tagged w/ Antidepressants
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(NaturalNews) What was the most deadly element involved in the mass murder of 12 people and the wounding of 58 others at the packed Aurora, Colo., theater premier of the newest "Batman" movie last summer?
Was it the AR-15-type weapon used by James Holmes? The shotgun he had with him? The handgun he used?
No.
As it turns out it was probably a psychotropic medication he was most likely taking, a point raised by Natural News' Jon Rappoport in August, just weeks after the massacre.
Holmes had been treated by a psychiatrist
The Denver Post reported Jan. 7 that, according to newly released court papers, police removed a number of prescription medication bottles - four, to be exact - from Holmes' apartment shortly after clearing it of explosives in the days following the July 20 shootings. They also seized immunization records.
"The disclosures come in a back-and-forth between prosecutors and defense attorneys over whether those items should be subject to doctor-patient confidentiality. The judge ultimately ruled in October that prosecutors could keep the items," the paper said, adding that the names of the medications had been redacted from court documents.
This shouldn't come as a huge surprise to anyone who's been following the correlation between these dangerous psychotropic drugs and mass murder. After all, earlier reports confirmed that Holmes was indeed being seen by a psychiatrist [http://www.nytimes.com], so there's a better-than-average chance he, too, was on one of these dangerous medications.
The same is true in the most recent shooting tragedy. We know that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, had psychological problems. We know, from what Louise Tambascio, a family friend of the shooter and his mother, told the CBS News program, "60 Minutes," that Lanza "was on medication and everything....I knew he was on medication, but that's all I know."
But what was he taking? What was Holmes taking? That we don't know - yet.
Like us David Kupelian, the managing editor for WorldNetDaily, is asking the right questions.
"It has been more than three weeks since the shooting. We know all about the guns he used, but what 'medication' may he have used?" he wrote shortly after the Lanza murders. "So, what is the truth? Where is the journalistic curiosity? Where is the follow-up? Where is the police report, the medical examiner's report, the interviews with his doctor and others?" writes David Kupelian at WorldNetDaily [http://www.wnd.com]
And yet the national debate, if you can call it that, is focused strictly on the gun control and the Second Amendment, as evidenced by Vice President Joe Biden's declaration that President Obama plans to use executive power to implement new gun control regulations via the federal agencies that fall under the Executive Branch, and New York Gov. Mario Cuomo's promise to enact in his state the country's toughest gun control laws.
As usual, though, the corporate media has failed in its role as watchdog and truth-seeker. It has been left to alternative news outlets like ours and a few others to ask those probing, important questions: What kind of drugs were Holmes and Lanza taking? Who prescribed them? And these questions: What are some of the side effects of those medications? Can such medications cause patients to become violent?
The medications-equals-violence link is well-established
Here's why it is vitally important for Americans to know what kind of medications Lanza and Holmes were taking - because of earlier, high-profile cases involving guns and psychotropic medications:
-- Columbine killer Eric Harris was taking Luvox which, like similar drugs Prozac and Zoloft are widely prescribed antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs. Luvox manufacturer Solvay Pharmaceuticals admitted that every 1 in 25 patients taking the drug developed mania, a dangerous condition leaving the patient violence-prone.
-- Patrick Purdy went on a shooting rampage in a schoolyard in Stockton, Calif., in 1989, an incident that triggered the initial push to ban "assault weapons." Purdy, who killed five and wounded 30, had been taking the antidepressant Amitriptyline and the anti-psychotic drug Thorzine.
-- Fifteen-year-old Kip Kinkel killed his parents in 1998 then went to his school, Thurston High in Springfield, Ore., the next day and fired on his classmates, killing two and wounding 22 more. He was on Prozac and Ritalin.
There are many, many more examples, but you get the point: There exists a distinct link between psychotropic drugs and violence, yet virtually no one in the public policy realm or the media (both of which depend on Big Pharma for donations or advertising dollars) wants to talk about it.
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/038629_James_Holmes_prescription_meds_vaccines.html#ixzz2Hbla6FGv(NaturalNews) What was the most deadly element involved in the mass murder of 12... more
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Religious leaders have contended for millennia that burning incense is good for the soul. Now, biologists have learned that it is good for our brains too. An international team of scientists, including researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, describe how burning frankincense (resin from the Boswellia plant) activates poorly understood ion channels in the brain to alleviate anxiety or depression.Religious leaders have contended for millennia that burning incense is good for the... more
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Being bombarded with health care information is common these days, and can sometimes feel very overwhelming. So why do we health care professionals feels obliged to continue this?Being bombarded with health care information is common these days, and can sometimes... more
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Women with depression who are pregnant or hoping to get pregnant may be alarmed at new research that points to a link between the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), a type of antidepressant, and the occurrence of autism in unborn kids.Women with depression who are pregnant or hoping to get pregnant may be alarmed at new... more
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Dallas, TX: Terri Rimmer is a journalist and mother who has been trying to figure out for years what lay at the root of her daughter's eating disorder. She now believes that taking Effexor while she was pregnant with her daughter, now 10, is the culprit. Effexor side effects have been hotly debated with regard to pregnancy and the need for women to remain on antidepressants at the potential risk of harming their unborn child.
Rimmer wrote back in May that her daughter has a food aversion and has required a feeding tube since the age of two. Rimmer now laments that her use of Effexor venlafaxine while she was pregnant with her daughter might constitute the most likely cause.
"When I found out I was pregnant January 2, 2000, I immediately got off the Depakote and Effexor I was taking for fear it would affect my unborn child," Rimmer writes.
"My new gynecologist assured me it was right to get off the Depakote but that the Effexor wouldn't hurt the fetus and that in my extremely depressed state, that any benefits outweighed the risks.
"So I believed him.
"I didn't know that Wyeth, the drug company who makes Effexor, knew as far back as 1993, along with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), that the medication had a 30 percent chance of causing respiratory and heart problems for newborns as well as feeding difficulties.
Read Full Story: http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/articles/effexor-heart-birth-defects/effexor-side-effects-venlafaxine-9-15779.htmlDallas, TX: Terri Rimmer is a journalist and mother who has been trying to figure out... more
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According to an alarming new study, surgeons in the United States are more prone to ending their lives than the average person or those in other professions.According to an alarming new study, surgeons in the United States are more prone to... more
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Martha Rosenberg
The suicide rate among troops is astonishing.
In 2009 there were 160 active duty suicides, 239 suicides within the total Army including the Reserves, 146 active duty deaths from drug overdoses and high risk behavior and 1,713 suicide attempts, says the Army's suicide report, released in July.
Not only are more troops dying from their own hand than combat says the Army report, titled Health Promotion, Risk Reduction, Suicide Prevention, 36 percent of the suicides were troops who were never deployed.
Also astonishing is the psychoactive drug rate among active duty-aged troops, 18 to 34, which is up 85 percent since 2003 according to the military health plan, Tricare. Since 2001, 73,103 prescriptions for Zoloft have been dispensed, 38,199 for Prozac, 17,830 for Paxil and 12,047 for Cymbalta says Tricare 2009 data, which includes family prescriptions. All of the drugs carry a suicide warning label.
In addition to the leap in SSRI antidepressants, prescriptions for the anticonvulsants Topamax and Neurontin rose 56 percent in the same group since 2005 says Navy Times, drugs which the FDA warned last year double suicidal thinking in patients.
In fact 4,994 troops at Fort Bragg are on antidepressants right now says the Fayetteville Observer. Six hundred and sixty-four are on an antipsychotics and "many soldiers take more than one type of medication."
Traci Johnson, a healthy 19-year-old with no mental problems, hung herself during Lilly trials of Cymbalta in the drugmaker's own clinic in 2004. Columbine shooter Eric Harris had reportedly just switched from Zoloft to Luvox. Red Lake shooter Jeff Weise who killed 10 on a Minnesota Indian reservation in 2005 had just upped his Prozac. And the Virginia Tech shooter, Cho Seung-Hui, was also on psychoactive medications say news reports.
And the stories continue...
Read More: http://www.foodconsumer.org/newsite/Non-food/Drug/soldiers_suicides_caused_by_prescription_drugs_1410100723.htmlMartha Rosenberg
The suicide rate among troops is astonishing.
In 2009 there... more
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Antidepressants & Chemical Imbalance, Psychology w/ Shannon
Is depression really a chemical imbalance and how do antidepressants work? Do SSRIs really correct a brain chemical problem with serotonin? Is there a depression test to check neurotransmitters? Despite big pharma ads and psychiatry theory, find out the truth about antidepressant drugs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIjOZq_AUeEAntidepressants & Chemical Imbalance, Psychology w/ Shannon
Is depression... more
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Psych News
By Ken Kramer
Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff sued the makers of Risperdal and
Seroquel yesterday in the Third Judicial District Court of Salt Lake County, Utah.
Shurtleff sued Janssen and AstraZeneca over the “wrongful and illegal marketing,
sale and promotion of the atypical antipsychotics risperidone (known as Risperdal)
and quetiapine (known as Seroquel).”
The lawsuit says that Janssen and AstraZeneca knew or should have known but failed
to warn and misled the FDA and the State of Utah regarding Rispderdal’s and Seroquel’s
association with the development of diabetes, diabetes-related conditions, including weight
gain and other serious,even life thereatening medical conditions.
See the lawsuit here: Utah Risperdal Seroquel Lawsuit http://www.psychsearch.net/Utah_Seroquel_Risperdal_Complaint.pdf
http://www.psychsearch.net/psych_news/?p=296Psych News
By Ken Kramer
Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff sued the makers of... more
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Investigative reporter Robert Whitaker's Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America (Crown Publishers, April 2010) is the most important book on psychiatric treatment in a generation. I have been in practice for over 25 years and have read hundreds of books about psychiatry, and I can say without question that Anatomy of an Epidemic is the most illuminating book on psychiatric treatment that I have ever read.
Whitaker is the author of four books (including Mad in America, about the mistreatment of the mentally ill), and as a reporter for the Boston Globe, he won a George Polk Award for medical writing, a National Association of Science Writers Award for best magazine article, and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize. In the tradition of Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser, and other investigative reporters who get taken seriously, Whitaker is scrupulous, fair, and describes complex phenomena in a way that is easy to understand.
The starting point of Anatomy of an Epidemic is as follows: In 1987, prior to Prozac hitting the market and the current ubiquitous use of antidepressants and other psychiatric drugs, the U.S. mental illness disability rate was 1 in every 184 Americans, but by 2007 the mental illness disability rate had more than doubled to 1 in every 76 Americans. Whitaker was curious as to what was causing this dramatic increase in mental illness disability.
Since 1955, mental illness disability rates in the U.S. have increased six-fold. At the same time, psychiatric drug use greatly increased in the 1950s and 1960s, then skyrocketed after 1988 when Prozac hit the market, so now antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs alone gross more than $25 billion annually in the U.S. But Whitaker knew that "correlation isn't causation," and that this parallel rise of mental illness disability and psychiatric drug use doesn't necessarily prove anything. In order to get to the bottom of the issue, Whitaker realized he needed to look at two areas:
(1) Do psychiatric drugs, over the long-term, increase the likelihood that a person will be able to function well or do they increase the likelihood that a person will become disabled?
(2) Is it possible that a person with a mild emotional problem may have a bad reaction to an initial drug, and that puts the person on to a path that can lead to long-term mental illness disability? For instance, can a person with a mild bout of depression be given antidepressants that cause a manic reaction, which results in a bipolar diagnosis and chronic disability?
Whitaker took an exhaustive look at what the scientific literature -- one that now extends over 50 years -- had to say about those questions. In an interview with him, I asked him if he could summarize his findings:
The literature is remarkably consistent in the story it tells. Although psychiatric medications may be effective over the short term, they increase the likelihood that a person will become chronically ill over the long term. I was startled to see this picture emerge over and over again as I traced the long-term outcomes literature for schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, and bipolar illness. In addition, the scientific literature shows that many patients treated for a milder problem will worsen in response to a drug-- say have a manic episode after taking an antidepressant -- and that can lead to a new and more severe diagnosis like bipolar disorder. That is a well-documented iatrogenic [physician caused illness] pathway that is helping to fuel the increase in the disability numbers. Now there may be various cultural factors contributing to the increase in the number of disabled mentally ill in our society. But the outcomes literature -- and this really is a tragic story -- clearly shows that our drug-based paradigm of care is a primary cause.
Bipolar disorder in children was once rarely ever seen by psychiatrists, but today well over a million children and teenagers have ended up bipolar after being treated with a stimulant such as Ritalin or an antidepressant. Reading Anatomy of an Epidemic and seeing the magnitude of the mental and physical health problems caused by the pharmaceutical industry, I couldn't help but draw comparisons to Rachel Carson's Silent Spring.
All is not bleak in the area of mental health treatment, especially if one goes outside the United States. In our conversation, Whitaker, offered one of many examples from his book:
In the solution section of Anatomy of an Epidemic, I write of how doctors and psychologists in northern Finland use antipsychotics in a selective, cautious manner when treating first-episode psychotic patients, and their long-term outcomes are, by far, the best in the Western World. So if you believe in evidence-based medicine, then American psychiatry should look to the Finnish program as a model for reform.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-e-levine/new-book-on-psychiatric-t_b_560250.htmlInvestigative reporter Robert Whitaker's Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets,... more
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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women who use the antidepressant bupropion during early pregnancy may have an increased risk of having a baby with a particular type of heart defect, a new study suggests.
Health
Researchers caution that it is not clear whether the medication, marketed as Wellbutrin, is the cause. And even if it is, they say, the absolute risk of the heart defect would be small -- affecting just 2 out of every 1,000 infants born to women who used bupropion during the first trimester.
But the findings, published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, do add to questions about the risks of using antidepressants during early pregnancy.
Some studies have already linked other antidepressants -- including some of the commonly used selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) -- to higher-than-average, though small, risks of certain birth defects.
A study last year, for example, found that among nearly half a million Danish children born between 1996 and 2003, the risk of heart defects was elevated among those whose mothers had used SSRIs such as fluoxetine (Prozac), sertraline (Zoloft) and citalopram (Celexa) during early pregnancy.
In this latest study, researchers found that among more than 12,700 U.S. infants born between 1997 and 2004, those whose mothers used bupropion during early pregnancy had more than double the risk of heart defects known as left outflow tract defects, compared with infants whose mothers had not used the drug.
Left outflow defects affect the flow of blood from the heart's left chambers to the rest of the body. In this study, the most common type of this defect was coarctation of the aorta -- a narrowing in the body's main artery that, in children, typically requires surgical repair.
The findings do not mean, however, that depressed women on bupropion should stop taking it if they are planning a pregnancy, according to the researchers.
"I think it's important that women understand that they should not just stop taking their medication," said Dr. Jennita Reefhuis, a senior epidemiologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and one of the researchers on the study.
Instead, she told Reuters Health, women should talk with their doctors, ideally when they are planning a pregnancy rather than after they conceive.
The potential risk of birth defects from using antidepressants must be weighed against the risks of a woman stopping her current depression therapy, Reefhuis said.
For the study, Reefhuis and her colleagues used data on 6,853 infants born with a major heart defect and 5,869 infants with no birth defects. Of mothers whose babies were born with a heart defect, 0.5 percent reported using bupropion at some point in the month before becoming pregnant or the first trimester.
There were 10 cases of left outflow tract heart defects among mothers who had used bupropion. The drug was not linked to any other type of heart defect.
"This study needs to be replicated before we can say anything conclusive," Reefhuis said, noting that the findings point to an association between bupropion and left outflow defects, but cannot by itself prove cause-and-effect.
If the association is causal, she said, the absolute risk to any one woman would be small. For every 1,000 births, there are an estimated 0.8 cases of left outflow tract heart defects; based on the current findings, that rate would be 2 per 1,000 among women who use bupropion in the first trimester.
Reefhuis also pointed out that with any pregnancy, the overall risk of having a baby with some form of birth defect is 3 percent.
She recommended that women on antidepressants who are planning a pregnancy talk with their doctors about their options. There are, however, no depression medications that have been established as "safe" for pregnant women, according to Reefhuis. More research on the potential effects of all antidepressants on the developing fetus is still needed, she said.
Guidelines released last year by the American Psychiatric Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists state that psychotherapy may be an effective alternative to antidepressants for pregnant women with mild to moderate depression.
However, the guidelines say, women with a history of more severe depression, or other major psychiatric disorders, may need to continue with their medication.
Bupropion is also prescribed for smoking cessation, under the brand-name Zyban. In the case of smoking cessation, Reefhuis said, it may be easier for women to find an effective alternative to the drug.
SOURCE: American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, online April 26, 2010.NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women who use the antidepressant bupropion during early... more
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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People have about the same risk of having suicidal thoughts or attempting suicide when starting out on antidepressants no matter what type of pill they're prescribed, new research shows.
Health
"There is no meaningful difference between these agents," Dr. Sebastian Schneeweiss of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, one of the study's authors, told Reuters Health. This means that psychiatrists prescribing antidepressants can base their choice on what works best for the patient, rather than what's safest, he explained.
But the findings don't mean that the drugs are risk-free, Schneeweiss added. "You always have to worry about the safety of these medications, the increased (suicide risk) is still there," he said.
The US Food and Drug Administration issued a warning in 2004 that children and adolescents taking antidepressants might have an increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors. In 2006, it extended the warning to include young adults up to age 25. All antidepressant labels must now carry a "black box" warning stating that they can increase a person's likelihood of suicidal thoughts and behaviors.
But it has been difficult to pin down whether a certain antidepressant drug or class of medications might be more dangerous -- or safer -- than others, Schneeweiss noted. To investigate, he and his colleagues looked at data on nearly 300,000 adults in British Columbia, Canada, who had been prescribed antidepressants between 1997 and 2005. They evaluated whether specific medications would increase the risk that a person would attempt or complete suicide during their first year of taking that drug.
Among the 287,543 men and women in the study, there were 751 suicide attempts and 104 suicides.
Schneeweiss and his team found no difference in risk between different classes of medications, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs for short, which include Prozac, Zoloft and other widely used medications) or older antidepressants called tricyclic antidepressants. Risks also were similar for individual SSRIs.
In April, Schneeweiss and his colleagues published a similar study in the journal Pediatrics of 20,000 10- to 18-year-olds that found no difference in suicide risk among antidepressants.
SOURCE: Archives of General Psychiatry, May 2010.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6435IM20100504NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People have about the same risk of having suicidal... more
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A few years ago I was hired by the FAA to defend the agency against a suit brought by a pilot who wanted to fly while taking a prescription antidepressant. I helped the FAA formulate its defense of the agency's ban on pilots using antidepressants and, as a result, the ban remained in effect. Pilots remained unable to fly while taking antidepressants, including the newer ones such as Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Celexa, Lexapro and Effexor.
How times have changed. Ignoring the scientific data on adverse drug effects that the agency and I generated and evaluated for the earlier case, the FAA is lifting its 70-year-old ban on allowing pilots to take antidepressants. Has the science changed--improving the adverse reaction profile of these drugs? To the contrary, since that time my most dire observations have been confirmed in the FDA-approved label for all antidepressants. Now there is not only a Black Box Warning for suicidality in children, youth and young adults, but also a lengthy Warnings section about a variety of extremely dangerous abnormal behavioral reactions in all ages including aggression, hostility, disinhibition, impulsivity and mania. Even when not severe, these reactions impair judgment and increase the likelihood of accidents and violence.
According to the FDA-approved guidelines, prescribers are supposed to give a special Medication Guide to patients and their families that warns about dangerous drug-induced reactions including suicide, violence and a variety of unexpected negative behaviors. Originally intended for children and youth, the Medication Guide is now expanded to cover all age groups, including adults. The Medication Guide for all ages can be found at the conclusion of each FDA-approved label for antidepressant drugs in the 2010 Physicians' Desk Reference.
Why did the FAA lift the ban on pilots using antidepressants? According to FAA statements to the media, depressed pilots sometimes kept on flying while secretly taking antidepressants. "Our concern is that they haven't necessarily been candid," FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt reportedly told the press on a conference call. They were flying below the radar of drug testing, so to speak. The new policy not only allows pilots to use antidepressants, it grants a degree of amnesty to those who have been using them illegally in the past.
The FAA feels it's safer to allow the use of antidepressants because it will make it easier for pilots to obtain needed treatment for depression. It supposedly will also make it easier to monitor their use of these dangerous drugs. If we accept this argument, why not legalize stimulants such as amphetamine as well? They would help keep the overworked pilots awake. And while the FAA is at it, why not let them use marijuana, since they may be doing it illegally on their own without anyone monitoring them.
Unfortunately, monitoring pilots on antidepressants won't work nearly as well as might be hoped. Many severe emotional and behavioral reactions occur in the first one to three days of antidepressant dosing, or shortly after dose changes, either up or down--long before the next scheduled appointment. Although close monitoring and informing the family to be on the alert can be helpful, and should be done, it won't prevent many of the drug reactions that occur abruptly and without warning. In addition, doctors too often fail to warn the patient and the family about the risks. As a medical expert, I've learned how cavalier some prescribers are in regard to warning patients about the adverse effects of any psychiatric drugs.
The FDA also argues that it would safer to let depressed pilots fly if they can take antidepressants. But who wants depressed pilots crisscrossing our nation's airways with hundreds of lives depending on their judgment. And it's unrealistic to hope that taking antidepressants will have such good results for depressed pilots. As I often remind readers, careful meta-analyses of antidepressant studies cast their beneficial effects into doubt while confirming their harmful effects.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-peter-breggin/antidepressants-pilots-ta_b_542240.htmlA few years ago I was hired by the FAA to defend the agency against a suit brought by... more
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We all know that if we unhappy for months on end and go to see a dr or a g.p you mostly will get given a drug, anti depressiants, young ages from 13+ were given them, even i was and all was needed was a little change of life style and a feeling of achivment, Jogging long as you can to the burning zone 30minuets, me and a friend went jogging for 20-30 minuets and felt slightly better more we done it more we felt better, i started to study about health eating which changes your mood, eating foods can change your mood/feelings.
I was 18 or 19 when i was given the tablets, never took them the exercise and eating healthy has changed my life and set me for a dream job of being a fitness instructor.
My friend now moved out the the UK sadly no contact o i cant give his story but last i heard, hes engadged, has a little baby and now teaches sports.
Now im studying to become a fitness instructor i want to help the younger gen to keep healthy knowing the facts then myths which seems true whats not and to guide those who are feeling sad daily and given the tablets but unsure, i want to give all i have from studying till i die to get more happy teenagers IN THE UK and other places of the worlds
mothers n fathers: if you or your child has been feeling low,give exercise and a change of food for dinner and drinks also snacks. even a simple food, snack and drink change could help out the emotions.
-Edward Ramsey; i now have a website helping others before and during my studys etrfitness.tk i belive a 2nd chance is in order.We all know that if we unhappy for months on end and go to see a dr or a g.p you... more
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Soldiers deployed in combat zones are taking quantities of psychiatric drugs -- and military suicides are on the rise.
April 5, 2010 |
One in six service members is now taking at least one psychiatric drug, according to the Navy Times, with many soldiers taking “drug cocktail” combinations. Soldiers and military health care providers told the Military Times that psychiatric drugs are “being prescribed, consumed, shared and traded in combat zones.”
The Navy Times reporters Andrew Tilghman and Brendan McGarry also noted that there has been a large increase in military suicides. From 2001 to 2009, the Army’s official suicide rate increased from 9 per 100,000 soldiers to 23 per 100,000. During that same period, the Marine Corps suicide rate increased from 16.7 per 100,000 soldiers to 24 per 100,000.
A Military Times investigation of records obtained from the Defense Logistics Agency revealed that the DLA spent $1.1 billion on psychiatric and pain medications from 2001 to 2009, and that there was a 76 percent increase in psychiatric drugs. DLA records show:
• Antipsychotic drugs spiked most dramatically — orders jumping by more than 200 percent.
• Orders for anti-anxiety drugs and sleeping pills such as Valium and Ambien increased 170 percent.
• Orders for antiepileptic drugs (also known as anticonvulsants) such as Depakote, routinely used as psychiatric medications, increased 70 percent.
• Antidepressants showed a 40 percent increase.
Investigators found that antipsychotic and antiepileptic drugs, approved for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, are now commonly used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms such as nightmares, nervousness, and anger outbursts. The use of antipsychotic drugs for non-psychotic conditions such as PTSD is called “off-label” prescribing. The general public is also subject to off-label prescribing, which is considered legal.
In February 2010, Brig. Gen. Loree Sutton, the Army’s highest-ranking psychiatrist, reported to Congress that 17 percent of the active-duty force and as much as 6 percent of deployed troops are on antidepressants.
Just how insane is it to prescribe psychiatric drugs to deployed troops? The Navy Times piece tells us about Spc. Mike Kern who enlisted in 2006 and spent a year deployed in 2008 with the 4th Infantry Division as an armor crewman, running patrols out of southwest Baghdad. Suffering from nervousness, sleep problems and depression, Kern was given the antidepressant Paxil. A few days later, while patrolling the streets in the gunner’s turret of a Humvee, Kern said he began having serious thoughts of suicide for the first time in his life. Kern said:
I had three weapons: a pistol, my rifle and a machine gun. I started to think, ‘I could just do this and then it’s over.’ That’s where my brain was: ‘I can just put this gun right here and pull the trigger and I’m done. All my problems will be gone.’
The Food and Drug Administration now requires that antidepressants must be labeled with a warning about increased risk of “suicidality” (which includes suicidal thoughts as well as attempts). This “black-box” warning is a result of research concluding that antidepressants double the risk of suicidality in depressed children, teenagers, and young adults as compared to equally depressed young people who are not taking antidepressants. Given meta-analyses (that I cite in Surviving America’s Depression Epidemic) which show that antidepressants are often no more effective than placebos, the potential risks of giving these drugs to soldiers in a war zone clearly outweigh any potential benefits.
Many of these psychiatric drugs prescribed to service members can also impair motor skills, reduce reaction times, and generally make one more sluggish -- or what soldiers call “stupid.” So in addition to antidepressants potentially resulting in increased suicidality, other psychiatric drugs can make deployed soldiers feel less capable of protecting themselves and their buddies. While being slow or “stupid” is not going to cost a general or politician his or her life, it can cost soldiers the vigilance necessary to keep themselves and their fellow soldiers alive.Soldiers deployed in combat zones are taking quantities of psychiatric drugs -- and... more
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infoMania brought us another very funny episode last night. This here is a recap.
The Super Bowl may be the biggest game of the year, but Ben Hoffman wants no part of it. He explains why in this week's infoMania Editorial. Sergio Cilli counts down some lessons he learned at this year's Grammy Awards in a special edition of 'The White Hot Top 5.'
Brett Erlich's Viral Video Film School looks at YouTube's best tips to fake your way to looking hot. infoMania pays tribute to the many people who died on TV this week.
Just one of the topics that made it onto the cover of a magazine and into "We've Got You Covered, 'Conor Knighton's weekly roundup of magazines. Also includes Game, antidepressants, Oprah's big gay lie, the Duggars, celebrity trash, and wood.
Also the team found some weird stuff on Ben Hoffman's computer.
Watch infoMania and the Thursday Night Block Party, every week at 10 PM on Current TV.infoMania brought us another very funny episode last night. This here is a recap.... more
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Mark Linkous, aka Sparklehorse, takes his own life, his family says [Updated]
March 7, 2010
Sparklehorse Frontman Mark Linkous Commits Suicide…Shot Himself…VIDEO…Tribute…http://ctpatriot1970.wordpress.com/2010/03/07/sparklehorse-frontman-mark-linkous-commits-suicide-shot-himself-video-tribute/
North Carolina-based singer-songwriter Mark Linkous, who recorded under the name Sparklehorse, has committed suicide, his family said. Known most recently as part of the Danger Mouse and David Lynch collaboration “Dark Night of the Soul,” which will finally see an official album release this year, Linkous specialized in a somewhat dreamy, fractured take on blues and folk heard through the prism of his own unique style of songcraft.Mark Linkous, aka Sparklehorse, takes his own life, his family says [Updated]
March... more
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Dr. Khan reviewed clinical trial data submitted to the FDA for nine SSRI antidepressant drugs approved by the FDA between 1985 and 2000. This included 10,030 depressed patients in 52 clinical trials. The Placebo (inert dummy pill) worked better than the SSRI antidepressant pill in more than half the studies. This is astounding information showing the power of the Placebo, or the lack of effectiveness of the SSRI antidepressant drugs.
Marijuana users have a less depressed mood than non-users:
“Over 4400 adult internet users completed The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale and measures of marijuana use. We employed an internet survey in an effort to recruit the most depressed and marijuana-involved participants, including those who might prove unwilling to travel to the laboratory or discuss drug use on the phone or in person.
We compared those who consumed marijuana daily, once a week or less, or never in their lives. Despite comparable ranges of scores on all depression subscales, those who used once per week or less had less depressed mood, more positive affect, and fewer somatic complaints than non-users. Daily users reported less depressed mood and more positive affect than non-users.
The three groups did not differ on interpersonal symptoms. Separate analyses for medical vs. recreational users demonstrated that medical users reported more depressed mood and more somatic complaints than recreational users, suggesting that medical conditions clearly contribute to depression scores and should be considered in studies of marijuana and depression. These data suggest that adults apparently do not increase their risk for depression by using marijuana.”Dr. Khan reviewed clinical trial data submitted to the FDA for nine SSRI... more
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Monday, November 23, 2009 by: David Gutierrez, staff writer
(NaturalNews) Contrary to the impression promoted by the psychiatric and drug industries, psychiatric drugs do not work by correcting a chemical imbalance in the brain, Joanna Moncrieff of University College London wrote recently in an opinion piece for the BBC. Instead, such drugs merely put people into "drug-induced states" that make it harder for them to experience the symptoms of their illness.
"Magazines, newspapers, patients' organizations and Internet sites have all publicized the idea that conditions like depression, anxiety, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder can be treated by drugs that help to rectify an underlying brain problem ... just like a diabetic needs to take insulin," Moncrieff writes. "The trouble is, there is little justification for this view."
Read More...
http://www.naturalnews.com/027555_antidepressants_chemical_imbalances.htmlMonday, November 23, 2009 by: David Gutierrez, staff writer
(NaturalNews) Contrary... more
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Coping with depression and anxiety can be very difficult and at times it may seem almost impossible. If you act early you may avoid the situation whereby your symptoms become worse. It is absolutely possible not just to live, but to have good quality of life, while you cope with a depressive or anxiety disorder.Coping with depression and anxiety can be very difficult and at times it may seem... more
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