Re: OT: CDC Leads SSRI Disinformation Media Blitz

[Guest guest]

Articles like this make me sick and believe me members there's alot

more of them that aren't posted. This just goes to show that every

man, woman and child in this country is at great risk from big

industry and everyone of us is expendable in the name of greed. I

guess it's a game to them who is going to own the most toys at the

end.

I guess this goes to show the morons that we are up against, doctors

can't or aren't allowed to be doctors anymore. Many doctors are just

hired drug pushers. No wonder why they can't diagnose, they are paid

not to and the media is paid to promote their garbage.

Hell must be very large, if not, it will be growing rapidly in the

future. The only position these individuals should be holding and

are more than qualified, is the one behind bars. When will someone

be held accountable and who gives them the right to destroy our

health and the lives of our future. How do you put a price on that

one?....

KC

--- In , " tigerpaw2c " <tigerpaw2c@...>

wrote:

>

> CDC Leads SSRI Disinformation Media Blitz

> July 20, 2007.

> Lawyers and Settlements - Vancouver,BC,Canada*

>

> By Pringle digg

>

> http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/articles/01162/ssri-cdc.html

>

> Washington, DC: In a June 27, 2007 press release that made

headlines

> all over the world the US Centers for Disease Control announced

that

> birth defects associated with the use of antidepressants by

pregnant

> women are rare. As proof for this claim, the CDC cited two new

> studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

>

> Over the following 2 weeks hundreds of stories magically appeared

in

> newspapers with headlines splashed all over the internet

> and " medical experts " appeared live on all the major television

> networks to tout the new studies as major health " news " in a well-

> coordinated media blitz clearly aimed at promoting the sale of

> selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants (SSRIs) to

> pregnant women.

>

> The well-coordinated blitz downplayed all the serious birth

defects

> that have been reported in numerous studies over the past several

> years and all the warnings issued by the FDA over the past several

> years about the fetal harm known to be associated with the drugs.

>

> The antidepressants included in the NEJM studies included Paxil by

> GlaxoKline, Zoloft marketed by Pfizer; Prozac sold by Eli

> Lilly; Celexa and Lexapro by Forest Laboratories, Effexor marketed

> by Wyeth, Luvox by Solvay, and the generic makers of these drugs

> include Barr Pharmaceuticals, Ranbaxy Labs and Genpharm.

>

> The public needs to know that the CDC study was funded in part by

> GlaxoKline, the maker of Paxil, which carries the strongest

FDA

> warnings about birth defects developing in infants exposed to the

> drug in the womb.

>

> Experts point out that the hundreds of headlines failed to

disclose

> the best kept secret about SSRIs - that the drugs do not

work. " When

> tested in head-to-head competition it would take more space than a

> newspaper article will permit to explain how hard the researchers

> have to " work " to " prove " that these antidepressants work at all, "

> says SSRI expert, Dr Grace , author of " Rethinking

> Psychiatric Drugs: A Guide for Informed Consent. "

>

> A fact also not mentioned in the headlines is that the studies

were

> limited to women who took the drugs during the first trimester of

> pregnancy and the research consisted of mostly phone conversations

> that took place years ago with women who relied on their own

> memories without reviewing any medical records or actual pharmacy

> prescription data.

>

> Most importantly, experts say, the researchers diluted the FDA

> warning about studies that found babies exposed to SSRIs after the

> 20th week of pregnancy, have a 6-fold increased risk of developing

> persistent pulmonary hypertension, a life-threatening lung

disorder.

>

> On July 19, 2006, the agency issued a Public Health Advisory and

> said, " the FDA has asked the sponsors of all SSRIs to change

> prescribing information to describe the potential risk for PPHN. "

>

> The Advisory warned that: " Babies born with PPHN have abnormal

blood

> flow through the heart and lungs and do not get enough oxygen to

> their bodies " and " Babies with PPHN can be very sick and may die. "

>

> On October 16, 2006, the first PPHN related lawsuit was filed

> against Glaxo on behalf of the family of an infant born with the

> disorder after exposure to Paxil in the womb, by Attorney

> Barth Menzies, a partner in the Baum Hedlund law firm and the

leader

> of the firm's Antidepressant Litigation Department.

>

> According to Ms Menzies, " FDA regulations require Glaxo to issue

> stronger warnings whenever there is reasonable evidence of an

> association between a serious risk and Paxil. "

>

> She points out that research indicated the risk of PPHN in a study

> published more than 10 years ago on October 3, 1996, in the New

> England Journal of Medicine, lead by Dr Chambers of the

> Department of Pediatrics at the University of California-San Diego.

>

> " FDA regulations specifically state that a causal link need not be

> proven and allow Glaxo to issue a new warning without prior FDA

> approval, " Ms Menzies notes.

>

> She reports that infants born with PPHN often require mechanical

> assistance to breath but 10% to 20% of infants do not survive even

> when they receive treatment.

>

> The PPHN babies that do survive often experience developmental

> delays, brain abnormalities and hearing loss, experts say.

>

> The headlines about the NEJM studies in the media were also

> misleading because the researchers did find that Zoloft and Paxil

> were associated with " significant increases " in specific birth

> defects, and stated the " current study suggests that specific

SSRIs

> may increase the risk of specific birth defects, and further

studies

> will need sufficient power to pursue these important clinical

> questions. "

>

> Heart birth defects in infants exposed to Paxil were found to

occur

> 3 times more often and heart defects were 2 times higher in

newborns

> exposed to Zoloft. The CDC researchers reported that by using

> an " embryologically based classification " of heart defects, " we

> found a doubling of the risk of septal defects " associated with

> Zoloft use, and " a tripling of the risk of right ventricular

outflow

> tract obstruction defects " associated with Paxil.

>

> The studies also found a nearly 6-fold rise in the risk of

clubfoot

> in children of women who used Paxil and reported other birth

defects

> including (1) anencephaly, (2) craniosynostosis; and (3)

> omphalocele.

>

> Anencephaly, a neural tube defect where much of the brain does not

> develop, was found to be 2.4 times higher, and omphalocele, a

> condition in which the infant's intestine or other abdominal

organs

> protrude from the navel was 2.8 times more prevalent overall and

6.4

> times higher with Paxil.

>

> Craniosynostosis, an abnormality in which connections of the skull

> bones close prematurely, was found to be 2.5 times greater, and

the

> neural tube defect, spina bifida, a condition where the spinal

> column does not completely close in the first month of pregnancy,

> was also noted.

>

> Experts warn that far more infants will be born with birth defects

> in the coming years as a result of tens of thousands of infants

> being exposed to SSRIs in the womb every year.

>

> In addition to birth defects, many other serious adverse events

have

> been found to be associated with SSRIs over the past decade.

Studies

> have shown the drugs to be linked to suicidality, violent and

> homicidal behavior, abnormal gastrointestinal and uterine

bleeding,

> fertility problems, sexual dysfunction, a decrease in bone

density,

> and a severe withdrawal syndrome in patients and infants born to

> mothers taking the drugs.

>

> The risk associated with depression in pregnancy is suicidality.

But

> one of the world's leading authorities on SSRIs, Dr Breggin,

> reports that SSRIs are known to increase the risks of suicide. " In

> fact, " he says, " the new FDA labels for antidepressants

specifically

> warn about SSRI-induced suicidality in youth and in young adults,

> the very group most likely to become pregnant. "

>

> " The SSRIs not only threaten to cause the death of the mother

> through suicide but the death of the child through lethal birth

> defects as well, " Dr Breggin advises.

>

> As a direct result of the industry's control over the mainstream

> media, the public is never properly warned about serious risks

found

> to be associated with a drug because if the story gets told at

all,

> it will only be in the news for a day or two, and then " medical

> experts " will suddenly show up on " news " programs for 2 or 3 days

in

> a row to present what amounts to an infomercial to discount the

> risks reported in the study.

>

> The industry's control of the media began back in the late 1990s

> when the ban on direct-to-consumer advertising was lifted. Since

> then, the industry has invested so much money in advertising that

> all the media companies in the US are now dependent on drug money.

>

> Due to this control, the industry paid shills are now dispatched

on

> a regular basis to disseminate false information about the risks

and

> benefits of a drug using the public airwaves even when an

> advertisement that contained the same bogus information would

result

> in the sanction of a drug company for presenting false and

> misleading information to the public.

>

> Drug companies basically bribe the medial journals to print their

> studies because the editors know the company will purchase

thousands

> of copies for distribution to prescribing doctors, with full

> knowledge that most doctors will never read the whole study, but

> will remember the misleading headline because it was published in

> the " reputable " medical journal.

>

> And Big Pharma funnels money to researchers in a variety of ways.

Dr

> Marcia Angell, a nationally recognized authority on medical ethics

> and a former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, had

this

> to say in a the NEJM in 2000, about the financial ties between the

> industry and researchers:

>

> " The ties between clinical researchers and industry include not

only

> grant supports, but also a host of other financial arrangements.

>

> " Researchers also serve as consultants to companies whose products

> they are studying, join advisory boards and speakers bureaus,

enter

> into patent and royalty arrangements, agree to be the listed

authors

> of articles ghostwritten by interested companies, promote drugs

and

> devices at company sponsored symposiums, and allow themselves to

be

> plied with expensive gifts and trips to luxurious settings "

>

> After a rigged study is planted in a medical journal, the next

step

> in the marketing scam is to provide a favorable report on the

> findings, also ghost-written by the drug maker or a PR firm, in a

> press release that is sent out to all the major news outlets which

> guarantees that headlines about the results will appear all over

the

> world.

>

> From there, the company uses the media to plant feature stories to

> reinforce the headline of the press release and in many cases, the

> news articles will quote the information verbatim from the drug

> maker's press release.

>

> In the final act, the media provides the company with a platform

for

> the " medical experts " to reach consumers to tout the new study on

> all the major networks in " news " segments which in turn sends

> patients running to their doctors with news of the miraculous new

> findings and demanding a prescription for the drug.

>

> In the book, " Trust Us We're Experts, " by Sheldon Rampton and

> Stauber, the authors document the many techniques used by PR firms

> hired to pump out propaganda through the press and refer to the

> mainstream media as the " disinfotainment industry. "

>

> They report that the psychiatric manipulation industry is enormous

> and pays out about $10 billion a year to propaganda experts and

that

> about 40% of all stories in the media are planted by PR firms.

>

> Because most news stories on radio and TV are nothing more than a

> rehashing of stories published in newspapers, the book notes, the

> news Americans receive every day amounts to nothing but propaganda.

>

> The success of the media backed campaign to sell SSRIs to pregnant

> women by discounting the years of studies showing serious harm to

> the fetus is clear evidence that " disinfotainment industry " is

still

> paying high dividends to all shareholders in the US.

>

>

> SSRI Birth Defects Legal Help

> If you took any SSRI antidepressant medication during pregnancy

and

> your baby suffered any type of birth defect, please contact a

lawyer

> involved in a possible [sSRI Birth Defects Lawsuit] who will

review

> your case at no cost or obligation.

>

[Guest guest]

I have a friend (no, she's not pregnant) who they put on Paxil. and now she

is mostly better, but she is having a hell of a time

quitting the stuff, with nausea, headaches, etc.

She's been made addicted...basically.. and she's told me that its apparently

very hard to quit it.

I don't think many people who take SSRI's realize that if they wean

themselves from the drugs, that there is a natural alternative in 5-HTP. It

helps with sleeping. its cheaper, too.