51
Linfield Street
Dundee
Angus
DD4
8LJ
17th February 2007
Dear
Stewart,
Thank
you for your letter of 12th February 2007 detailing that you are
setting up a meeting with the ABPI (Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry)
to discuss the strong evidence that Seroxat is a defective medicine and one
that must be banned before there is further fatality. I am fully aware based on
previous correspondence from your constituency office that Ministers are
dragging their heels over the irrefutable evidence that Seroxat causes a range
of very serious adverse reactions. Serious adverse reactions that include mood
fluctuation, homicide, severe withdrawal reactions and death by suicide in all
age groups, not merely those under 18 years or young adults aged between 18 –
29 years. To suggest that such reactions are confined to a specific age group
are an utter nonsense. Newspaper reports this week of Pop star Robbie Williams
having had to seek expert help from a drug addiction clinic in Arizona to help
him withdraw from Seroxat proves without a shadow of a doubt that Seroxat can
and does cause severe adverse drug and withdrawal reactions in adults aged over
29 years. Additionally the reports that Robbie Williams was consuming large
amounts of caffeine drinks to keep himself awake does not surprise me in the
slightest, when prescribed Seroxat over a long period day becomes night and
night day and why he needed sleeping tablets. I have the deepest sympathies for
Robbie.
I
have no doubt if Robbie Williams had not checked himself into a clinic that
specialises in drug withdrawal he would have committed suicide at some point, I
suffered a very similar set of adverse drug and withdrawal reactions to those
described in the tabloids. Unlike Robbie however I was prescribed the
Benzodiazepine Lorazepam (ending up on the equivalent
of 60mg Diazepam!) daily to help me sleep at night and to prevent a serious
drug reaction called Akathisia (something the Seroxat
patient information leaflet mentions but does not go into detail about), and
took various pain killers including Paracetamol for
the headaches and other aches and pains caused by Seroxat. I have attached
information about Akathisia and its causes (Seroxat
is listed as one of the causes) as an addendum to this letter. I personally
considered suicide on many occasions due to that antidepressant something I had
never contemplated previously and for which GlaxoSmithKline are to blame for, I
consider myself lucky to be alive.
Please
keep me posted of the outcome of the meeting with the ABPI,
it is of paramount importance that a moratorium is placed on the prescription
of what is a deadly antidepressant medicine.
Like
you say the reanalysis of SSRI antidepressants by the FDA in 2006 where it was
discovered that Seroxat/Paxil causes a 6 fold increase in the risk of suicidal
thoughts and acts in children and a 3 fold increase in such serious adverse
reactions in adults adds significant weight to our previous calls for a
moratorium to new patients.
You
mention in your letter that you will do everything you can to press the
Department of Health in terms of:
a)
Taking the issue of Seroxat
seriously
b) Looking
at the workings of the MHRA in terms of its closeness to industry as a whole
I
would like to know just how you aim to achieve this given that GlaxoSmithKline
canvassed Members of Parliament with constituency interests in GlaxoSmithKline,
circulating a letter telling them not to sign your Parliamentary colleague MP
Paul Flynn’s EDM’s (Early Day Motions) critical of
the manufacturers conduct in the run up to the airing of the excellent BBC
Panorama ‘Secrets of the Drugs Trials’ on January 29th 2007, the
fourth in the series of Seroxat documentaries. Clearly the pharmaceutical
industry as a whole has significant influence over the UK Government and
meddles with the democratic process, something that requires further
investigation urgently.
I
look forward to further correspondence from you in the near future both in
terms of the outcome of the meeting between the ABPI, and the other issues I
have brought to light in this letter.
Yours
Sincerely
Derek
Scott
BSc
Behavioural Science (Hons)
http://www.seroxat.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk
From
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|
Akathisia |
|
Akathisia (or "acathisia")
is an often extremely unpleasant subjective sensation of "inner" restlessness
that manifests itself with an inability to sit still or remain motionless,
hence the origin of its name: Greek
a (without) + kathesis (sitting). Its most common cause
is as a side effect of medications, mainly neuroleptics, and rarely, antidepressants.
Akathisia may range in intensity from a mild sense of
disquiet or anxiety (which may be easily overlooked) to a total inability to
sit still with overwhelming anxiety and severe dysphoria (manifesting as an almost indescribable sense
of terror and doom). In the most severe cases, dysphoria
can be so severe that the patient is literally compelled to take action,
leading, possibly, to suicide attempts.
It is not unknown to have patients (who have
been treated most often with neuroleptics for
psychotic episodes or prochlorperazine for
nausea) to bolt out of hospitals or emergency rooms due to this odd and
disconcerting emotion.
Partially because the condition (and its
attendant feeling) is difficult for the patient to describe, it is often
misdiagnosed.
The presence and severity of akathisia can be measured using the Barnes Akathisia Scale.
Causes
Akathisia is most often the side effect of certain
drugs - commonly seen in the antipsychotics, and less so in
the others listed below:
typical or atypical antipsychotics,
such as haloperidol
(Haldol®) and droperidol, olanzapine (Zyprexa®), aripiprazole (Abilify®); Pimozide
is especially infamous for causing akathisia;
SSRIs, such as paroxetine (Paxil/Seroxat®)
Other antidepressants,
such as the tricyclics and trazodone
certain antihistamines,
such as promethazine and diphenhydramine (Benadryl®);
certain anti-emetic
drugs, particularly the dopamine blockers (e.g. metoclopramide (Reglan®) and prochlorperazine (Compazine®)).
certain drugs of abuse, such as GHB, methamphetamine
and MDMA when
administered in excessive doses.
[edit] Treatment
Treatment includes the discontinuation or
reduction of dose of the causative agent and the use of typical or atypical antipsychotics
(also called major tranquilizers) to reduce the agitation
and anxiety. Unfortunately, these neuroleptics are often the cause of the condition and
are known to cause irreversible akathisia in some
cases. While the administration of these drugs may temporarily ameliorate the
symptoms, there is a serious risk of worsening the condition over the longterm.
Therefore, some consider the drug of choice for
the treatment of akathisia to be propranolol, along with other beta
blockers such as metoprolol. The antihistamine cyproheptadine is also effective, though with shorter
effect than beta blockers. Second-line treatments include benztropine and benadryl,
though excess use of Benadryl may worsen symptoms. Most of the clinical cases of akathisia can be prevented by not administering the drugs
that cause the condition.
Recent studies have shown that Vitamin B6
is effective for the treatment of neuroleptic induced
akathisia. [1]
[edit] References
T. R. E. Barnes, "A Rating Scale for
Drug-Induced Akathisia", British Journal of
Psychiatry, vol 154, pp. 672-676, 1989 Abstract
[edit] External links
DSM-IV: Neuroleptic Induced
Acute Akathisia
Information
on successfully treating this nemesis
Placebo-level incidence of extrapyramidal
symptoms (EPS) with quetiapine in controlled studies
of patients with bipolar mania, Nasrallah,
Henry A1; Brecher, Martin2; Paulsson,
Björn3; Bipolar Disorders, Volume 8, Number 5p1, October 2006, pp. 467-474(8)