mother and brother. It proved a "doorway to disaster," she said, as the side effects later prompted her to take sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication. At the peak, she was taking seven prescription drugs.

When she decided to clear her body because she felt like "a toxic mess," the Texas woman went into a debilitating withdrawal that left her sleepless, anxious, shaking, sweating and emotionally numb, with electrical zaps feeling like "red-hot pokers in my head." She was incapacitated for two months and sick for three years.

It wasn't until Honeycutt found Point of Return, a nonprofit based in Malibu, Calif., that helps people come off their prescription meds, that she began to improve. In addition to offering tapering schedules, information on how drugs interact with each other and emotional support, the organization swears by a schedule of nutritional supplements to temper withdrawal, including omega-3 fatty acids to support brain function and glutathione to enhance the immune system.

Honeycutt, 44, a pastor who now volunteers at Point of Return, said she has been medication-free for three years.

Of course, some people need to be on antidepressants and shouldn't quit. Long-term untreated depression is bad for your brain and body, causing parts of the hippocampus to shrink and hurting the immune system, Banov said. The goal is to be depression-free, not medication-free, he said.

But for Huber, who used the Point of Return program for the six weeks she tapered her dosage, life is better without them - though not necessarily easier. The Lexapro had protected her like a "hard shell," keeping her from being weepy all the time, especially after her husband died last summer.

"Since I've been off them, I cry much easier, I'm much more tender," Huber said. "But that's OK. That's part of the grief process." - Article by Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz, Chicago Tribune, August, 29, 2010 More...

 

 

The Weird and Dangerous World of Sleeping Pills

We're a nation of insomniacs desperate for a decent night's sleep. But what if sleeping pills are doing more than just knocking us out?

Last winter, Tiger Woods and his harem of honeys titillated the nation with so many sordid stories that the oddest of them all was nearly overlooked: Woods's rumored recreational use of the prescription sleep medication Ambien. You could almost hear the collective "Huh?" as people tried to imagine how a widely prescribed (and seemingly benign) insomnia drug could produce an aphrodisiacal haze ideal for crazy sex romps.

Of course, Woods isn't the only celebrity whose pill-popping has publicized Ambien in ways its designers never intended. In 2006, U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy blamed his disorientation on the drug after he smashed his Mustang into a security barrier near the Capitol building. Lindsay Lohan cites Ambien as the trigger for her first stint in rehab--this after she took it, fell asleep on the floor next to a hotel bathtub, and woke only when the water overflowed.

Ambien (generic name zolpidem tartrate) was the first of a revolutionary class of sleeping pills that today includes Sonata (zaleplon), Lunesta (eszopiclone), and Ambien CR (an extended-release formulation). They've been nicknamed "Z drugs"--partly because of their ability to induce z's, and partly because of the ubiquity of z's in their generic names.

To marketers and many sleep researchers, these drugs deserve the hype. Boosters maintain that they're a quantum leap forward in the medical treatment of insomnia--potent, yet with fewer side effects even after people take them for a long time.

But to a growing cadre of critics, the once-bright halo over Z drugs is quickly corroding. On March 6, 2006, New York attorney Susan Chana Lask filed a class-action lawsuit against Ambien's maker, the French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-aventis. The complaint alleged that more than 1,000 people suffered injury or damage as a direct result of their Ambien use, and included charges that the company failed to "adequately and sufficiently" warn doctors, patients, and the public about the drug's side effects. It also detailed nightmare stories of people sleep-driving, gorging themselves on food, and even waking up in jail with no memory of what had happened. Lask coined a name for these people: Ambien zombies.

The lawsuit was withdrawn a little over a year later after the FDA requested new warnings about the potential for what it called "complex sleep-related behaviors." The agency also called for a warning about another potentially lethal side effect: anaphylaxis, a severe allergic reaction that could swell the tongue and throat, obstructing the user's airway.

So far at least, I have managed to avoid asphyxiation. As for Ambien zombiehood, that's a different story.

I took my first Ambien in 1995 as a remedy for months of nightly insomnia. I'd be lying if I said I didn't love this drug from the get-go.

But now, after 15 years of on-and-off use, I'd be lying if I said I don't hate it, too. Article from Men's Health Magazine August 2010 Issue by Jim Thornton

 

Autism: Lack of Evidence for Antidepressants

Antidepressants commonly prescribed to people with autistic spectrum disorders cannot be recommended based on current evidence, a new study by Cochrane Researchers concludes. Despite some evidence of benefits in adults diagnosed with autism, they say there is no evidence for any benefits associated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in children, who may suffer serious adverse effects as a result of taking the drugs.

Autistic spectrum disorders are difficult to treat because of the range of symptoms experienced by patients, including difficulties with social interactions and communication. SSRIs are among the most commonly prescribed medications, although none have been specifically approved by any drug authority for use in autism. In the UK, most antidepressants are not approved for children for any condition. The rationale behind the use of SSRIs in autism is that they act on serotonin, the same chemical in the body that is responsible for some of the psychological processes affected by the condition.

The researchers included a total of seven trials, involving 271 patients, in their study. The trials evaluated fluoxetine, fluvoxamine, fenfluramine and citalopram. Overall, the researchers found no benefit in the five trials in children and some evidence of serious harm, including one child who suffered a prolonged seizure after taking citalopram. The two trials in adults were very small and thus, although there was some evidence for improvement in symptoms, the authors concluded there was too little evidence for the drugs to be recommended. A major problem with analysing the results was that all the trials used different measures for assessing the drugs' effects.

"We can't recommend SSRIs as treatments for children, or adults, with autism at this time. However, decisions about the use of SSRIs for co-occurring obsessive-compulsive disorder, aggression, anxiety, or  depression in individuals with autism should be made on a case by case basis," said lead author Katrina Williams of the School of Women's and  Children’s Health at the University of New South Wales & Sydney Children's Hospital in Sydney, Australia.

"Not all the SSRIs currently in use have undergone controlled trials for autistic spectrum disorders, but parents are often anxious to try treatments regardless of the lack of evidence. It's important that doctors are open about the lack of evidence, and explain any risks fully, before prescribing these treatments." More...

Article from Physorg.com (Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2010, Issue 8. Art. No.: CD004677.)

Thinking Outside the Bio-Psychatric Paradigm

As a person working within the mental health profession, I once challenged colleagues to examine the work that they do without using the terms 'mental illness', 'treatment', 'diagnosis' or the like. I could see that initially this was a challenging exercise, however the key terms that came forward were:
conflict resolution, mediation, coaching, guiding.

These terms become important when we realize that those who have been labeled as seriously distressed and 'mentally ill' are individuals who have undergone conflict in their lives. These individuals are seeking a voice. Their actions are not random, but rather seek to communicate their experiences. Some individuals who have endured serious trauma begin to speak of their experiences in a metaphorical sense. The role of the therapist should be to help this individual find meaning in this experience, uncover unmet needs, and to listen and be able to understand this experience.

Biological determinism and the theory of distress arising from so-called chemical imbalances is a popular and majority idea in the mental health field today. However, there is no evidence to support such a concept. Such an idea helps to further the profits of the pharmaceutical industry who are able to make lifelong mental patients in need of their products through the promulgation of such chemical imbalance concepts. The President of the American Psychiatric Association recently stated that there is no 'clear cut test" to demonstrate chemical imbalances. Dr. Eliot Valentstein goes further to state, "Elliot Valenstein, Ph.D. says, "[T]here are no tests available for assessing the chemical status of a living person's brain." The late Dr. Loren Mosher who had headed Schizophrenia research for the National Instituts of Mental Health stated, "…there are no external validating criteria for psychiatric diagnoses." More...

Article by Dr. Dan L. Edmunds, ED.

Why Low Dose Benzodiazepeine-Dependent Insomniacs Can't Escape Their Sleeping Pills

Psychobiological aspects of low-dose benzodiazepine dependence (LBD) and drug withdrawal were investigated in 76 middle-aged and elderly chronic insomniacs in a sleep laboratory. Comparison with drug-free insomniacs showed that LBD leads to a complete loss of hypnotic activity and substantial suppression of delta and REM sleep. Only small differences were found between benzodiazepines with different half-life time. Upon withdrawal, recovery from this suppression, especially in REM sleep, occurred, while insomnia did not increase.

The patients, however, reported sleeping longer while taking the drug compared with withdrawal. This misperception seems to be a specific effect of benzodiazepines, and contrasts with the full awareness of insomnia upon withdrawal. It is concluded that these effects play a leading role in the patients' inability to escape their sleeping pills. The response of REM sleep to withdrawal should make this a useful measure to objectively confirm low-dose benzodiazepine dependence. More...

Article by D. Schneider-Helmert PD Dr.med. / DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1988.tb06408.x

 

Drivers on Prescription Drus are Hard to Convict

The accident that killed Kathryn Underdown had all the markings of a drunken-driving case. The car that hit her as she rode her bicycle one May evening in Miller Place, N.Y., did not stop, the police said, until it crashed into another vehicle farther down the road.

The driver could not keep her eyes open during an interview with investigators, according to the complaint against her, and her speech was slow and slurred. But the driver told the police that she had not been drinking; instead, the complaint said, she had taken several prescription medications, including a sedative and a muscle relaxant.

She was charged with vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence of drugs - an increasingly common offense, law enforcement officials say, at a time when drunken-driving deaths are dropping and when prescriptions for narcotic painkillers, anti-anxiety medications, sleep aids and other powerful drugs are rampant.

The issue is vexing police officials because, unlike with alcohol, there is no agreement on what level of drugs in the blood impairs driving.

The behavioral effects of prescription medication vary widely, depending not just on the drug but on the person taking it. Some, like anti-anxiety drugs, can dull alertness and slow reaction time; others, like stimulants, can encourage risk-taking and hurt the ability to judge distances. Mixing prescriptions, or taking them with alcohol or illicit drugs, can exacerbate impairment and sharply increase the risk of crashing, researchers say. More...

Article by New York Times written by Abby Goodnough and Kati Zezima, July 2010