Ezine Archive

Editor’s Comment

“Great news! This is what I have been working for!”

This was the email we received from a mother when the news was released that major antidepressants have been banned on children in the UK (see story, this issue) because they can cause suicidal impulses.

Why should she care so much? Her young son killed himself while on Prozac.

Britain’s paper The Guardian warns: “The ban will cause problems for doctors because insufficient counsellors and psychotherapists are available to offer the alternative treatment of therapy, and the bill to the National Health Service for such treatment would be much higher than the cost of the drug prescriptions.”

To add to the mix, now authorities are questioning whether adult use of antidepressants is safe.

During these times, Safe Harbor is proud to be offering our Mood Cure Workshop (see info below) so that practitioners DO have safe alternatives that are not only effective but much less expensive.

If you are not familiar with Julia Ross’s solution-filled book The Mood Cure and the powerful, yet simple, amino acid treatments she uses, among many other nutritional solutions, then you are in for a treat. There is a reason why her book is Safe Harbor’s most recommended.

The workshop will offer an in-depth look at these treatments “from the horse’s mouth.” You will get your questions answered and find out how they work in real clinical situations.

These are the treatments of the future. We hope to see you there!

Five Announcements…

BEST-SELLING AUTHOR PRESENTS MOOD CURE WORKSHOP
Safe Harbor, the nation’s leading nonprofit agency for non-drug mental health education – in partnership with Northern California Recovery Systems, Inc. – presents:

 

Announcement: Safe Harbor Los Angeles Support Group Meeting, Jan. 14

The Los Angeles Safe Harbor Support Group meeting will be held at the Safe Harbor office, 1718 Colorado Blvd, Eagle Rock, from 7 to 9 PM, Wednesday, January 14th.

We will present the first public showing of a Safe Harbor video presentation of a speech given in Boston by Safe Harbor president Dan Stradford: “Underlying Physical Causes of Mental Disorders.”

The meeting is free and open to all interested persons. Kindly RSVP (323) 257-7338 if you will be participating.

The support group will meet from 7 PM to 8 PM and the video will be presented from 8 PM to 9 PM.

Announcement: Safe Harbor New York Support Group Meeting

Join us for the next Safe Harbor NY support group at a new location. In these monthly groups, we discuss the use of non-drug approaches such as nutrition, exercise, dietary change, treatment of underlying physical disorders, and acupuncture for treatment of mental health-related symptoms.

All are welcome to join our group to share experiences and information and learn from one another in an open and nonjudgmental environment.

Where: The East Village, Neighborhood Preservation Center,
232East 11th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues.

Closest subway stops: Astor Place (6 train), Union Square (4, 5, 6, L, N, R, Q, and W), or 3rd Avenue station (L).

Closest bus stops: 3rd Avenue between 10 and 11th (M101, M102, and M103) or 2nd Avenue between 11th and 12th Streets (M15).

When: Tuesday, January 13, 2004, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Donation: $4 (to help pay for space rental)

RSVP required; space is limited. There is one flight of stairs at the Neighborhood Preservation Center entrance, but the building is accessible with advance notice. Please contact Dana Barnes with any questions or concerns.

To RSVP, contact:

Dana Barnes
Safe Harbor NY
ny@alternativementalhealth.com
NY: 212-302-9811
NJ: 201-656-2849

Announcement: New York Holistic Psychiatry Lecture

Dr. Michael Gurevich will speak about using herbs, supplements, and homeopathic remedies to treat mental disorders.

When: Wednesday, January 28, 6:30 – 8:30

Where: Neighborhood Preservation Center (in the East Village), 232 East 11th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues

Closest subway stops: Astor Place (6 train), Union Square (4, 5, 6, L, N, R, Q and W), or 3rd Avenue station (L)

Closest bus stops: 3rd Avenue between 10 and 11th (M101, M102, and M103) or 2nd Avenue between 11th and 12th Streets (M15)

Donation: $5

Michael I. Gurevich, M.D., C.Ac.
Founder and President, Lifestreams Integrative Health and Wellness, a holistic health center in Glen Head, NY.
Diplomat American Board of Psychiatry
Diplomat American Board of Addiction Psychiatry
Certified Acupuncturist

To RSVP, contact:

Dana Barnes
Safe Harbor NY
ny@alternativementalhealth.com
NY: 212-302-9811
NJ: 201-656-2849

Announcement: Safe Harbor Boston Presents Talk by William J. Walsh in January

Safe Harbor Boston presents “Natural Mental Health with Biochemical Therapy,” a talk by William J. Walsh, Ph.D., founder of the Pfeiffer Treatment Center.

When: Thursday, January 22 at 7:30 pm

Where: First Unitarian Society in Newton – Parish Hall
1326 Washington St., Newton, MA
(corner of Highland St., parking behind Sovereign Bank)

William J. Walsh, recipient of Safe Harbor’s 2002 Lighthouse Award, is a scientist with more than 30 years of research experience. After graduating from the University of Notre Dame in 1958, he went on to earn a masters degree at the University of Michigan and a Doctorate in Chemical Engineering from Iowa State University. Dr. Walsh worked for some of the most prestigious scientific institutions in the country, including Argonne National Laboratory, where he spent 22 years as a researcher.

His research and volunteer work involving biochemical predisposition to behavior disorders led to Dr. Walsh’s foundation of the Health Research Institute in 1982 and the Pfeiffer Treatment Center in 1989. Pfeiffer is a non-profit center that provides individualized biochemical therapy to patients looking for a natural treatment for imbalances associated with behavior disorders, learning problems, autism, depression, and schizophrenia. www.hriptc.org

Safe Harbor Boston is dedicated to increasing awareness about the advantages of using alternative treatments for those interested in mental health issues. We provide healing circle/support group meetings the first and third Mondays of each month from 7:00-9:00 PM at the First Unitarian Society for people who experience extreme states of mind.

For directions to the First Unitarian Society in Newton, see www.fusn.org

Call(617) 964-5544 or write to SafeHarborB@aol.com for more information.

Article: Recovery from “Bipolar Disorder”

I spent much of my childhood crying, throwing temper tantrums, feeling depressed and friendless. My head would race with bizarre ideas and negative thoughts constantly. I even used to bang my head against the wall and my mother at one point thought I was autistic.

As a teen I was antisocial, nervous, filled with anxiety. I was obsessed with religion and God, wanting to become a nun and praying incessantly. I didn’t believe in myself, I didn’t know how to interact with people, I couldn’t control my temper and I couldn’t hold a job for long. At one point I thought the world was going to end and I collected canned goods and candles against the coming nuclear holocaust.

I clung to relationships that were unhealthy and often ended in violent disputes. The friends I did make in university had problems like my own; they couldn’t be there for me, nor I for them.

I had my first major manic episode at the age of 23, in my last year of university. Half a credit away from graduating, I completely lost my mind. I ended the relationship with my boyfriend, didn’t show up for class, hallucinated, went to the local University pub and drank all my tuition money day and night for months. I went off of my Zoloft cold turkey, threatened my psychiatrist that I was going to give him a mental illness with a baseball bat and took off to save the world. My sex drive went sky high. I was rowdy, obnoxious, made new friends and got them and myself kicked out of bars repeatedly.

I crashed into a depression so bad I wouldn’t bathe and didn’t leave the house for a year and a half. The sunlight hurt, noise hurt, my jaw hurt every morning from clenching my teeth all night. Too depressed even to feed myself, I depended on an older man who was half psychotic from alcohol most of the time. I remember violent disputes, cops coming over, ambulances. Once I put a cigarette out on my hand to escape the psychological torture for a while.

I jumped from psychiatrist to psychiatrist. They put me on Paxil, Serzone, Prozac, you name it; nothing worked. Every day for two years I was psychotic, in a rage, acting out, crying, screaming and becoming increasingly dangerous. I was living in a homeless shelter for six months and I was so insane that at one point I scared everyone in the shelter. I blew up over a remark at dinner and they all ran up the stairs and locked themselves in their rooms.

The only thing that saved me was a vague memory of a friend of mine who had Bipolar as well. She had spent six years on disability, overweight from medications, hospitalized every year, electroshocked 13 times to control her mania. I had lost contact with my friend two years before and was a little sheepish, but thoroughly desperate. I phoned her and learned that she had been off disability for almost three years; she wasn’t on meds; she was back to teaching full-time!

She explained that she had found this natural therapy, a product called Equilib, which a friend of her brother’s had discovered on the Web. I was amazed to hear her tell me about the 80 pounds she lost through changing her diet and all the energy she had from not being on tranquilizers anymore. The Equilib pills had literally saved her life.

My friend expressed her bitterness over losing so many years to Bipolar disorder and towards the inadequacy of the mental health system. We talked for hours about the torture of what happened to our lives and the absolute change that she had experienced.

I thought my problem was too complex and found it hard to believe that the solution could be so simple. However, I was so desperate and the doctors had run out of options for me. I told my psychiatrist I had ordered the product and was going to try it with or without his help. I needed him to wean me off the medication, but I expected him to reject the idea. I explained to him what the Equilib people had told me about diet and Bipolar. To my surprise, he already knew! He knew that studies have been done on the effects of sugar on the “bipolar brain.” But I guess the medical profession did not take that seriously enough.

I really started to believe the Equilib product would work when I did what the Equilib people told me to do. I stopped eating sugar completely. Within four days I was completely stable on my meds while I was being weaned off of them. I had never, since my first episode five years earlier, been stable. I felt like I had just woken up. If this product could stabilize me in four days on meds, something all the psychiatrists couldn’t for nine years, they must know what they are talking about. So I went all the way. I did exactly as they told me and I am now stable for the first time in my life!

I am now a different person. I am no longer angry, depressed, or anxious. I have so much energy. I am able to exercise again because I am not drugged up. I am losing weight (so far 45 pounds!) and I going to college. For the first time I am confident I can work full-time and study too. My memory and cognitive capabilities have been repaired. I am in control of myself and my life again. I am just getting to know the real me; it’s wonderful and a bit scary. Now I feel I can carry myself with dignity. I have quit smoking and started organizing my stuff, an ability I had lost. I can actually clean my house. I don’t live in a pig sty. This product has saved my life.

More Information…
More information on Equilib is available at www.evince.org.

Article: Glaxo Senior Executive Admits Limited Effectiveness of Drugs

Allen Roses, worldwide vice-president of genetics at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), told colleagues that fewer than half of the patients prescribed some of the most expensive drugs are benefited at all.

Dr. Roses, an academic geneticist from Duke University in North Carolina, spoke at a recent scientific meeting in London where he cited figures on how well different classes of drugs work in real patients. Just days earlier, the news broke that annual drug spending by Britain’s National Health Service has soared by nearly 50 per cent in three years to a total of 7.2 billion pounds.

GSK announced last week that it had 20 or more new drugs under development that could each earn the company up to £600 million a year.

“The vast majority of drugs – more than 90 per cent – only work in 30 or 50 per cent of the people,” Dr. Roses said. “I wouldn’t say that most drugs don’t work. I would say that most drugs work in 30 to 50 per cent of people. Drugs out there on the market work, but they don’t work in everybody.”

Drugs for Alzheimer’s disease work in fewer than one in three patients, whereas those for cancer are only effective in a quarter of patients. Drugs for migraines, for osteoporosis, and arthritis work in about half the patients, Dr. Roses said. Most drugs work in fewer than one in two patients mainly because the recipients carry genes that interfere in some way with the medicine, he said.

“Roses is a smart guy and what he is saying will surprise the public but not his colleagues,” said one industry scientist. “He is a pioneer of a new culture within the drugs business based on using genes to test for who can benefit from a particular drug.”

Article: Relationship Between Celiac Disease and Depression

Celiac Disease is an allergy or sensitivity to gluten, a protein complex found in wheat and other grains. People with Celiac Disease often experience severe mental symptoms which are commonly mistaken for “mental illness.”

Authors of the 2003 article “Recurrent Brief Depression in Celiac Disease” (Journal of Psychosomatic Research 55: 573-574) wrote in a follow-up letter:

“36% of celiac patients compared to 6.9% of 144 control patients were found with Recurrent Brief Depression (RBD). This association was stronger with RBD than major depression. There was no significant difference between the RBD rates between men (33%) and women (37%) but the association among women was found to be statistically significant.

“The heightened risks in celiac disease patients were for the following mood disorders: 1) major depressive, 2) dysthymic disorders, 3) adjustment disorders, and 4) panic disorders.”

The authors said malabsorption of tryptophan leading to lower serotonin production might be a contributing factor.

Article: 48 Drugs Found Especially Hazardous to Elderly Patients

Some medicines pose unacceptable hazards to an aging body, or at best are ineffective. A list of 48 such drugs, authored by a panel of dozen doctors, geriatric psychiatrists, pharmacologists, and other specialists, was published Dec. 8 in the AMA’s Archives of Internal Medicine.

The list assigns a high severity rating to Prozac, Dalmane, Elavil, Miltown, Xanax in doses greater than 0.2 mg, Halcion in doses greater than 0.25 mg, and all barbiturates except when used to control seizures, among others.

Drugs that were well-tolerated for years become unpredictable and sometimes lethal as the body slows down.

An update of criteria established in 1997 by Dr. Mark Beers, who developed it for the Merck Manual, the report was intended as a guideline to potential risks, not a mandate. “We realize that aging is an individualized process, and there are some 65-year-olds who are healthy and do fine on these medications,” said Donna M. Fick, a geriatric nurse with the Medical College of Georgia and principal author of the panel’s report.

“The single most common problem that I see in my practice comes from the benzodiazepine group of tranquilizers like Valium and Xanax,” said Dr. Tom W. Jackson, a geriatrician who served on the panel.

“These drugs tend to calm people down, but they also disinhibit them. The effects are much like alcohol,” he added. “Folks who are on these medications … are actually four times more likely to fall and break their hip than people who are not on these medications.”

Daily fluoxetine (Prozac) was cited for “long half-life of drug and risk of producing excessive CNS [Central Nervous System] stimulation, sleep disturbances, and increasing agitation. Safer alternatives exist.”

About amitriptyline (Elavil), the report warns: “Because of its strong anticholinergic [inhibiting the action of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine] properties, amitriptyline is rarely the antidepressant of choice for elderly patients.”

Additional findings summarized in the report:

“Thirty percent of hospital admissions in elderly patients may be linked to drug-related problems or drug toxic effects. Adverse drug events (ADEs) have been linked to preventable problems in elderly patients such as depression, constipation, falls, immobility, confusion, and hip fractures. A 1997 study of ADEs found that 35% of ambulatory older adults experienced an ADE and 29% required health care services (physician, emergency department, or hospitalization) for the ADE. Some two-thirds of nursing facility residents have ADEs over a 4-year period. Of these ADEs, 1 in 7 results in hospitalization.

“In 2000, it is estimated that medication-related problems caused 106,000 deaths annually at a cost of $85 billion. Others have calculated the cost of medication-related problems to be $76.6 billion to ambulatory care, $20 billion to hospitals, and $4 billion to nursing home facilities. If medication-related problems were ranked as a disease by cause of death, it would be the fifth leading cause of death in the United States. The prevention and recognition of drug-related problems in elderly patients and other vulnerable populations is one of the principal health care quality and safety issues for this decade.”

Article: A Special Story of Recovery

The following was read at Safe Harbor’s Third Annual Awards Benefit. The author was originally scheduled to speak at the event, but for reasons that she explains, she could not attend.

To all guests at Safe Harbor’s 3rd Annual Awards Benefit:

I am sorry I was unable to present our story in person tonight. Due to my husband’s recovery, we are on our way to a new life. We should be in Tennessee by now. For a recap of events, here goes:

September, 1998, was the beginning of my personal experience dealing with “mental illness.” I noticed my husband’s behavior had changed dramatically and called both a psychiatrist and psychologist to schedule appointments for him. The result of these doctor visits was my husband being placed in a mental hospital due to being suicidal. I thought once he was treated at the hospital and rested at home for a while, he would return to work. Obviously, I was totally clueless and had no idea what I was in store for.

I joined NAMI (National Alliance for the Mentally Ill) and, soon after, took their 12-week free educational course called NAMI Family-to-Family class. This course was a godsend. As a result of this class, I knew what I was dealing with and had the tools to advocate for my husband’s care.

In the first year of my husband’s illness, he was hospitalized 5 times. After taking the NAMI Family-to-Family class, he has not been hospitalized since. However, I have concluded after 4 years of teaching the NAMI Family-to-Family class, plus being a facilitator of support groups as well as attending NAMI conventions, that medications and therapy did not work for that many individuals.

Most of those who were ill were excessively overweight and slept all day. Life was basically watching TV and smoking cigarettes and going in and out of mental hospitals.

A couple of years ago, I was introduced to a line of nutrition products. My husband and I attended a seminar called “Day With The Doctors.” Once my husband heard from a doctor’s mouth what Prozac does to individuals, he immediately quit taking the drug.

Through the same nutrition company, we ran into a naturopathic physician, a doctor who uses natural approaches. That is when I started learning about the benefits of proper nutrition. I got on the Internet and that is when I first heard of Safe Harbor.

After reading the testimonials, it gave me hope for my husband. He was so ill that it had gotten to the point where I didn’t know who this person was anymore.

After attending Dan’s first Award Benefit, I started contacting Dan to get speakers to our affiliate (NAMI-Chino Hills) to help our members as well as myself. The end result was the formation of a NAMI group interested in natural treatments for mental illness.

I am pleased to say after 2 years of trying different types of nutrients and treatments, my husband no longer hears voices and his depression is gone. It is beyond words what this has meant to me as well as my husband.

My dream is to make it common knowledge to all that these illnesses can be helped tremendously by proper nutrition, treatment and testing. It breaks my heart that so many lives are being ruined because of the stubbornness of those in charge not to even offer the option of alternative methods of treatment.

I want to thank Safe Harbor for all their hard work in getting this vital information out for all to see.

Pamela Greider
Past President
NAMI-Chino Hills

Article: Suicide Risk Leads to UK Antidepressant Ban for Children

The British government has taken action to ban the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in children and adolescents under the age of 18. They did this on the basis of an independent review of the safety and efficacy of the SSRI class in the treatment of children with major depression.

The review was undertaken by the Expert Working Group of the Committee on Safety of Medicines (CSM). The CSM has advised that the balance of risks and benefits for the treatment of major depressive disorder in those under 18 is unfavorable for the sertraline (Zoloft), citalopram (Celexa) and escitalopram (Lexapro), in addition to the previously- contraindicated paroxetine (Seroxat, Paxil) and venlafaxine (Efexor).

British GPs have prescribed SSRIs for at least 50,000 children despite the fact that none of the drugs has been licensed in the UK for use in children with depression.

SSRIs are aggressively advertised and widely prescribed, despite reports of suicides and withdrawal symptoms and the drugs’ frequent failure to outperform placebo in even company-controlled clinical trials. See The Emperor’s New Drugs: An Analysis of Antidepressant Medication,
http://journals.apa.org/prevention/volume5/pre0050023a.html.

GlaxoSmithKline issued a letter warning physicians in the UK — but not in the US — about the hazards of Seroxat (Paxil) for children.

On Dec. 9, 2003, the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) told doctors not to prescribe all but one of the antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). The exception is Prozac, which is licensed for use in depressed children in the US. But the MHRA warning says Prozac helps only one child in 10 at best. The Alliance for Human Research Protection reports that Eli Lilly’s new Prozac Fact Sheet sent to UK physicians shortly after the UK ban — but not to US physicians — now states that Prozac is not recommended for children for any indication.

Public unease about reported side effects prompted the agency to investigate last year. It has looked at the details of clinical trials of depressed children that were in the hands of the drug companies in the late 1990s. These studies revealed the problem of suicidal behavior in children, but the companies did not draw it to the attention of the regulators in the US or the UK.

It has become clear from the investigation that the regulators generally see only a summary of the data resulting from trials. It is prepared for them by the drug company only when it is seeking a license.

Trials on children have not been carried out in all the drugs, but the completed studies show a worrying increase in suicidal behavior among those on SSRIs compared with those given a placebo (sugar pill).

Seroxat, said to have been prescribed to up to 8,000 children by June 2003, was banned after research showed it could trigger suicidal thoughts and thoughts of self-harm. The drug’s maker, GlaxoSmithKline, disagreed with the Government’s decision at the time, saying it would “limit the choices” available to doctors to treat depression. The Government’s SSRI review group now plans to review the safety and efficacy of the drugs in adults.

The first major Seroxat trial in children was finished by 1996, but the results were not published until 2001. Data was also gathered in 1996 after a trial of Lustral, manufactured by Pfizer, showing that 9% of depressed children on the drug became suicidal.

Article: Ritalin May Have Long-Term Effects on Growing Brains

Early use of Ritalin and other stimulant drugs seems to permanently alter animals’ brains, according to a study published in the Dec. 15 issue of Biological Psychiatry. That raises concerns that the same thing might be happening in children who take these drugs for “ADHD.”

The findings come from a research team led by William A. Carlezon Jr., PhD, director of the behavioral genetics laboratory at McLean Hospital and associate professor at Harvard Medical School.

“Rats exposed to Ritalin as juveniles showed large increases in learned-helplessness behavior during adulthood, suggesting a tendency toward depression,” Carlezon says in a news release. “These rats also showed abnormally high levels of activity in familiar environments. [This] might reflect basic alterations in the way rats pay attention to their surroundings.”

The learned-helplessness is a lessened ability to deal with stressful situations.

Ritalin and cocaine have different effects on humans. But their effects on the brain are very similar. When given to “preteen” rats, both drugs cause long-term changes in behavior.

One of the changes seems good. Early exposure to Ritalin makes rats less responsive to the rewarding effects of cocaine. But that could mean that the drug short-circuits the brain’s reward system. That would make it difficult to experience pleasure — a “hallmark symptom of depression,” wrote Carlezon et al.

Early exposure to Ritalin increases rats’ depressive-like responses in a stress test.

“These experiments suggest that preadolescent exposure to [Ritalin] in rats causes numerous complex behavioral adaptations, each of which endures into adulthood.”

Dr. Thomas Insel, Director of the National Institute of Mental Health, commented:

“These studies remind us how limited our knowledge is of the neurochemical and functional characteristics of the human brain during childhood and adolescence and on the effects of psychotropic drugs on brain development.”

Book Review: Let Them Eat Prozac

Psychiatrist David Healy began his career much like many other psychiatrists, using the usual medications to treat his clients symptoms. He even consulted for pharmaceutical firms. But along the way, he saw and heard of severe problems connected with the antidepressants called SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors).

He saw suicidal tendencies and other severe effects emerging from a sizable minority of patients. The further he dug into the studies of SSRIs, the more frightening the data became.

Then Dr. Healy did what he thought was the ethical thing to do: He tried to bring these revelations to the attention of his medical colleagues. He had a rude awakening.

Let Them Eat Prozac is Healy’s fascinating blow-by-blow account of his detective work and the aftermath that followed. We see how his colleagues warned him not to tell, how the pressure followed from drug company executives, and how he was fired from a university for telling the truth.

Most of all, Healy lays out the chilling facts of how suicides increase on SSRI medication, facts which have now prompted authorities to ban most SSRIs on children in Healy’s native England, thanks to his work.

Let Them Eat Prozac is a powerful read. He brings a rare integrity to his profession.

More Information…
More information about the book Let Them Eat Prozac is currently available from Canadian publisher Lorimer. A release in the United States is scheduled for June of 2004 by NYU Press.