Antidepressants:
Solution or a Profit Margin?

By Hwaa Irfan
09/12/2002

The current state of mental health worldwide reflects the developments of the 20th and 21st centuries. Mental disorders once found mainly amongst adults are now found amongst children. The World Health Report, “Mental Health: New Understanding, New Hope” reports that 10-20 million children worldwide have one or more mental or neurological problems. The so-called ‘war-on-terrorism’ has done much to advance this situation. It is not only affecting those directly exposed to the destabilization strategies of the US, but also those physically safe in the West as a sense of a safe future dwindles. Those that stand to profit are the large multinational corporations with tentacles extending to the entire globe.

Over 450 million people worldwide have a mental or neurological problem, amongst whom 121 million have depression and 1 million annually commit suicide, 60% of which are a result of depressive disorders or schizophrenia (or maybe the antidepressants themselves). The World Health Organization report projects that depression will become the fourth leading disease worldwide by 2020 (Eun-Myo p.1, 2).

The concern also extends to an increased access to psychiatric drugs through the integration of mental health care with primary care throughout the world. The problem is viewing psychiatric drugs as a first line of treatment. The proposed mental health reforms in Britain state that the ‘mentally ill’ may be detained by force even if they have not committed a crime. The Royal College of Psychiatry rebels at being forced into this position (Goodchild p.1).

Antidepressants and the ‘Side Effect Factor’

Tricyclic antidepressants were first developed in the 1950s. Second generation antidepressants, Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI), currently represent 95% of prescribed antidepressants. Both tricyclics and SSRI drugs alter the chemical workings of the brain thus affecting the neuro-transmitters serotonin and noradrenaline. It is assumed that these drugs increase the activity of these neurotransmitters but no one actually knows how these drugs work. It is also assumed that fewer side effects are attributed to SSRI, the main reason why they are to largely replace tricyclics.

In the UK, 3 million prescriptions are given annually (Connor p.1). In the US, SSRIs are commonly prescribed for depression, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder (PSTD). The most controversial SSRI is Prozac, Zoloft being the most commonly prescribed. On zoloft.com we are informed that “you may feel better within 2 – 4 weeks or 6 –8 weeks. Even if you don’t feel better right away it is important to keep taking your medicine as directed. The people around you may see a change for the better before you do.” Approved by the FDA for the previously mentioned illnesses, side effects include: gastrointestinal problems including bleeding, insomnia, dry mouth, sexual malfunction, malaise, tremors, sweating and agitation. Patients are told, however, to continue taking the drug despite loss of bodily control. This situation becomes complex where mental health is jeopardized in war-torn regions that face repetitive daily threats.

The Developing World: A Pharmaceuticals Laboratory

It has been noted for some time that dosages are much lower for people from developing countries and are given for shorter periods of time. Adverse reactions are greater, unlike Western Europeans for example, who have a higher tolerance due to greater exposure (Rohlof p.1). What will happen to refugees in exile who might become subject to continuous prescriptions? According to Bosnian psychiatrist, Dr. Mohammed Masic, many refugees come under psychiatric treatment as has happened in the case of Bosnian refugees in Chicago who have PTSD. This can often be delayed and triggered by estrangement in an alien environment. The prevalence of PTSD fragments the cohesive human relationships whereby one would normally turn to family, friends and elders of the community. Now one is faced with psychiatrists and a range of therapies including antidepressants (Masic p.2, 5, 7, 16). This implies unfamiliar long-term treatments with possible greater disorientation. For those in hot climates, psychiatric drugs and hot climate do not mix! Antidepressants and psychotic drugs interfere with the body’s ability to regulate body temperature increasing the risk of heat stroke, which can be lethal. It was not Africa but the heat of Chicago in July 1995 where a high level of heat-related fatalities occurred as a result of psychiatric drugs (Laderman p.1).

A Lethal Remedy

The effects can be lethal as highlighted in the revealing study of psychiatrist David Healy from Wales, who looked at 20 healthy volunteers. Half were given Zoloft and the other half were given an antidepressant that does not target the brain chemical serotonin. After two weeks there was a switch in drugs. The SSRI recipients had become dangerously agitated and suicidal. After the two-week period, a 30 year old wife and mother became obsessed with the idea of throwing herself in front of a car. Even though Healy was surprised, he remained neutral on the subject and served as an expert witness in many cases gaining access to many company records of clinical trials.

In a civil action against Pfizer, the manufacturers of Zoloft, he discovered an unpublished 1980 study in which healthy female volunteers were given Zoloft or a placebo. After four days, the trial was cancelled due to complaints of agitation and apprehension.

Healy was also a witness in the Forsyth case, which changed his position on SSRIs. The 61-year old father and husband, William Forsyth, retired in Hawaii after a successful life. Retirement proved difficult for him affecting marital relations. Marriage counseling helped until three years later when he became unsettled again. He was prescribed Prozac by a local psychiatrist. By the second day he felt terrible and put himself into hospital care. Still taking Prozac, he felt well enough to go home after 10 days. His grown son and daughter returned to find both parents dead in a pool of blood on the 11th day. Their mother had been stabbed 15 times and their father impaled himself. A year after the incident, there were 160 suits filed against Eli Lilly ranging from homicides and suicides to other forms of violence. Eli Lilly had engineered Zoloft for Pfizer.

Making a Deadly Profit

Pfizer is the largest and richest pharmaceutical company in the world and produces one-fifth of the US wealth with Viagra making Pfizer a household name (Corporatewatch p.1, 3). President George Bush Senior once headed both Pfizer and Lilly from 1977 – 1979. Both Pfizer and Eli Lilly are sponsors of the Manhattan Institute: the right-wing think-tank founded by William Casey. William Casey helped to bring Nazi experts over to the US during and after WWII who went on to pioneer the genetics program – eugenics - including the Genome Project. William Casey was also a former CIA director during the Reagan era ( Lederman p.3, 4).

Of the 160 cases, Lilly did not lose a single Prozac case. Prozac represented a third of all Lilly’s income. Some cases were dismissed and others ‘settled out of court’. It was not until 1999 that the suit against Lilly by Susan and Bill Forsyth went to court. They refused to settle. Susan commented, “I know that with all their power and money I don’t have much of a chance but I have to try.” The Forsyths argued on the basis of their observations that the company knew that Prozac psychologically hijacks the user. The worst effect of Prozac is an illness called akathisia described as a unique form of inner torture brought on by psychiatric drugs. Initial clinical trials, in fact, had warned of this illness as far back as 1978, 10 years before Prozac hit the market. Minutes from Lilly’s team revealed that, “some patients have converted from severe depression to agitation within a few days. In one case the agitation was marked and the patient had to be taken off the drug. There have been a fairly large number of reports of adverse reactions.” A letter sent to the company from the Committee on Safety of Medicines in 1984 stated that, “during the treatment with Prozac, 16 suicide attempts were made, two of these with success as patients with a risk of suicide were excluded from the studies. It is probable that this high proportion can be attributed to an action of the preparations.” In 1985, German authorities sold Prozac as Fluctin where warnings of possible akathisia and suicide were required on the packaging.

Reports surfaced when Prozac was marketed in 1988. In the American Journal of Psychiatry two psychiatrists and a nurse observed that, “two patients fantasized for the first time about killing themselves with a gun and one patient actually placed a loaded gun to her head. One patient needed to be restrained to prevent self-mutilation.” These tendencies had in fact appeared soon after taking Prozac and disappeared soon after withdrawal (deGranpre p. 1-3). Within two years of marketing SSRIs, two types, fluvoxamine and paroxetine, showed many side effects in the data from the Committee of Safety of Medicines (Anderson p.1). The problem becomes aggrivated with co-prescriptions, a common practice in Australia. Using the database of the Australian Health Insurance Commission, 7252 people were found to have been prescribed SSRI and tricyclics. In some cases, both SSRIs and tricyclics were prescribed by the same doctor and 10% had more than one doctor (McManus p.4).

These reports were disconcerting to Eli Lilly to say the least, and in 1990 the company feared bankruptcy if Prozac was withdrawn from the market. They were saved by the FDA investigation to which Eli Lilly gave handpicked data published in 1991. The study was rejected by the New England Journal of Medicine and the British Medical Journal accepted reassurances from Lilly that Prozac was safe. Despite all the internal reports that surfaced during the Forsyth trial, Lilly had won. By 1999, 2000 suicides by Prozac users were reported to the FDA and by 2001, Lilly announced another antidepressant, duloxetine, a non-serotonin selector (deGrandpre p. 4, 5).

An international team led by John Gordon, professor of immunology at Birmingham University, discovered this March that Prozac can stimulate the growth of brain tumors. Prozac blocks the body’s natural ability to kill cancer cells. These findings, however, are a result of laboratory tests and require clinical trials to confirm or deny them. They found that in test tubes, Prozac blocked the entry of serotonin into the tumor cells and prevented self-destruction of the cells. They had the same results with other SSRIs. So assume that if the brain neuro-transmitter serotonin is prevented from doing its ‘job’ on site, where is it being redirected within the body? If directed to the host, this would explain akathisia. Reporter Steve Connor of the Independent asked for a response from Eli Lilly who commented that, “it is not something we can directly comment on because we haven’t been involved in it.” Of course they dare not comment (Connor p.1, 2). This August, Eli Lilly was scheduled to lose its patent on Prozac which they have been fighting against in federal court. Meanwhile, their duloxetine works on three neurotransmitters instead of one and they are hoping to make up their loss on a new drug, Xigris, once again a first, this time for septic infections responsible for many hospital deaths (apimall p.1, 2).

To ask that psychiatric drugs be made widely available throughout the developing world is like asking for the largest clinical trial to be performed without asking the participants. Behind closed doors the effects will go unchecked whilst the manufacturers quite literally get away with murder.

What effect will these trials have on the community at large? This is when there is a growing realization through many long term studies that 22 - 30% of individuals labeled as schizophrenic actually do recover over a period of time regardless of any psychiatric intervention (Human Rights p.2). Additionally, the rate of mental illness is higher in developed countries despite the conflicts occurring in many developing countries. In the Americas and Europe for instance, neuro-psychiatric disorders account for 43% of disabilities respectively, in S.E Asia 27% and in Africa 18% (UN p.3). We must therefore seriously question whose interest it is in to increase accessibility of psychiatric drugs.

Sources:

“Human Rights Alert Survivors”

Anderson, Edward. J. “Systemic Review & Guide of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors”. Drugs 1999. 57:4 (1999) 507 –33. 2. 09/04/02.

Apimall.com. “Eli Lilly’s Profile”. 3. 09/05/2.

Connor, Steve. “Scientists Find Prozac Link to Brian Tumors”. 2. 03/26/02. Science: Medical. Independent.co.uk. 08/26/02. http://Corporatewatch.org. “Pfizer Inc.”. 6. Company Profiles. 08/28/02.

DeGrandpre, Richard. “The Lilly Suicides”. Adbusters. 08/22/02. 7. Alternet.org. 08/25/02.

Eun-Myo Park, Katrin. “Up to One Fifth of the World’s Children Have Mental or Behavioral Problems”. Chronicle. 6. Issue 2. United Nations. 09/07/02.

Goodchild, Sophie & Carrell Severin. “Doctors Threaten to Quit Over Bill”. 09/01/02. 3. UK: Health. Independent.co.uk. 09/08/02.

Laderman, Robert. “Axis of Evil: Another Manhattan Institute Slogan in Service to the NWO” 7. Events. Abstractblack.com. 09/08/02.

Masic, Muhammad. “PTSD and Culture Shock in the Bosnian Refugee Population in Chicago”. McManus, P et al. “Co-Prescribing of Antidepressants Continues in Australia”. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. 51(2001) 93 –8. 3 of 4. Newsletter. Acpp.edu.au. 09/05/02.

Rohlof, Johannes. G. “Psychopharmacological Treatment of Traumatic Refugees”. Tijdschrift voor Psychiatre. 37(1995) 488-497. 2. Rohlof.nl. 09/08/02.

Royal College of Psychiatry. “Antidepressants”. 5. Medical Information. Fact Sheets. 09/04/02.

Source: http://www.islamonline.net/English/Science/2002/12/article03.shtml