madbook ~

PSYCHIATRIC DRUGS
     "Paradoxical effects" | The language of obsfucation is always fascinating | BigPharma and Mental Illness Inc. sometimes use this term when referring to known negative effects | The researchers in the industry know this stuff, they just seem so averse to sharing it | I wonder why?:
Some recent observations

1- The latest issue of Mother Jones describes what happens when the Drug Lords manage the mental health system | Aliah Gleason was a direct victim of the Texas juvenile mental illness promoters | They took her from her family, pumped her full of a polypharma regimen, then kept her from her family |
     Seems that she was lucky | She survived | Some sources indicate that as many as 17,000 kids in Texas are subjected to forced psychiatric drugging |
     Rhetorical question time: Why is it that when the Soviets subjected their citizens to forced drugging it was recognized as torture but here in the USA it's just treatment as usual?

2- FDA Warns Antipsychotic Drugs Dangerous to Elderly The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a public health advisory to alert health care providers, patients, and patient caregivers to new safety information concerning an unapproved (i.e., “off-label”) use of certain drugs called “atypical antipsychotic drugs.” These drugs are approved for the treatment of schizophrenia and mania, but clinical studies of these drugs to treat behavioral disorders in elderly patients with dementia have shown a higher death rate associated with their use compared to patients receiving a placebo (sugar pill).

3- How Bug Spray Works | This is here because of a search I did on "paradoxical effects" of psychiatric medications | The read is interesting and relevant since the article first talks about the brain's neurons communicate with one another, and how drugs affect that communication process |
     Read down and you'll find that a chemical known as Acetylcholine is used by the neurons that control your muscles, heart, and lungs | It is also used by many neurons in the brain that are involved in memory | Acetylcholine crosses the brain synapses and tells the muscles to extend by stimulating the receptor sites on the muscles |
     When nerve signals are terminated this is called “reuptake” | Acetylcholine is rapidly broken down by a chemical called acetylcholinesterase | Have you ever looked at the fine print on a bottle of Prozac, Paxil, or Zoloft? It says in there that the drug is a “selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor” (SSRI) |
     Now, read the fine print on a can of insecticide | For some of them, it says that the active ingredient is an “acetylcholinesterase inhibitor” | So, the same effect that we see with bug spray, can be facilitated by SSRIs | You do the math |
     As an FYI, nicotine directly stimulates acetylcholine receptors | Alzheimer’s disease results when these acetylcholine-using neurons in the brain die | [As an aside, does this new info about bug spray provide us any fresh insights on the actions of former insect exterminatior Tom DeLay?]

4- Consumers Union (publisher of Consumer Reports magazine) is working with Senators Grassley (R-IA) and Dodd (D-CT) in organizing a news conference to introduce their legislation that would create an Independent Office of Drug Safety. This media event may take place as early as tomorrow (Thursday, April 21st).
     They are looking for someone to speak at this news conference from their home states of Connecticut or Iowa that has suffered from, or has loved ones that have suffered from the side effects of prescription drugs, particularly those that have been given media attention lately (Vioxx, Bextra, Neurontin, and SSRIs, like Paxil).
     Information on the importance of this legislation is available here. Please contact Elizabeth Foley soon if you know of anyone that may be interested in working with this.

What got me started on this thread was my frustration with a community-based treatment team who accused one of their clients of "doing cocaine" when what changes they have seen with the guy are the result of the "paradoical effects" of jacking up his anti-depressant prescription | This has occured with him many times over the years, and they never seem to recognize it | Of course, if they didn't keep changing docs every couple of months...

posted by Will Brady @ 12:35