Speakers include Joanne Cacciatore PhD on bereavement; Kathryn Douthit, PhD, Chair of Counseling and Human Development at the University of Rochester on the elderly and dementia;  Rachel Bingham, BA MBBS MSc from the UK on involuntary treatment and coercion;  Yolande Lucire, PhD from Australia on SSRI-induced violence; Jock McLaren, MD, psychiatrist from Australia with a critical analysis of Thomas Szasz; Gerald Porter, PhD, Associate Vice president for Academic Affairs with Forest Institute of Professional Psychology, on frontiers in psychotherapy; Charles Whitfield, MD on core issue analysis and addictions; Brian Kean on bullying and peer abuse; Michael Gilbert, PhD on children and family issues and many more.

Saturday evening will include dessert and a special presentation by Peter R. Breggin MD, International Director and Ginger Breggin, Executive Director of the Center for Empathic Therapy: The Power of Empathic Relationship: A Conversation.



Friday evening will have a repeat of the very popular "Meet the Authors" Friday Night Social with the famous chocolate fountain desserts and time to talk with presenters and other attendees.

Prozac Turned Teen into Murderer--
Judge Agrees with Testimony of
Psychiatrist Peter R. Breggin MD

The headline from the Winnipeg Free Press in Canada tells the story: "Judge Agrees Prozac Made Teen a Killer." Provincial court judge Robert Heinrichs listened to expert psychiatric testimony  for the defense by Peter R. Breggin, MD and weighed it against testimony for the prosecution by a Canadian psychiatrist. 

On September 16, 2011 the judge issued his opinion in regard to the sixteen-year-old who stabbed his friend to death.  The judge determined, "His basic normalcy now further confirms he no longer poses a risk of violence to anyone and that his mental deterioration and resulting violence would not have taken place without exposure to Prozac." Also consistent with Dr. Breggin's lengthy report and testimony, the judge observed, "He has none of the characteristics of a perpetrator of violence. The prospects for rehabilitation are good."

This was the first criminal case in North America where a judge has specifically found that an antidepressant was the cause of a murder.

In his written  opinion in the case of "Her Majesty the Queen and C.J.P" (Citation #2011 MBPC 62),  Judge Heinrichs concluded, "Dr. Breggin's explanation of the effect Prozac was having on C.J.P.'s behavior both before that day and in committing an impulsive, inexplicable violent act that day corresponds with the evidence" (p. 18).   He also found, "there is clear medical and collateral evidence that the Prozac affected his behaviour and judgment, thereby reducing his moral culpability" (p. 20).  The judge's complete opinion is available at Dr. Breggin's professional website,http://breggin.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=295

The case involved a teenage high school student with no prior history of violence who, while chatting in his home with two friends, abruptly stabbed one of them to death with a single wound to the chest.  The boy had been taking Prozac for three months, during which time his behavior deteriorated.   He became impulsive and unpredictable, and suicidal. He also began to talk at times as if fantasizing about violence. He seemed to become a different person to his distraught parents. Dr. Breggin testified that his primary care physician and his parents alerted the prescribing psychiatric clinic to the boy's deteriorating condition, but the clinic continued the Prozac and then increased it. Seventeen days after the increase in dosage, the teen committed the violence.

Starting approximately 2005 to the present, the FDA-approved labels for all antidepressants as found in the annual Physician's Desk Reference includes the following information under the section titled WARNINGS-Clinical Worsening and Suicide Risk:

"All patients being treated with antidepressants for any indication should be monitored appropriately and observed closely for clinical worsening, suicidality, and unusual changes in behavior, especially during the initial few months of a course of drug therapy, or at times of dose changes, either increases or decreases.

The following symptoms, anxiety, agitation, panic attacks, insomnia, irritability, hostility, aggressiveness, impulsivity, akathisia (psychomotor restlessness), hypomania, and mania, have been reported in adult and pediatric patients being treated with antidepressants for major depressive disorder as well as for other indications, both psychiatric and nonpsychiatric."

This list of adverse effects—" anxiety, agitation, panic attacks, insomnia, irritability, hostility, aggressiveness, impulsivity, akathisia (psychomotor restlessness), hypomania, and mania"—is a prescription for violence.  The teen in this case suffered from most of these dangerous effects which worsened during the time of his exposure to Prozac.

The Canadian drug regulatory agency, Health Canada, has warned that Prozac is not authorized for use in children and that it can cause "self-harm or harm to others." According to a warning issued in 2004 by the drug manufacturer, Eli Lilly, and Health Canada:

"There are clinical trial and post-marketing reports with SSRIs and other newer anti-depressants, in both pediatrics and adults, of severe agitation-type adverse events coupled with self-harm or harm to others. The agitation-type events include: akathisia, agitation, disinhibition, emotional lability, hostility, aggression, depersonalization. In some cases, the events occurred within several weeks of starting treatment."

Dr. Breggin wrote in his report and testified that the boy's symptoms were consistent with a Prozac (fluoxetine) Induced Mood Disorder with Manic Features and that he would not have committed the violence if he had not been given the antidepressant. He also testified that the teen had improved dramatically when removed from the Prozac after a few months in jail and that he was no longer a danger to himself or others. He brought numerous independent scientific studies to court confirming that a large percentage of youth exposed to the newer antidepressants will develop these hazardous adverse drug reactions. He also noted that the observations and even the wording of his own earlier scientific publications had been included into the information now found in the official FDA-approved labels.  Dr. Breggin's scientific articles concerning antidepressants can be found on his website on his 'Antidepressants information' page.

The original hearing was to determine whether or not the now 17 year old should be sentenced as a minor, in which case his maximum jail time would be limited to four years. The prosecution wanted him tried as an adult. On September 16, 2011, Judge Heinrichs decided that the boy would be tried as a minor and that his deterioration and violent behavior was caused by Prozac. On November 4, 2011 the judge will determine how much of the remaining four years the teenager will serve.

The judge's decision represents an enormous step forward in society recognizing that the newer antidepressants can cause violence.

Digging deeper? See these links, including scientific references by Dr. Breggin:

Antidepressant-Induced Suicide, Violence and Mania

Intoxication Anosognosia (Medication Madness)

Suicidality, Violence and mania caused by SSRIs: A Review

Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry (2008):
Drugs, Electroshock, and the Psychopharmaceutical Complex

The Canadian judge's written opinion is available here.

 

Evidence of Birth Defects from Paxil, Zoloft and other SSRIs Continues to Mount

Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Officials of GlaxoSmithKline Plc, the U.K.'s largest drugmaker, said in 2001 that a birth defect in the fetus of a woman taking its Paxil antidepressant likely was linked to the drug, according to court testimony.
After analyzing a 2001 e-mail from a Paxil user who aborted her fetus because it had a heart defect, Glaxo officials noted in company files they were "almost certain" the drug was related to the problem, Jane Nieman, a former Glaxo drug-safety executive, told a Pennsylvania jury.
"I don't know who made that assessment, but it's there," Nieman testified in a videotaped deposition played yesterday for jurors. Nieman's testimony came in the trial of another Paxil user's lawsuit over birth defects suffered by her now 3-year-old son.
The state-court trial in Philadelphia is the first of more than 600 cases alleging Glaxo knew Paxil caused birth defects and hid those risks to increase profits. The drug, approved for U.S. use in 1992, generated about $942 million in sales last year, 2.1 percent of Glaxo's total revenue.
The family of Lyam Kilker claims Glaxo withheld information from consumers and regulators about the risk of birth defects and failed to properly test Paxil. Lyam's mother, Michelle David, blames Paxil for causing her son's life-threatening heart defects.

Researchers in the United States and Europe have linked SSRI drugs like Zoloft to serious birth defects like skull deformities, defects of the brain and spine, heart defects, lung defects, abdominal defects, club foot and facial cleft deformities.

In many cases, scientists found that SSRI drugs such as Zoloft increased the risk of severe birth defects by as much as 600%.


Unfortunately, Zoloft has been taken by hundreds of millions of people and the makers of the drug gave no warning about the serious health risks like Zoloft birth defects. They have continued to sell it to patients around the world earning billions of dollars per year.

If you took Zoloft and have given birth to a child with birth defects, it is important to speak with a lawyer as soon as possible. The time to recover for your child's condition is limited.

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 Thanks for reading through our newsletter!  Remember to sign up now for the Empathic Therapy Conference, and Dr. Breggin and I look forward to seeing you there.

Very best regards,
Ginger Breggin, Editor


WARNING -- Most psychiatric drugs can cause withdrawal reactions, sometimes including life-threatening emotional and physical withdrawal problems. In short, it is not only dangerous to start taking psychiatric drugs, it can also be dangerous to stop them. Withdrawal from psychiatric drugs should be done carefully under experienced clinical supervision. Methods for safely withdrawing from psychiatric drugs are discussed in Dr. Breggin's books, Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry: Drugs, Electroshock and the Psychopharmaceutical Complex (New York: Springer Publishing Company, 2008) and Medication Madness: The Role of Psychiatric Drugs in Cases of Violence, Suicide and Crime (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2008).


Peter R. Breggin, MD is no longer affiliated with the Center for the Study of Psychiatry, informally known as ICSPP and now ISEPP, which he founded and led from 1972-2002, and Dr. Breggin is no longer involved in its conferences.