Antidepressants, Money, Columbine

From Philip of Furious Seasons, through the Willamette Week:

Bitter Pill, A Portland doc flips on big pharma and reveals its "dirty little secret."


It's a lengthy article, and chock full of insight for consumers.

Caveat Emptor.

“The practice of drug companies paying doctors to be their spokespeople is extremely problematic, because it creates a financial incentive for the physicians to intentionally be deceptive in their lectures to other doctors,” says Daniel Carlat, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine. Carlat himself was once on the dole for Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, makers of Effexor, until he found the arrangement too compromising and quit.

“It provides incentives to tweak the data to tell only part of the truth,” Carlat says."


"In recent years, the FDA has mandated warnings on all antidepressants due to elevated risks of suicide and suicidal thinking in some people under the age of 25 who take the drugs. In addition, antidepressants can cause very intense withdrawal problems for some patients, most notably with Effexor and Paxil. The drugs can also cause internal agitation—akathisia—in some patients, and, tragically, antidepressant use sometimes has been connected, however peripherally, to school shootings, most famously at Columbine High School in 1999, where one of the shooters, Eric Harris, had been taking Luvox.

There is also the not-insignificant cost of the drugs. No one will hazard a guess as to how much of America’s investment in antidepressants may be money down the drain, but it’s obvious that at least a portion is."


Money, Drugs, Violence ON those Drugs. Do the timeline. Whatever was eating Eric Harris, Eric Harris did NOT go on a shooting rampage until AFTER being poisoned by a 'Mental Health' professional.

Thanks for this terrific piece Phil.