Use the sign-up form at
AlternativeMentalHealth.com

You can also e-mail your request to...
ezine@alternativementalhealth.com
or contact us in any of the ways listed in this newsletter.

Complete UNSUBSCRIBING information is located at the end of this e-mail.

Safe Harbor Boston
Post Office Box 218
Newton, MA 02468
U.S.A.
Phone: 617-964-5544
SafeHarborB@aol.com

Safe Harbor
New York
P.O. Box 3620934
New York, NY 10129
NY: 212-302-9811
NJ: 201-656-2849
ny@alternativementalhealth.com

Safe Harbor
Maryland
410-480-5498 or margo@alternativementalhealth.com

Safe Harbor
New Mexico
505 988-4242 or louisa_putnam@mcmxi.com

Safe Harbor
India
B-1, 11/12
Konak Pooram
Kondhwa
Pune, India 411 048
(0091) 020-26837644 or
wamhc@vsnl.net

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.

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.”

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.

(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

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.

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.