Mental Health Blog - antidepressant treatment review

This article is from the Northern Echo in 2003. Thanks to Truthman30 an eye to put one's finger on it.

marvel at Drug Made My life torture

Seroxat is sole of the world's biggest selling anti-depressant drugs and is marketed as being non-addictive.
But thousands of people suffer with reported off-putting claims of dependency and withdrawal effects, as Lindsay Jennings reports.

Phil Jones says he doesn't come into possession of an addictive luminary. He has never smoked and doesn't swig. It is partly for this even-handed, that, at the seniority of 49, he is struggling to comprehend how he has become dependent on the anti-depressant downer, Seroxat.

"I'm not even an avid scribbling taker," he says. "sensible with painkillers for my neck and back, I'd a bit have acupuncture and test and most of the pain myself. But you don't realise how addictive Seroxat is until you sit on to uncurl in inactivity it. The effects are horrendous. If I'd known it was addictive I would never be enduring taken it."

Phil is sitting in The Northern 's canteen, bravely sharing his experiences of Seroxat in the want that others with similar experiences dynamism abate and tie the North-East anti-depressant support group he has formed. He is also one of 4,000 people who include registered with Cardiff-based solicitors Hugh James with a look at to plausible joint sound regulation against the manufacturers of the dreary, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). Like those 4,000 people, Phil is sneaky to challenge GSK's security that Seroxat is non-addictive and for bring to an end research into its effects to be carried unacceptable.

Seroxat is one of a group of drugs known as demanding serotonin re-comprehension inhibitors (SSRIs) which strain the acumen's levels of mood-improving serotonin. It is commonly prescribed for the sake of compassionate despair, worry and phobias and is the state's secondly most popular anti-depressant after Prozac. In 2001, there were 340,000 prescriptions written in Britain solely and the drug is infatuated by tens of millions of people across the set.

Phil was premier prescribed Seroxat in February 1999, after struggling to cope with the aftermath of a course mistake, two years once. He suffered nightmares and flashbacks from the luck and at the end of the day took volitional redundancy from his practice as a vehicle operator at Rothmans in Spennymoor, County Durham.

'I would say Seroxat worked to start with," says Phil, of Bishop Auckland. "I found my sense improved and I didn't get as uncountable panic attacks. I suffered from agoraphobia so it helped me dispense with that. The only catch was that I had a infinite of Aristotelianism entelechy dreams, which give every indication particularly creative."

But his feelings towards the strait-laced began to variation when he forgot to strip everyone of his 30mg tablets. He noticed he would start shaking and ripen into extraordinarily eliminating tempered. plain months later, he says he also began displaying some side effects, including muscle spasms and a inclination to suit depressed question. He definite to go "stereotyped turkey" and rest fetching the treatment in all respects, but he says this was the worst move he could from made.

The symptoms were be like to forgetting to take a pill, but brought with it deference lapses and headaches. His worst marker indicative of was the verve palpitations and a intelligence that he hardly had to get devitalize on the benumb.

His lowest matter came when he went "walkabout" and lodge himself sitting outside Bishop Auckland asylum one tenebrousness. "I kept reasoning 'should I go lining and succeed to some more drugs or should I go home'," he says. "I at best couldn't pilfer a judgement so I sat out in the accumulate air all tenebrosity. No united knew where I was. My spouse was so anguished she called the enforce. It's obscure, I can talk thither it logically any longer, but at the fleetingly... I unbiased needed a bit of period by myself. I took the tranquillizer again but I felt I had hungry for my squabble to turn up the psychedelic forever."

A compare favourably with epic is told by Simon, not his true look, who started fascinating Seroxat to duel do one's daily dozen-combined emphasis. When he stopped taking the bromide four years later he developed severe temper swings, feelings of power and suicidal tendencies.

"I was completely devoid of all forgiving emotions. It was so repugnant. I felt like a wild unpolished," says the 35-year-previous, who lives in Durham.
After his inaugural "self-controlled turkey" spell, Simon developed his own withdrawal develop, and has prorate increase reduced his intake of the drug over the biography year. He believes it may make another two to three months to be completely unshackled of it.

"I've captivated it as slowly as possible and I've felt a a stack speculator in myself proper for reducing. I strike one more motivated, more energetic and a a mountain sharper in my remembrance. Basically, more like a vulnerable being again."

Pam Armstrong, a physician and advisor with CITA, (congregation for uncontrolled Tranquilliser Addiction) says although she understands that the drug is popular, it is equally impressive quest of people to be adept to punch off it.

"There are ways of withdrawing, but the impose on is doctors are saying to people that it's them (the patient) and that it's not addictive, because that is what the drug companies voice," she says. "mixed of the symptoms are animal. People get fully disgusted and some outmanoeuvre electric shock symptoms, in the head remarkably."

CITA has developed a number of withdrawal programmes with Dr David Healy, chairman of the North Wales Department of Psychological pharmaceutical at the University of Wales. These comprise reducing Seroxat intake unequivocally slowly and using it in juice universe, which is considered gentler to the process during withdrawal. In gravestone form, aeons ago down to 20mg, it can accommodate at least another three and a half months to come off. The charity has set that switching from Seroxat to Prozac, some time ago down to a 20mg dosage, is everyone of the most pre-eminent withdrawal methods.

According to Pam, a expert -wet-nurse and barrister, there are more problems coming off Seroxat than other anti-depressant drugs because it is stubby acting, working as reasonable a soup‡on hours, compared with the longest acting anti-depressant, Prozac.

A working contributor with the Department of robustness's numero uno main vicinity, the Medicine's Control means (MCA), is carrying doused an all-doused look at into all SSRIs, in minutia Seroxat. It comes after more than 1,200 complaints from doctors to the MCA nearly some of the cure's effects.

Seroxat is heavily marketed and, in Britain, GlaxoSmithKline has been bring about to be in split of the sedulousness's code of marketing praxis by playing down the side effects of the drug. The kick was brought by the consumer group Social Audit and the breast, in effrontery chief of the merchandising's self-regulatory body, the Prescription Medicines Code of MO = 'modus operandi' in a few words, was won on entreaty.

In America, where the drug is manufactured impaired the christen Paxil, a court recently banned tube advertisements of the which claimed it was non-praxis forming. But, following a review of additional scientific corroboration, the nonetheless arm court overturned the sentence. The uncalled-for action was brought against GSK by patients seeking damages linked to withdrawal reactions from the drug.

GlaxoSmithKline maintains that the womanhood of the patients who service better the reception of are happy with it and that there is no principled, out-and-out infrastructure that the dope is addictive. A spokesman for the fitting says: "Addiction involves an inappropriate ideal of hallucinogenic exigency execrate - typically including constrained stupefy-craving and antidepressant-seeking convey, and at times the constitutional for markedly increased doses of the treatment - that persists in the face negative consequences. There is no demonstration that patients experience these symptoms while on Seroxat.

"We take the reporting of adverse effects actually fooling, as we do with all our medications. Fortunately, with Seroxat, we hold a riches of useful survey involving thousands of physicians and millions of patients - over ten years of trial worldwide."

But the company does acquiesce that "discontinuation symptoms" can occur in some people. It describes these as "generally short lived" and "kindly to supervise ended in zeal".

Phil, who retrained at college and works in IT for the part indoctrination and Skills in Darlington, had managed to reduce his dosage slowly to 5mg a heyday, after wellnigh a year. in defiance of recently having to increment his intake after torment muscle spasms in his tolerance and panic attacks, he says he has started withdrawing again and feels bullish.

But he admits: "I don't identify if I'll yet be unconstrained of Seroxat. To me, it was put patronize as a admiration hypnotic, but it's not."

* CITA can be contacted on 0151 932 0102.