Altho I usually do not “pollute” this board with posts like this one, I am going to post this particular piece.
To put things into a little context…
It took the CDC and NIH 40 years to “prove” that tobacco was directly linked to cancer because of political entanglements. In the end, proof was derrived from literally hundreds of thousands of post-mortem examinations in hospitals, provided a huge body of data from deceased who were lifetime smokers.
It took the CDC 20 years to acknowledge the danger of Agent Orange because of political rammifications. We now recognize dioxin (the active ingredient in Agent Orange) to be one of the most toxic substances man has created.
It took the CDC 15 years to acknowledge a link between whole-cell pertussis vaccines and infant death (despite a body of independant research which showed a connection) because of the threat of liability and the threat to their effort to erradicate the disease.
It took the CDC 10 years to acknowledge Gulf War Syndrome because of political pressure and liability concerns. We learned from it that safety testing of biological products as a single variable are inadequate due to the synnergy of interaction between completely unrelated antigens and other substances that are administered or otherwise have exposure in a close proximity of time.
My son and literally tens of millions of other children were exposed to dangerous levels of the one of the most toxic elements known - mercury. As we look at today’s teens and scratch our heads at the escalating problems we see in their ability to function successfully in civil society, we point the fingers of blame at their role models, the rap they listen to, the video games they are absorbed with, the lackluster schools and their broken families (not that I do not think these factor in in varying degrees). I believe that the stage was actually set much earlier than any of these factors, beginning on the second day of their life when they were routinely administered 6250% of the allowable daily exposure of mercury for a 180 lb. adult. Children born after 1990 received at least 3 such bolus exposures. Children born after 1993 received at least 4.
The first rule of medicine, outlined some 2000 years ago by Hyppocrates was “first do no harm”. Somehow, the politics of disease erradication and the business of immunology has lost sight of that.
http://www.safeminds.org/pressroom/press_releases/20040518_AutismAuthorsNetwork.pdf
Re: "Something Rotten in Denmark" OT (sorta)
http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscout/2004/06/02/hscout519310.html
Prozac Appears Safe, Effective in
Teens
By E.J. Mundell
HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, June 2 (HealthDayNews) — While it may not settle the debate
entirely, preliminary findings from a major U.S. government-funded study
suggest that antidepressants do not raise the risk of suicide in adolescents.
The findings should provide some comfort to the parents of millions of
American teens who take Prozac and other selective serotonin reuptake
inhibitor (SSRI) drugs to battle depression. Earlier this year, isolated reports of
teens taking their own lives while on SSRIs led the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration to issue a warning regarding their use in younger patients. In
the United Kingdom, health officials went even further, banning the use of all
SSRIs except Prozac for patients under the age of 18.
However, “people who are concerned about this issue can be reassured” by
the results of the new research, said Dr. Marvin Lipkowitz, chairman of
psychiatry at Maimonides Medical Center in New York City.
“The take-home message,” he said, “is that the medication is, overall,
excellent — there’s no question.”
According to a report Wednesday in The New York Times, researchers led by
Duke University’s Dr. John March assessed ongoing changes in the mental
health of 378 adolescents aged 12 to 17 diagnosed with moderate to severe
depression as part of the Treatment for Adolescents with Depression study.
Each of the young patients received one of four different treatments over a
36-week period: Prozac alone; Prozac in combination with cognitive behavioral
therapy (where patients talk out their problems with a therapist); cognitive
behavioral therapy alone; or a placebo pill.
The study was funded entirely by a grant from the National Institute of Mental
Health.
Although March’s team collected data on the study subjects for a period of one
year, they have so far only analyzed data from the first 12 weeks of therapy.
Presenting those preliminary, unpublished findings at a psychiatric meeting
Tuesday in Phoenix, the researchers reported that a combination of Prozac
plus “talk” therapy worked best, with 71 percent of those patients responding
well to treatment. Next best was Prozac alone, which improved depression in
61 percent of patients. Just 43 percent of patients treated with talk therapy
alone achieved significant depression relief, slightly better than the 35 percent
found in patients taking a placebo.
However, the researchers stressed that any therapy seemed to reduce risks
for suicide. None of the 378 participants took their lives during the trial, the
researchers noted, although there were six attempted suicides recorded.
Five of the six attempted suicides occurred among patients taking Prozac, the
researchers said. Still, that number remains statistically very low, and March
told the Times that “these adverse events are extremely rare.”
According to Lipkowitz, the study suggests that Prozac’s benefits for
depressed teens far outweigh its risks. “Although each death is a tragedy, the
number of people who have benefited from these medications is significantly
greater than the number who have been harmed by them,” he said.
But he agrees with the current FDA recommendation that young patients
taking Prozac should also seek the care of a psychologist or psychiatrist at the
same time, to monitor their progress. “Unless one is completely enamored of
the pharmacology-only approach, what these findings demonstrate is that, for
depression and especially in teenage patients, human contact is important,”
he said.
Lipkowitz believes the findings will be less welcome to representatives of the
nation’s HMOs. “The insurance companies that pay for medical care will
object to having all this money spent on talking with the child, which is only
going to increase costs,” he said. “I think that while it’s a noble fight, it’ll take
time for these findings to have any significant effect. But it’s a very valuable
beginning.”
The next real test lies ahead, as experts at the FDA mull over the study
findings. The full results of the study are still to come, the researchers said.
“We’re all holding our breath to see what the FDA is going to do,” March told
the Times.
In the meantime, concerns about SSRI safety are leading to legal battles in
the nation’s courts.
New York state Attorney General Elliot Spitzer announced Wednesday that he
has filed a lawsuit against drug giant GlaxoSmithKline, alleging that the
company “engaged in repeated and persistent fraud by concealing and failing
to disclose to physicians information about Paxil, a drug used to treat
depression.”
As it stands, only Prozac is currently approved by the FDA for use in fighting
depression in children. Spitzer’s lawsuit alleges that GlaxoSmithKline
“withheld” and “misrepresented” research on Paxil’s effects in teens and
young children, in an attempt to encourage doctors to engage in “off-label” use
of the drug in younger patients. According to Spitzer’s office, U.S. doctors wrote
more than 2 million prescriptions for Paxil for use by children in 2002 alone,
resulting in sales in excess of $55 million.
Re: "Something Rotten in Denmark" OT (sorta)
From the information presented, we cannot determine the difference of risk for suicide attempt between taking Prozac or not, but overall, 6 attempts out of 378 seems more than a little significant to me, regardless of which treatment plan was in effect. In order to accurately assess the apparent 5:1 ratio of suicide attempts, we would need to know how many children were in each of the categories. As I recall reading a more in depth report about this study a couple months back, it was suggested that taking Prozac increased the attempted suicide by slighly more than 200%, a figure that these researchers may feel is insignificant, but one which meets the legal threshhold for causative effect.
I am curious why they did not have a fifth category, taking placebo and receiving behavioral therapy to contrast directly against taking Prozac and receiving behavioral therapy.
I also would suggest that the children in this study were probably more closely monitored than children who would be receiving treatment in the real world. This may account for the fact that all 6 of these reported attempts were prevented.
I also would be interested in reading the results of the longer study. Making a final pronouncement of efficacy and safety based upon the first 12 weeks seems just a bit premature to me. Who is to say that after a year the differences in efficacy of the treatments may not be much closer? I wonder how long it will take them to analize all of the data collected.
I wholeheartedly agree with you. Mercury toxicity is the lurking “elephant in the living room” that the CDC refuses to see. I have two children, both adopted from Romania as preschoolers. When we adopted our daughter in 1995, it was not recommeded that vaccinations be repeated. She is now a bright and typical 13 year old. My son, adopted in 1997, was not so lucky. By that time the American Academy of Pediatrics was recommending that all vaccines be repeated — which, good mother that I am — I dutifully did. My son is now delayed with NVLD and autistic “tendencies”.
It was my son’s psychiatrist who first suggested heavy metal issues and we are undergoing chelation now.
I know one little boy, adopted at 2, who was vaccinated THREE times — once in Romania, the second time upon adoption in the US, and the third time before kindergarten when the family moved and lost vaccination records. (The mother was assured that “vaccines were safe” and it was easier to revaccinate the child than get old records.) This boy is now 10 and recently offically diagnosed with PPD. This is heartbreaking. I KNEW this child — he was a bright and “normal” two year old upon arrival in the US.
Mercury is poison. Thimerisol is mercury. Thimerisol is poison. Thimerisol is still in many vaccines, including flu vaccines.
We need to quit poisoning our children. The CDC needs to start protecting the citizens of this country instead of the financial interests of the drug companies.
Mad as hell,
Jody