Posts Tagged ‘ SSRIs ’

Jelly Belly French Vanilla – the New SSRI?

April 7th, 2010. By AbiK

I just took the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS or HAM-D) test. Yes, I administered it to myself, which is not really legit. And I was popping jelly beans (full disclosure: Jelly Belly original mix that wasn’t comped) in my mouth while clicking thru the answers. I scored a three. Which, apparently is within the “normal” range—or as I’m made aware of by my test source (Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry) “in clinical remission” had I been previously and officially depressed. For comparison, a score of 8-13 is “mild depression”; 14-18 is “moderate depression”; 19-22 is “severe depression” and a score of 23 or more is “very severe depression”.

Did I mention I was popping jelly beans? aka mommy’s little sugar pills?

So who knows—maybe I was just on a sugar rush and otherwise would’ve scored a four. Be that as it may, it got me thinking.

See, I took the test—and popped the J-beans—while reading an article, “The Serotonin Skeptic” by Carlin Flora Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Antidepressants, Irving Kirsch, SSRI, SSRIs
Posted in Drugs/Medical | 1 Comment »

Pharma Pill Pushers Use Suicide Ruse – Again

June 4th, 2009. By Evelyn Pringle

Nearly every year, researchers on drug company payrolls publish some ridiculous study with claims that more people may be dying from suicide due to a black box warning about an increased risk of suicide in young people on the labels of SSRI and SNRI antidepressants as a ruse to increase sales of drugs.

Judging from a new study out this month, with a June 2, 2009 headline on WebMD stating: “Are Antidepressant Warnings Causing Harm?”, apparently this year is no exception even though in the US there were 164.2 million prescriptions dispensed for antidepressants in 2008, compared to 143 million in 2004, according to IMS Health, a healthcare information company.

The study, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, claims there has been a drastic drop in the diagnosis of depression in adults and kids.

Tags: Effexor, paxil, Pristiq, Prozac, SSRIs, suicide, Symbyax, Zoloft
Posted in Drugs/Medical | 5 Comments »

Antidepressant Suicide Reports Continue to Mount

May 28th, 2009. By Evelyn Pringle

This week, journalist Philip Dawdy reported on the popular website Furious Seasons that Wyeth’s Effexor me-too drug Pristiq, FDA approved in early 2008, had already generated 1,272 adverse event reports in the FDA’s MedWatch system through the end of 2008, and wrote with live links to the reports:

“It’s discouraging that 17 of those reports involve completed suicides through the end of 2008. There are also 48 reports of suicidal ideation through the end of 2008.”

“That’s a lot in such a short period of time, especially considering that this drug isn’t exactly widely used,” Dawdy points out. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Effexor, paxil, Pristiq, Prozac, SSRIs, Zoloft
Posted in Defective Products, Drugs/Medical | 6 Comments »