SSRI Antidepressant Risks by Jeffrey Dach MD

Jeffrey Dach, M.D. NewsLetter _________________________________________________________


Medical School Days and SSRI Research

In 1972, I started medical school at the University of Illinois in Chicago. In those days, Robert Mendelsohn was my advisor and I remember a few evenings at his dinner table where I learned there were problems with medicine in general that I couldn't safely repeat to anyone. (1) (2).

In 1973, after spending a full year sitting in the lecture hall learning basic sciences, our clerkships started on the hospital wards. This involved making rounds with the intern and resident team examining patients and doing the �scut work� which maintained the University teaching hospital. Doing rounds was a daily ritual, and we methodically worked our way up and down the long corridors which had the distinctive smell of alcohol and pseudomonas.

My first rotation was internal medicine, and we saw the usual litany of diseases: diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, GI bleeding, congestive heart failure, cancer, and various bacterial and viral infections. After examining each patient, we convened in the hallway wearing our long white coats and stethoscopes as in a football huddle to discuss the diagnosis and treatment. Actually the discussion was between the intern and resident while the rest of us listened in. The two of them routinely had a running debate punctuated by brief forays into the rooms to examine patients. Both of them were armed with a pocket notebook inscribed with references to the medical literature which was brandished to support their decisions regarding testing or treatment. On a good day, I endeared myself to the intern by starting a difficult I.V., or by making a diagnostic coup like homonymous hemianopsia or acute intermittent porphyria.

In those days, the medical literature was rock solid truth and trustworthy beyond question. It was inconceivable that any doctor would ever falsify or distort the results of a medical study. After all, people�s lives were hanging in the balance. Of course, later, this all changed. I am not sure when awareness of problems with the medical literature emerged and it became sadly obvious that medical science is for sale. After this revelation, I became skeptical and tended to believe the data more than the written conclusions of any medical study.

A recent example of fraudulent conduct in medical research is the BBC documentary on the SSRI drug Seroxat (Paxil) for children. (3) (4) We previously discussed the adverse risks of SSRI drugs including agitation, suicidal or violent behavior, movement disorders, and chemical dependency. (5) In order to justify its use, the benefits of a drug should outweigh its risks. Unfortunately the benefits of SSRI drugs over that of a placebo are so negligible that it is now clear to most researchers in the field that SSRI antidepressants represent addictive toxic placebos. (6) (7)

In order to perpetuate this ruse on the regulators and the public, various methods of SSRI drug study manipulation were used including:

1) Placebo washout: Patients who respond to placebo are disqualified from participating in the study.

2) Suicide, agitation washout: Patients who have history of suicide ideation are disqualified from participating in the study.

3) Using an inactive placebo which is readily discerned from active drug, unblinding the study.

4) Using benzodiazepine sedatives (valium) to mask the agitation.

5) Simply placing unfavorable drug studies in the file cabinet and not disclosing them to the public or the FDA.

6) Using cash settlements for SSRI drug litigation in order to seal records and keep unfavorable drug studies from the public.

7) Miscoding suicidal thoughts or acts as symptoms of depression, hiding these findings from the regulators.

8) Claiming that suicide is a result of depression, not the drug.

Of course we all know that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance, a deficiency in the brain of the neurotransmitter serotonin, and the SSRI drugs increase serotonin, thereby correcting this deficiency and curing the depression. Unfortunately this chemical imbalance concept is also a ruse sold to us by direct to consumer advertising with no basis in science. (8 )

We have known of SSRI drug induced suicide since Teicher�s landmark article in 1990. (9) An overpowering sense of outrage should have stopped this madness years ago. And yet, the drug industry, the FDA and the medical profession continue the widespread drugging of our children with addictive toxic placebos in an uncanny similarity to the classic Lucas film THX 1138, a science fictional remake of Orwell�s 1984 which paints a totalitarian world of prescription drug users. Why is it that we continue to allow our children to be sacrificed to SSRI induced suicide? How can we explain as a society, why we sacrifice our most precious possessions, our children? There is no rational explanation for it.

Child sacrifice, the religious ritual of primitive cultures, is also a central theme of the three modern religions. The �Sacrifice of Isaac� was thought to have taken place at the site of the �Al Aksa Mosque� which is above the �Wailing Wall� in Jerusalem. However, an angel appears at the last minute to instruct Abraham to spare the child�s life. As a nation and a society, are we in a trance-like state engaged in a modern version of the ritual group fantasy of child sacrifice? (10) If so, it is time for Abraham�s angel to wake us from our trance, block the sacrificial knife from plunging into Isaac�s heart and end all this madness.

Jeffrey Dach, M.D. is board certified in Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, and has 25 years experience in the Memorial Hospital System. He is currently in private practice using bio-identical hormones for menopause and andropause at his office 4700 Sheridan Suite T, Hollywood. He is a member of the Board of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, and offers free seminars every Wednesday at 6 PM. Call for RSVP 954 983 1443.

Conflict of Interest Disclaimer Note:

TrueMedMD does not receive financial support from the pharmaceutical industry or the NIH. We do not sell nutritional supplements to the public. We do offer selected nutritional suplements only to our clients as a convenience to them.

For More Information Click Here: Dr. Dach Web Site

(c) 2007 Jeffrey Dach MD All Rights Reserved. disclaimer