The Drug Companies Are Killing My Family!!!

This is the most serious thread I've ever posted...
I'll keep it short and sweet...

On September 15th my brother, my ONLY brother commited suicide.
Last night my step sister hung herself.
The one thing they had in common...

EFFEXOR XR

Please please please, if you know anyone taking this death wish, plead with them to change scripts.

This time they've gone too far.

Mod Edit: All Caps – Please Review This Link.


[edit on 9/11/2007 by Mirthful Me]

I'm a little confused...

By your choice of words:

Originally posted by Icon_xof
I'll keep it short and sweet...

Seems... Odd... Under the "circumstances."

Dude, do you actually have anything concrete to back up the claim that effexor is a bad drug? I take it myself and I thought it was a pretty common anti-deppresant. If there is something more to it, I really want to know.

many of the newer anti-depressants have warnings on them referring to the fact that a very serious side effect, particularly in teens, is suicidal tendencies. Ironic, for an anti-depressant.

reply to post by Mirthful Me


I'm sorry but due to the current circumstances I'm not going to spend too much time on a thread right now. I intend on posting another soon once my father and I have further discussed any possible legal action against Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. I just found out about my step sister about an hour ago and wanted to get the word out asap. So yes I agree and understand, "sweet" was probably not the best choice of words, but I'm slightly distraught at the moment.

reply to post by Scalamander


So far the only thing I have to offer for evidence is what has happened to my family, but I can assure you that I will be digging up as much as I can in the weeks to come. When my brother passed away, my father and I only had a slight suspicion that it was the drug as he had recentley changed scripts to effexor. But now that my step sister has passed in the same fashion, and was recentley perscribed the same drug, we're positive that it had something to do with it. I have high doubts that this was just a coincidence.

reply to post by Icon_xof


Make sure they do a thorough blood analysis [keep the reports safe.. they tend to go 'missing' when it comes to drug companies] and make sure you keep the actual pills and scripts [as evidence]. If they purchased the pills in the same area it may have been something to do with being part of the same batch.

goodluck with it all.. I hope you are able to get some sort of justice for your family.

[edit on 9-11-2007 by riley]

I'm so sorry to hear about your family, my sincere condolences


I took effexor, it was horrible, I had suicidal thoughts on a daily basis. I came to know the thoughts as my demon, and I would just tell him to go f off

I'm 40, I can only assume it's tougher on the younger folks

I take cymbala and wellbutrin now, things are sooooo much better

My two cents, I don't know much about law type stuff. But I would find people who have had similar problems with the drug to help gather evidence, for one thing. Then you would have plenty of evidence and testimony to present.

Also, not to discourage you, because the drug companies do deserve a "black eye" for all the crap they push on us on a daily basis, understand you are dealing with very "deep and dirty" pockets.

You need to be prepared.

This is my idea on it. Good Luck!

Troy

I know one thing for sure- it takes a long time to taper off these drugs, especially if you've been on them for a long time. The drug companies keep this a secret and the doctors are clueless. If you try to stop abruptly you will get so wacked out anything is possible, including suicide.
My heart goes out to you, and my prayers. I lost my only brother, a twin, a few years ago.

I have a cousin who was on one of the newer antidepressants, an SSRI, and about a week or so after she started taking it, she started having very strong thoughts and images of 'cutting' herself. She never had them before this. It finally got to the point where she refused to take the antidepressant anymore because she knew that was what was causing this 'cutting' fixation. About a month later, most of the thoughts and urges to hurt herself, to 'cut' herself, were gone. She is now on an older antidepressant, a tryciclic (sp?). She is doing fine on it.

These drugs seriously mess with your brain chemistry and can be very dangerous. God Bless you and good luck with proving it was the drug that caused the suicides. They make it very very hard for you to do so. It is like the 'dirty little secret' they refuse to admit to.

Laurie

I had a feeling this wasn't a unique occurrence. I've been up all night looking into this and it's led me down a pretty frightening path so far. Apparently Effexor has a dirty past that doesn't get much attention. According to this site, Wyeth-Ayerst has known effexor to be dangerous since the clinical trials and utilized mostly unreported variables (in this case a mood stabilizer) to cover up the more undesirable effects of the drug...

Nor had proper disclosure been made that benzodiazepines had been co-prescribed during clinical trial in order to minimize the agitation that the manufacturer had recognized this medication could cause.

Another scary thing about Effexor is that it is extremely addictive and nearly impossible to get off of, as is illustrated in this suicide note excerpt from a 16 y/o patient...

"The effexor XR is horrible, but it's impossible to get off of safely. Search google for "verlafaxine withdrawal". But the pain, the pills... there is no other way out. I wanted/hoped that things would improve. Paxil and effexor are evil DRUGS, made and prescribed for the profit of Pharmaceutical companies...with no care taken about the effects they have on a person's brain, body, well-being, and safety."

source page

More information on the dark history of Effexor/SSRIs and the lengths that pharmaceutical companies and the FDA will go to protect their profits can be found here.

But Wyeth-Ayerst is not solely responsible for all these tragedies. According to the Alliance for Human Research Protection...

In August 2003, Wyeth issued a warning to doctors about clinical trial evidence linking its antidepressant Effexor to suicidal thoughts in young patients, and the company added that warning in the drug's label. See Wyeth Aug 22, 2003 letter: www.ahrp.org...

The FDA forced Wyeth to replace this explicit warning with the watered down, equivocating version that the FDA-approved for all SSRI and SNRI antidepressants.

source page

Proof that the FDA had a direct hand in misleading the public. At first thought one might think that Wyeth was doing a good thing by issuing this warning, but the fact that they knew the dangers of this drug leaves them no justification for marketing it. They knew it could cause suicide yet they still pushed it.

But this is not the worst of what I have learned in the past few hours. Wyeth is just one of many drug entities that seek to profit from disinfo and FDA frauds. There's a whole cartel of companies out there doing the same evil deeds. I know a majority of the ATS community probably already knows this, but for any of you who are not familiar with the topic, I would recommend that you check out the links above and the videos below. This is something that effects anyone taking, or knows someone who is taking, Rx drugs...



I hope this is enough evidence to open more eyes to whats going on. If you or someone you know is taking Effexor or any other SSRI and would like to quit, please seek help before attempting to do so. The risks of extreme adverse reactions and/or withdrawals are too high to chance doing it alone. More info on the dangers of quitting solo can be found here, and anyone interested in quitting can start by looking here.

If anyone reading this has had any experience with Effexor/SSRI cessation or side effects, please share your thoughts.

As I mentioned, my cousin was on a SSRI, but she was on Zoloft. I don't know if anyone noticed, but lately, on t.v., the Zoloft commercial that was so prevelant, has been pulled. But, the new commercials, for Cymbalta, has been modified to include the info that it may cause suicidal thoughts in 'young people'. Well, my cousing was in her early 30's when she took the Zoloft and it still made her highly suicidal. I don't think it's just teens or young people that can become suicidal while on these drugs.

Laurie

The research data cover up on SSRIs (in particular Paxil) (which was exposed by either 60 minutes or 20/20 back about 7 or 8 years ago) is bigger than anything the tobacco companies ever did. I can't understand why people aren't in jail for murder, let alone falsifying data to the FDA. The pharmaceutical companies hid the fact that research showed extremely high percentages of patients either had homicidal or suicidal side-effects from these drugs, but they reported to the FDA something like 2%...when the numbers were more like 80%.



[edit on 11-10-2007 by Valhall]

Sorry to read about the lost of those close to you.

I'm not going to us this post to debate the use of psych meds. Just to point out that for the most part they work differently in each of us. I ask everyone to research side effects of these meds and how they may interact with other meds you are taking before you start using them. I know from personal experiences that some work good and others will put you in the hospital or worse.

I gotta give my own personal reaction to Effexor. I was on it twice. The first time was when I was 14. I was on it for three months. About two months in to it my dosage was upped to the maximum. I started to have pain in what may have been my kidneys or liver. They felt sore like they were bruised or something. So I just quit cold turkey. All that happened was that I slept constantly for a few days (when I got home from school) and that my depression returned. None of these other more extreme side effects or any jonesing that some people have experienced.

The second time I was on it I was on it for much longer. Maybe two years? I told my doctor about the side effects that I had been having earlier and he said he had never heard of that happening and that at my weight I shouldn't have been having that side effect. He basically didn't listen to me. I went on it again. This time I had major insomnia (I had that before I went on it the first time). I would constantly go to sleep at later hours until I had to pull an all nighter and then go to school. After which I would crash once I got home, only to wake up and start the whole process over again. I became much more uninhibited, to the point of being a little unsettling. But this was partially just due to being messed up. I ended up going off it because I got a girlfriend and couldn't get it up. The withdrawal was the same as last time. I just was really tired for a couple of weeks then went back to being depressed.

The whole time I never had suicidal ideation or homicidal ideation. I can't really say it was entirely good for me, but neither can I say that it was entirely bad for me. At least it didn't cause me to go psychotic like I did later on Wellbutrin and Remeron combined.

I will give a word of warning though to anyone taking anti depressants: Don't smoke grass (not just because it's illegal), and especially don't do anything with DXM in it (cough medicine, any type of DM pill). I did both of those in combination with my anti-depressants and I had a manic psychotic episode and now my brain is destroyed. I can't even have a normal conversation anymore and because of that, human contact is almost worthless to me. In short, I ruined my life by being unaware of the dangers of drugs combined with anti depressants.