by A Midwestern Doctor, Lew Rockwell:
The public is at last awakening to the dirty secret of SSRI antidepressants—they trigger psychotic violence (e.g., suicides and sometimes mass shootings). This side effect was discovered in clinical trials but covered up by the FDA, even after the agency received a deluge of complaints (39,000 in the first nine years) once the first SSRI, Prozac, hit the market.
Because of those deaths, lawsuits through discovery found the drug companies were well aware of these issues (and many more) but chose to conceal them. As such, we now have a much clearer picture of the harms of these medications.
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
Note: while many patients react badly to SSRIs, there is also a subset of patients who benefit from them (discussed here). Sadly, it is quite rare that patients will work with antidepressant prescriber practitioners who have the time and knowledge to accurately determine which patients to give these drugs to.
The Toxicology Bell Curve
In toxicology, you will typically see severe and extreme reactions occur much less frequently than moderate reactions:
For example, consider the distribution of injuries from the COVID-19 vaccines.
Note: these calculations were based on 2023 data, and since then, vastly more evidence of harm has emerged (e.g., a recent poll found 63 million American adults had minor reactions to the vaccine and 17 million had severe side effects).
As such, violent psychosis is just the tip of the iceberg for the mild-altering effects SSRIs have. For example, in a survey of 1,829 patients on antidepressants in New Zealand:
• 62% reported sexual difficulties
• 60% felt emotionally numb
• 52% felt not like themselves
• 47% had experienced agitation
• 39% cared less about others
Most importantly, the respondents to that survey reported that their prescribers did not warn them about many of these side effects.
Doctored Data
Originally developed as a weight loss drug, Eli Lilly pivoted to having Prozac “treat” depression as this metric was subjective to the point any trial could be doctored to show a “benefit.” Despite this, Prozac’s initial data was so atrocious, it could only be approved through bribes (which a former Eli-Lilly executive testified occurred).
This fraud is proven by patients consistently choosing to stop taking SSRIs despite them being “proven” to make you feel better:
• A review of 29 published and 11 unpublished Paxil clinical trials containing 3704 patients who received Paxil and 2687 who received a placebo, an equal proportion of patients in both groups left their study early (suggesting Paxil’s benefits did not outweigh its side effects), and that compared to placebo, 77% more stopped the drug because of side effects and 155% more stopped because they experienced suicidal tendencies.
• A study of 7525 patients found that 56% of them chose to stop taking an SSRI within 4 months of being prescribed it.
• An international survey of 3,516 people from 14 patient advocacy groups found that 44% had permanently stopped taking a psychiatric drug due to its side effects.
• A survey of 500 patients found 81.5% were unsure if their anti-depressants were necessary.
Likewise, the Epoch times recently aired an insightful interview with a psychiatrist which highlighted that:
• The difference between patients taking antidepressants and placebos in trials is consistently very small, so creative ways are made to rearrange the data to conceal this.
• Forgotten research in the 1960s showed that the benefits of antidepressants disappeared when patients were given active (side-effect promoting) placebos, as those side effects made patients believe they were receiving a real antidepressant, and that provided the psychological motivation to get past their depression (which was corroborated by a forgotten 2004 Cochrane review).
