Philip Robinson was 25 when he went to his GP with mild depression. The pills he was prescribed changed his life, turning him into a ‘zombie-like’ addict — just one of the 1.5 million Britons whose lives have been ruined by prescription drugs. Here, with extraordinary candour, he reveals how he battled to get his life back.
Dr. Charles Raison, an associate professor at Emory University, wrote in response to a reader’s question on CNN that about 20 percent of patients experience withdrawal symptoms when they stop taking antidepressants. Paxil is “especially notorious for causing withdrawal problems” because of its short half-life in the body. Paxil is also associated with a number of side effects for those currently taking the medication, including birth defects and depression.
Hundreds of commercial and private U.S. pilots have been diagnosed and treated for a broad array of serious psychiatric and medical conditions, including schizophrenia, attempted suicide, sexual deviance, alcoholism and drug abuse, a Herald review has found.
Forest Laboratories Inc. (FRX) will pay $313 million to settle criminal and civil charges that it improperly marketed antidepressants for use in children and distributed an unapproved thyroid drug, the Justice Department announced Wednesday….The settlement also covers civil charges that Forest improperly promoted Celexa and another antidepressant, Lexapro, for pediatric use, which had not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Forest’s improper promotion campaign took place from 1998 until at least 2005, the department alleged.
Last week, the New York Times ran a sad yet compelling story about a boy named Kyle, who at 18 months was put on antipsychotic drugs to quell severe temper tantrums. By the time he was 3, the poor kid had been diagnosed with autism, bipolar disorder, hyperactivity, insomnia and “oppositional defiant disorder” (um, isn’t that a fancy phrase for “normal toddler behavior”?). He was on the antipsychotic Risperdal, the antidepressant Prozac, two sleeping medicines and a pill for attention-deficit disorder. Did you read that?! Prozac! Sleeping pills!