Article Link:
http://www.naturalnews.com/022743.html

NaturalNews.com
Originally published February 28 2008

Chemically-Induced Suicide: 80 Percent of Suicide Victims Took
Antidepressant Drugs
by Mike Adams

(NaturalNews) A Swedish writer has accused the National Board of
Health and Welfare (NBHW) of covering up evidence suggesting a
connection between psychiatric drugs and suicide. Under a recent law,
Swedish health-care providers must fill out reports on all suicides
committed by patients under their care or within four weeks of a
health care visit. The reports are then sent to the NBHW, which
compiles and analyzes them.

Recently, the NBHW released the first report analyzing the 367
suicides recorded in 2006. "Not a single word is written about the
most compelling fact: Well over 80 percent of persons killing
themselves were treated with psychiatric drugs," Janne Larson writes.

According to data received via a Freedom of Information Act request,
more than 80 percent of the 367 suicides had been receiving
psychiatric medications. More than half of these were receiving
antidepressants, while more than 60 percent were receiving either
antidepressants or antipsychotics. There is no mention of this either
in the NBHW paper or in major Swedish media reports about the health
care suicides.

Why the truth won't be reported in the mainstream media
"It was contrary to the best interests of Big Pharma and biological
psychiatrists" to expose the information, Larson writes. "It blew the
myths of antidepressants and neuroleptics [antipsychotics] as suicide
protecting drugs to pieces. It would also have hurt the career of many
medical journalists to take up this subject; journalists who for years
have made their living by writing marketing articles about new
antidepressant drugs."

These statements are quite true. The conspiracy of silence between Big
Pharma and the mainstream media is now so strong that accurate news
about the dangers of psychiatric drugs is rarely reported. As we
recently saw in the death of Heath Ledger, the mainstream media is
quick to blame the victim, but slow to realize that the real cause of
these behavioral problems rests with the chemicals that alter brain
function (and therefore alter behavior).

Evidence has emerged that a class of antidepressants known as
selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) actually increases the
risk of suicide in those who take them. While such claims have been
hotly disputed by the pharmaceutical industry and many psychiatrists,
experimental, epidemiological and case study evidence continues to
emerge that reinforces such a link. The evidence suggests that those
taking SSRIs are approximately twice as likely to commit suicide as
those not taking such medications. This risk increase appears to be
independent of the specific diagnosis or other underlying health
factors.

Even worse, recent research published in the peer-reviewed journal
PLoS Medicine (see http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlse...) reveals
that antidepressant drugs don't work any better than placebo at
reducing depression. This study looked at all the clinical trials
conducted on SSRIs, not just the ones selected by drug companies for
publication. It reveals that SSRI drug manufacturers committed
scientific fraud in censoring studies that did not show positive
results. Now, the whole world knows that the disease mongering and
hype behind antidepressant drugs was based on pure scientific fraud.

Links between SSRIs and suicide
The link between SSRI use and suicide in youths has been firmly
established enough that the United States and United Kingdom have
licensed only one such drug (fluoxetine, marketed under the brand name
Prozac) for use by those under the age of 18. In the United Kingdom,
off-label use by children is blatantly illegal. In the United States,
the FDA requires a "black box" warning that SSRIs may increase the
risk of suicide in those under the age of 18, but that warning is
routinely ignored, and hundreds of millions of doses of Prozac have
been taken by children and teens.

A "black box" warning is the most severe warning the FDA can issue
without withdrawing a product from the market. In December 2006, an
FDA advisory panel recommended increasing the age on the SSRI black
box warning to 25 years of age. In reality, the black box warning is a
way for the FDA to allow dangerous drugs to remain on the market: It
gives them an excuse to say, "We warned you!"

The dangers of Prozac
Prozac has been found to increase the risk of aggressive and suicidal
thoughts and behaviors. When the drug was first submitted to the FDA
for approval in 1985, the agency's then-chief safety investigator,
Richard Kapit, suggested that the drug bear a "labeling warning [for]
the physician that such signs and symptoms of depression may be
exacerbated by this drug." In 2004, the FDA finally added the labeling
requirement.

Antipsychotics may also increase suicide risk by inducing a condition
known as akathisia -- a subjective, often-misdiagnosed feeling of inner
restlessness that can range from mild anxiety to a feeling of
overwhelming doom. Akathisia can also be induced by certain SSRIs,
including Prozac and Paxil. A 2006 study published in PLoS Medicine
concluded that akathisia induced by antipsychotic use is significantly
correlated with suicide, and that the condition appeared to be
overwhelmingly more likely in patients taking SSRIs than in those
taking a placebo, with 10 times as many patients on SSRIs exhibiting
symptoms severe enough that investigators were forced to pull them
from the study.

Yet Larson alleges that the Swedish government has failed to
investigate any potential link between SSRIs or antipsychotics and
suicide. The investigation form that the government sends to local
healthcare providers to fill out after a suicide does not contain any
questions about drug treatment.

According to Larson, a truly objective investigation would have to
look at whether the patients exhibited symptoms that could be
attributed to akathisia (which is nearly always a drug side effect)
and whether suicide was preceded by an increase or abrupt drop in drug
dosage.

"[NBHW] claimed: 'Every investigated suicide where one can see flaws
that can be taken care of, can contribute to the prevention of further
suicides,'" Larson writes. "Yet no investigation at all was done in
the suicide-inducing effect of antidepressants and neuroleptics."

Suicides and violent behavior
It is important to note that nearly every school shooting that has
happened in the United States over the last decade has been conducted
by young males who were taking antidepressant drugs. The drugs not
only cause suicidal behavior, they also seem to promote extreme
violence towards other individuals. In most school shooting cases, the
young men committing the violence also committed suicide after killing
classmates and teachers. These are classic signs of antidepressant
use.

Dr. Fred Baughman (www.ADHDfraud.org) has spoken extensively about the
link between antidepressants and violent behavior, and has accused the
drug companies of lying to the public about depression in order to
sell more antidepressant drugs. His most recent article is published
at OpEdNews: http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne...

See more NaturalNews articles on antidepressant drugs at:
http://www.naturalnews.com/antidepressants.html

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