Pharmaceuticals - How Side Effects Are Determined On Your Rx

[no more drugs]

Health Canada relies on pharmacists, doctors and the general population so to determine adverse reactions to prescription drugs..

Reported adverse reactions told to the doctor and pharmacist may or may not be sent off to Health Canada.

It is up to the discretion of the doctor or pharmacist to complete (the lengthy) form and send it in to Health Canada. It is not mandatory. Your concerns may fall on to deaf ears. You may be told they will send it in, but it may never get there. You are not advised of receipt.

You can do it yourself, by calling the Canada Vigilence Program at By calling 1-866-234-2345 (toll-free)

Once you verbally report your experience, it will be determined (by someone there or at Health Canada) as to whether or not your experience will be deemed good enough to be included in the stat...

Along with studies that may or may not be ongoing on the specific drug in question, the pharmacists, and doctors who took the time to complete a form and send it in, along with personal accounts to Canada Vigilence Program, will deem how rare a concern is ..

So far the CPS (Canadian drug bible and details) deem that suicidal and homicidal ideation is very very very rare...makes me wonder who many reports are thrown and ignored..

It seems alarming to me that so many sensless acts of homicide and suicide are being followed through by people who are said to have been normal loving kind great people/parents..who all of a sudden are committing these acts while on antidepressants.

Alison Easton Corchis -Ottawa
Darren Wourms - Wahlberg
Peter Lefabvre - Ottawa
Alysson McConnell -Edmonton
Derek Jensen - Calgary
Nerlin Sarmiento - Edmonton
Brenna McCartney -Toronto

It is crazy to think that I could list the recent similar tragedies of even the last few months.. (including Adam Lanza Newtown CT) but clearly there is a common thread here, and sadly I wonder how many similar tragedies that were reported, ommitted antipressant use... Medical records are sealed if no charges were laid (in cases where the perp took his own life too so no one may never know that he was on meds.) .

We need to educate ourselves and the next time we hear of another tragedy, ask ourselves if antidepressants were in the equation.. Ask the reporters on their twitters if they know or if they plan on asking..

We cant rely on the government and media on huge issues like this, where the profits on pharmaceuticals run our media and country ...

Many antipressants are now being deemed "multiuse pharmaceuticals".. they are being prescribed for chronic pain, menopause, fatigue, high blood `pressure... the list goes on and on... where many normal people start them for something unrelated to mental illness, where now they cant get off them (discontinuance syndromw betterknown as withdrawal) and then many people seem to develop what is referred to as `hidden bipolar` because they cant get off the drug so now they are being told that they always had mental illness issues but they are just coincidentally coming out now..hopefully many people will think twice and do much research before filling out theirs or their kids Rx..

 

[Kreskin]

I think doctors prescribe these meds far too easily and often, however there are reasons people are on these medications and it's presumed they would be at higher risk of adverse reactions like suicide. What would happen to all those and more if they didn't get any medication? I doubt that would reduce the deaths.

 

[no more drugs]

Hi Kreskin,

Knowing that the "stats" of bad horrendous side effects have no mandatory monitering is scary in itself. If these pills are causing the huge increase in violence, we arent being told and should have no expectation that we will be told.

There are many studies that show that these pills dont work and that it is a placebo effect that is doing the work. It is also stated that these pills increase suicide ideation ..not help it...

The studies that discuss if the pills work, dont break down who was suicidal prior to taking it and who wasnt.. In other words the studies dont show what the reason for taking it was (anxiety vs depression, vs suicidal ) so there isnt an actual answer becasuse studies arent being done and there is no transparency...

If we dont get the facts, it seems predicable that many of us will believe that the benefit outweighs the risks as the risks are being presented as minimal however how will we ever know?

Have you noticed that it seems every second d on tv (canadian) is on mental illness and its rampancy? These ads are targeting the every day people who are in the workplace... The ads are promoting people to think they have mental illness and that its ok.. becasue they may be stressed or have anxiety which is a prompt to normal every day people to contact 211 on their phones so to be referred to the medical profession where they will be offered antidepressants.. The ads are teaching people that mental illness is all around us ( I think the ad says 2 in 5 people...!!!) where we are being taught to embrace that we are all nuts and go to the docs and get on meds..

It is a cash cow and financially motivated and we need to stop drinking their koolaid. The oills are said to have caused peoples mental illness that was never there until they started the antidee's... (they had gone on it for chronic pain..now diagnosed with bipolar because they cant get off the drugs ..which they were erroneously told that they were non addictive..)

Here is fairly recent investigative report on one..
--------------------------------------------------

"Health Canada tight-lipped on Champix suicides"

Health Canada tight-lipped on Champix suicides | Toronto Star

 

[lone wolf]

Have you ever been around a person who's been calm, level-headed and quite reasonable - until shortly after he/she decides to dump the meds?

 

[no more drugs]

Hi Lone Wolf,

Im glad you brought up withdrawal... It is said that the side effects (suicidal and ideation) are just as possible if not worse...

Some murder suicides were committed with people withdrawing or changing pills , or having a dose adjusted...

Allegedly, some people who feel that antidepressanst worked for them, later realize that they made them not care about anything and got some relief from not caring... stopping them is definitley just as serious..

One is supposed to wean... and slowly... If you go to youtube and put in antidepressant withdrawal you can see some pretty sad scary videos pf people trying to stop them....

It is said in many cases of people suffering herrendous sde effects, that once they are done proper withdrawal, normal thinking returns..

Sadly, there are people who once they try and get off the pills, (even if they want on them for chronic pain or to stop smoking) they feel nuts and then end up getting told that they are bipolar and that they always had it but it just came out now.. )

I have read that with time and perserverance and patient people the irritability and reasonable person you once knew will return...

 

[Sal]

no more drugs, are you advocating all people be weaned from their drugs permanently?

 

[lone wolf]

IF pharmaceuticals can reasonably substitute for some chemical lacking in the body, I can't really see where there is a huge problem. That being said, I've been prescribed Prozac and Zoloft for fibromyalgia as there is "something in the binder that works". My question was: If the binder's so great, why aren't you prescribing that? Depression isn't my problem. Pain is....

 

[no more drugs]

Hi Sal,

At this point, all I am doing is bringing awareness that suicidal and homicidal ideation are noted side effects on these drugs. There are people who really dont know that this side effect is listed but it isnt always told to the person..

It is stated, many pharmacists will not tell the person who is filling their prescription as many pharmacists say that they feel they dont want to scare the person into not taking it, and that the doctor hopefully discussed these side effects.

I am pointing out what seems to be a common trend in so many tragedies that we seem to be reading about weekly, if not daily..(many of which we arent told that antidepressanst were bing used or withdrawn from until much later where the story has become lost in new tragdeies) (it was just said for the first time last week via W% that Derek Jensen in ALberta who killed 3 people and severly injured a fourth) was on antipsychotics) It was described in the story how he began to change become violent, and not himsefl and anyone who knew him said that he was not the same non violent, kind person that they had knonw for his whole life.. (W5 did not reiterate that there are homical and suicidal ideation side effects as well as signs of increased agitation, violent behavior and many others) which appear to potentially be possibly taking place with Derek Jensen.

The ads on canadian tv are pushing mental illness and "treatment" I think the ad said 2 in 5 people in the work place.. sheeesh!

 

[Dixie Cup]

I am currently waiting to see a surgeon for a hip replacement. Needless to say, I am in quite a bit of pain. My doctor has prescribed various medications to mitigate the pain and I've reacted to each and every one. I've missed more work in 3 months that I have in 10+ years! So I'm not on any meds now and pretty much have to deal with the pain any way I can. Unfortunately, I can't work in bed lol!!

 

[no more drugs]

Dixie Cup...hope the list moves quickly!!!!

Nancy McCartney's son who was prescribed antidepressanst (Ciprolex)...... committed suicide 4 days after starting the meds.... She says there was no suicide warning on the packet... and she cant even get the tox reports of her own son! Sadly, she the only way she could have known of the noed adverse reatcions (suicide/homicide/loss of realitty/delusion..would have been by asking to look at the docs CPS but apparently no one felt she needed to know this...

Snippet from McLean's

"He left with a script for an antibiotic, a puffer— and a sample pack of Cipralex, an SSRI antidepressant. Nancy, a high school vice-principal, expressed concern; Brennan had no history of depression. He assured her the doctor said it would help. On the fourth day taking it, Brennan seemed agitated when he left the house, his mother says. He failed to come home. The next day his body was found. He had hung himself in a local park.

Sitting at their kitchen table, Nancy flips through a binder documenting systemic failure. Brennan wasn’t given the full drug monograph that mentions suicide risk; the sample pack (she has the brochure) notes only “self-harm.” There’s also correspondence with the coroner’s office denying the McCartneys’ request for a toxicology scan. They’ve sent a forensic sample to Australia."

Heartburn pills that cause heart attacks, antidepressants that lead to suicide - Canada, Health, Life - Macleans.ca