From 1988 to 1993, there were 28,623 reports of adverse reactions to "Prozac" -the Eli Lilly SSRI that were received by the FDA. These included effects such as delirium, hallucinations, convulsions, violent hostility, aggression, psychosis, 1,885 suicide attempts and 1,734 deaths - 1,089 by suicide.
However even with those static's this didn't seem to be enough to provoke the FDA to act against the SSRI manufacturer. As a major consequence from this lack of action, other pharmaceutical companies were permitted to follow Eli Lilly's example, resulting in more Prozac copy-cat SSRI's like Paxil, Zolo ft, Celexa, etc., and to date more SSRI"s are being approved to come in the near future.
How many reports of adverse reactions to these SSRI's will it take before the FDA acts to ensure the safety of the patient? Will there ever be enough reports?
Personality Structure and Out of Character Behavior
The neurotransmitters dopamine, epinephrine (adrenalin) and nor-epinephrine (nor-adrenalin) are called "catecholamine's" and they control the adrenergic systems in the central nervous system (CNS). They account for staying awake, mood, fight or flight response, etc... Serotonin is the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter modulating the excitatory catecholamine systems in the CNS.
Serotonin neurons control memory, mood, sex drive, etc... Serotonin, dopamine and nor-epinephrine (nor-adrenalin) are the key-neurotransmitters involved with the construction of your personality structure. Every drug that acts on the serotonergic system will affect (indirectly) the other neurotransmitter systems (dopaminergic, nor-adrenergic) in the brain (and visa-versa), thereby affecting your personality structure, your temperament, your character.
Could this explain the many home, school- and workplace shooters/killers who have reached the attention of the media since 1988? It's striking how every time, when involvement of an SSRI comes to public attention, pharmaceutical companies defend their serotonergic drugs by telling us over and over again that the fact that a shooter was taking an SSRI, was purely a coincidence, that the shooter was treated with an SSRI for "mental illness" and that the SSRI had nothing to do with his/her violent behavior, (remember that SSRI's are prescribed for almost anything, not only for "mental illness"). The pharmaceutical companies argue that there is no evidence that SSRI's cause suicide or violence.
They refer to the "scientific rigorous battery of independent clinical trials" that the SSRI's have undergone under the auspices of the American FDA to insure their efficacy and safety. But remember who really does the clinical testing's >> NOT THE FDA, The pharmaceutical Companies.
Do we really need "clinical trials" when there is so much hard evidence of violence related to SSRI's in the media... Isn't it striking how many home, school- and workplace shooters have reached the attention of the media since 1988? The first SSRI-antidepressant named "Luvox" was approved for the market on 25 march 1987 and the SSRI "Prozac" on 29 December 1987. We now have several SSRI's all acting on the same serotonergic system in the brain.
Did these SSRI's push the serotonin levels of the shooters to become violent? Homicidal? and suicidal? Could they have lost their emotional connection with their conscience, become disconnected, suffer emotional blunting and were they were pushed over the edge by adverse reactions to SSRI's?