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Wednesday 15 February 2012

Failure of ConMed (12). Antidepressants

The dangers of antidepressants are beginning to be well-known - at least outside the ConMed Establishment. Meanwhile, within it, they seem to be being given out liberally, without adequate or sufficient warning to patients.

In my book, 'The Failure of Conventional Medicine', I outlined the problem with antidepressant drugs. But even since writing this, a couple of years ago, what we now know about the dangers of antidepressants have increased and multiplied.

The Increased Prescription of Antidepressants
First, the number of people taking antidepressants is increasing at an alarming rate. This recent article, from the Guardian newspaper (usually slavishly pro-drug, and anti-CAM), states that there has been an increase of 20% in the last 3 years alone, with over 43 million prescription in 2009-2010. Unfortunately, in this article, and elsewhere in the mainstream media, there is little mention of the serious adverse reactions, and the DIEs (disease-inducing-effects) they cause.

It is also becoming clear that many (if not most), (if not all) do not need to be on antidepressant drugs. This study says that 70% of people on antidepressants are not even depressed! So why are they being prescribed? Perhaps it is just that they are good for Big Pharma profits - which is what seems to be driving most health issues at the present time.

The value and effectiveness of antidepressant drugs
There are now many studies that show these drugs to be ineffective. This article, for instance, suggests (in rather more careful language) that antidepressants are totally useless. There are many others!

This one describes a study that has found antidepressants to be not only ineffective, but that they make you even more depressed!

So with this background, what are we now learning about antidepressant drugs?

The links with Suicide
The link between antidepressants and suicide is now well documented. This article goes through the number of people taking these drugs, the numbers of people considering suicide, the ineffectiveness of antidepressants, and the evidence that they can actually increase suicidal tendencies. It also points out that other Big Pharma drugs can increase the risks of suicide, including the anti-smoking drug, Chantix, an anti-acne drug, Accutane, certain epilepsy and cholesterol-reducing drugs, and Tamiflu.

The links with Violence
Apologists for drug-based medicine hate individual stories about the adverse reactions to drugs. They call them, and dismiss them, as 'anecdotal'. In contrast, I describe them as examples of how Big Pharma drugs can damage and destroy people's lives! Take this one, for instance. A teenager is taking the well-known anti-depression drug, Prozac, and when he had his dosage increased he kills a 9 year old girl, apparently 'for the thrill of it'.

And in Canada, as this story of another drug-induced death seems to indicate, taking Prozac now appears to be an adequate excuse for murder! Yes, a young boy kills his close friend; and the reason given, and accepted by both judge and prosecution, is that the killer was taking this drug! And of course, there is no mention here, either, about whether such drugs should be prescribed in the first place!

So can these, and other similar stories, be dismissed as anecdotal, one-off occurrences? And just how many of these 'anecdotes' do we need before the ConMed Establishment, and Big Pharma, admit there just might be a problem?

In considering this, what needs to be borne in mind is that 1 in 25 adolescents in America are now on antidepressants. So if these drugs do cause gratuitous acts of violence, what will we end up with? A violent society? And this is certainly appears to be what is developing.

This webpage looks at the 'nightmares' created by one type of antidepressant drug, SSRI's, and then links to a long list of literally hundreds of incidents, where acts of extreme gratuitous violence has been associated with antidepressant, and other drugs, like antipsychotics.

And incidentally, whilst we are focussing on SSRI's, have you ever been told they cause severe high blood pressure in babies - when their mother's take these awful drugs?

Unfortunately for us, none of this appears to be admitted by the ConMed Establishment. Certainly, as has been seen, more and more patients are being prescribed these drugs, without being told by their GPs, or anyone else, about their DIEs.

Our brains are the most sensitive, an perhaps the most important of all our organs. They make us what we are, as people, as individuals. Big Pharma drugs, as usual, seek to interfere and change what is going on within our minds. And the consequences appear to be alarming.

Our mainstream media is also quite useless in warning us. This is about how good it gets! The BBC, another news organisation that usually slavishly adheres to the Big Pharma script on health issues, admits that antidepressants can cause falls in older people! Yes, they no doubt do this too. But are we not also to be informed that they can lead to suicide, or that they cause needless and unprovoked violence? There is not a mention of this anywhere!

It would appear that the only winner in all this is the drug companies - selling drugs to people who don't need them - selling drugs that are mostly ineffective in dealing with depression. And all this with total silence, and apparent unconcern, emanating from the ConMed Establishment.