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SELECTIVE SEROTONIN REUPTAKE INHIBITOR DRUGS (SSRI’s), CAUSING AGGRESSION INCLUDING SUICIDES AND MURDERS. January 2003 My interest in the SSRI drugs was initially in their possible ability to cause bone marrow and blood disorders including thrombocytopenia and aplastic anaemia as adverse drug reactions (ADR’s). Collecting information on the ADR’s it very quickly became apparent, because of the 100’s of media reports, that these drugs also caused behavioural disturbances including aggression, suicides and murders in some patients. The media reports from those affected, relatives and friends were and still are to some extent dismissed by the drug industry and medical profession as unscientific, unproven and anecdotal. (update: see huge media coverage of this 2004) The reporting of adverse reactions by doctors to any drugs either in the UK or elsewhere is near to zero for a variety of reasons but principally because of the huge level of profits on prescribed drugs, bribes to the medical profession (see 100’s of media and other reports) to grossly over prescribe and not to report side-effects. A report in The Pharmaceutical Journal in the UK on 2.11.1996 found that only 6.3% of ADR’s were reported by doctors on the yellow forms provided, even so a report in the same journal on 3.8.96 showed that even with this near zero reported of side-effects the SSRI drugs were 4th, 5th and 6th on the list of drugs causing fatal adverse reactions with 39 deaths reported. If the 6.3% reporting level of ADRS’s is accurate then the deaths would translate into over 600 per year in the U.K. The journal Business Week 16.3.98 reported that in the USA the SSRI drug Prozac was associated with more hospitalisation, deaths or other serious adverse reactions reported to the Federal Drug Administration than any other drug in America. The Independent newspaper on 10.9.2001 reported that 13 of the worlds leading medical journals mounted an outspoken attack on the rich and powerful drug companies, accusing them of distorting the results of scientific research for the sake of profits. They accused the drug companies of threatening to withdraw their financial support for research unless researchers play up the benefits and play down any side effects of drugs. The journals are refusing to publish further reports unless researchers can show that their papers are not biased to promote a drug. In recent months in the UK, because doctors refuse to report the side effects of drugs the Government has introduced a scheme where patients can report side effect direct to the drug control agencies. The problems so far have been that no one, including doctors and chemists, seem to have be told the scheme exists and I have been unable so far to obtain a copy of the form on which patients can reports side effects to drugs they are prescribed. Even if the scheme is introduced the drug agency members who receive the reports are mostly in the pay of the drug industry so we can expect little if any action on patients reports. In February 2004 there were media reports that The Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, in the UK warned doctors that far too many tranquillisers are being prescribed, exposing 1000’s of patients to potential additional health damage. The number of reports of aggression and suicides following the taking of the SSRI drugs reached such levels that the UK Government was eventually forced to do something and announced (The Observer 25.5.2003) a major inquiry into the drugs. In March 2004 one expert on the committee looking into the effects of the drugs resigned over cover-ups on the effects which had been known for many years. It is against this background that the huge number of media reports of adverse reactions including suicides and murders caused by the SSRI and other psychotropic drugs must be taken seriously. One typical report from the USA was of a man who had never previously been violent shortly after being prescribed Prozac went out and shot 20 of his workmates and himself. This report in The Observer 13.10.1996 also exposed that the drug companies had been paying out of court settlements to some patients or relatives affected. It was disclosed at one trial that the trials that licence the drugs were carried out by the drug companies themselves and not by independent researchers. The Medicines Act 1968 in the UK makes it an offence to state what chemicals are in any specific drug and how the drug came to be passed for sale. With the SSRI drugs and other drugs prescribed for depression etc. chemicals common to all are benzene and halogens, e.g. chlorine and fluorine. Benzene causes the blood disorders which are precursor conditions to cancers and are documented to be side effects of these drugs and the halogens modified the effects. Fluorine being the most reactive of the halogens (see displacement law of halogens) increases the toxicity of these drugs the most and for example with the Phenothiazine tranquillisers the fluoridated drugs can be up to 50 as potent as the chlorinated ones. The British National Formulary (BNF) by the British Medical Association and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, the book doctors prescribe from in the UK does mention aggression and suicidal ideation of the SSRI drugs as a possible side effect although it does say that the connection has not been proved. The ABPI book by the drug industry about their drugs says the same. There can be no question that the chemicals in the drugs are known to cause behavioural disturbances as for example quoted in The Martindale international pharmacology book on the neurological effects of the chemical benzene which is in the drugs. The Pharmaceutical Journal 11.12.1993 noted at this early date that Dista, the manufacturers of Prozac had received 498 cases of hair loss reported as side effects. This confirms the effects of the chemicals in the drugs have exactly the same effects as ionising radiations as reported in books like Bowman and Rand’s pharmacology. In France the side effects of aggression and suicide are clearly given in the leaflet with Prozac (Fluoxetine). The Daily Mail 9.3.2004 reported that medical experts were warning that the SSRI drugs increased the risk of haemorrhage confirming the effects on the bone marrow and reducing platelets, especially if other drugs having the same effects were also being taken like aspirin and drugs for arthritis. The leaflet with Fluoxetine in France also gives haemorrhage as a possible side effect. In 1993 a team lead by Rene Hen a French microbiologist carried out experiments on mice and serotonin. Knocking out the serotonin receptor in the brain of mice it was found that these mice displayed extreme aggression when given the drugs. The same receptors are also in humans and it was speculated that similar effects might contribute to human behaviour. Here we have clues as to why some people display extreme aggression when prescribed the SSRI drugs. A paper by J.C.R. Ferando in the European Journal of Pharmacology in 1984 describes serotonin involvement in the behavioural effects of anti-cholinesterase organophosphates. This also may be a clue into why some patients display extreme aggression when prescribed the SSRI drugs. Organophosphates have shown up in gas chromatography mass spectrometry laboratory tests in people who did no know they have been exposed to these insecticides and which was almost certainly from food items sprayed with the insecticides . We have now information that some patients, because of previous exposure to chemical agents, can become extremely aggressive and violent when prescribed SSRI drugs and more research is needed to identify these patients if many more suicides and murders are to be avoided.
SELECTIVE SEROTONIN REUPTAKE INHIBITOR DRUGS (PROZAC AND C0PIES) - REFERENCES IN THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL (P.J.) AND OTHER PUBLICATIONS 1997
Note: Princess Diana’s driver was on Prozac and possibly committed suicide in
spectacular fashion. (See Paris tribunal findings “death was due to drug
(Prozac) and alcohol). Doubt the bit of alcohol would cause suicide, Prozac
could.
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