Are Drugs Behind Dementia Epidemic?

[marmar]

from Consortium News:


Are Drugs Behind Dementia Epidemic?
April 10, 2012

Millions of Americans, when facing depression or even just anxiety, turn to powerful psychiatric drugs marketed by pharmaceutical giants, whose ads gloss over the risks in fast-talking fine print. A counter-movement warning of the dangers from an over-prescribed society is emerging, as Gary G. Kohls describes.

By Gary G. Kohls, MD


Since the introduction of major tranquilizers like Thorazine and Haldol, “minor” tranquilizers like Miltown, Librium and Valium and the dozens of so-called “antidepressants” like Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil, tens of millions of unsuspecting Americans have become mired deeply, to the point of permanent disability, in the American mental “health” system.

Many of these innocents have actually been made “crazy” and often disabled by the use of – or the withdrawal from – these commonly prescribed, brain-altering and, for many, brain-damaging psychiatric drugs that have been, for many decades, cavalierly handed out like candy – often in untested and therefore unapproved combinations of two or more.

Trusting and unaware patients have been treated with potentially dangerous drugs by equally unaware but well-intentioned physicians who have been likewise trusting of the slick and obscenely profitable psychopharmaceutical drug companies aka, BigPharma, not to mention the Food and Drug Administration, an agency that is all-too-often in bed with the drug industry that they are supposed to be monitoring and regulating. The foxes of BigPharma have a close ally inside the henhouse.

That is the conclusion of two books by a courageous investigative journalist and health science writer named Robert Whitaker. His first book, entitled Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill, noted that there has been a 600 percent increase (since Thorazine was introduced in the U.S. in the mid-1950s) in the total and permanent disabilities of millions of psychiatric drug-takers. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2012/04/10/are-drugs-behind-dementia-epidemic/

[Lifelong Protester]

1. Wow! Will come back and read later

Thanks for posting.

[cpamomfromtexas]

2. Yes, they are--my story below

I call tell you from personal experience that Levaquin and Cipro (both are from a family of "antibiotics" called FLUOROQUINOLONES--REMEMBER THAT NAME, IT MIGHT SAVE YOUR LIFE), not only cause spontaneous tendon rupture and severe muscle degradation (that risk stays a risk for months or years-and by the way, that little known fact is not revealed in the black box warning) resulting in horrific muscle tears, they ALSO CAUSE DEPRESSION AND PSYCHOTIC EPISODES. The episodes as I call them, seem to cycle and it is difficult to tell when they will hit.

I communicate with other victims around the world daily, and as far as we can tell, there is NO ONE successfully treating it.

Here is a story on a friend of mine.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june11/antibiotics_06-16.html

She is not doing well right now, afraid she might not make it. Say a prayer for her, please.

[polly7]

3. I absolutely do believe prescription drugs given for years contribute to

many, many elderly pts. being classified as 'crazy' and unable to function for their last years. It drives ME crazy to watch. When you take in a woman whose meds take you longer to record on the pcr than it takes to do the rest of the history and assessment combined, you know something is very wrong.

It's a sad situation.

[DCKit]

4. Personal experience says "Yes!"

I've got a sister (51) who is a huge fan of anything she can be prescribed - hormones and "happy pills" are her favorites. The pill collection is large enough to take up a whole drawer in a filing cabinet... possibly two or three, by now. I haven't seen the collection in over ten years, and am quite sure it has grown.

It's not that she's (as yet) got dementia, but her brain doesn't work right. She's completely devoid of emotion and empathy (not that she was big on either before), and I can't relate to anything she says or does. She was bossy before, now she's a full-on authoritarian/Republican hard-liner.

Every interaction we have, whether by email, on the phone or in person, feels like she's humping my leg (like a dog), trying to gain dominance over me. No matter how many times I tell her she's the boss of only herself and her own life, she won't quit trying to prove that I'm her subordinate - demanding that I do her bidding. It's truly bizarre, and completely inappropriate, every damn time.

It's not yet dementia, but you can't mess with your brain chemistry for years on end without experiencing negative results.

[Neoma]

6. Is a doctor prescribing or is she just buying them?

There's a huge difference there.

[DCKit]

7. She's got her own scripts, the ex-husbands, and she probably swaps with other people.

She also "doctor shops" to find someone who will prescribe what she wants. If it's on the market, she's got it.

All that aside, the legality of how she gets them doesn't mean a thing, it's the irreversible affect these (legal) drugs have on the brain that damages the lives of everyone associated with a person taking them - as postulated by the OP.

[Neoma]

10. If it's not monitored, then yeah, it'll fuck her up.

My psychiatrist wants to know every single pill I've been on, and at what milligram it was, exactly. It's very, very important for him to know.

I'll be honest with you, she could die with pulling crap like that. It has to be monitored, period.

[DCKit]

11. As if she would ever take direction from anyone.

She can take a written list of instructions, and translate them into her own reality as she reads them out. She is the ultimate authority on everything, including her own psychiatric care.

After a meeting with a government representative last year regarding our mother's estate, she walked out and set down a list of demands that weren't only oppressive and draconian, but broke the laws and sequence of events that had just been recited to her.

She went into that meeting with a mind-set, and it was a done-deal. I had to substitute the next week, and the poor guy was still shell-shocked from spending time with her - afraid of me, until he finally realized I didn't fall anywhere close to the same tree. He was fractured.

Until the estate is completely settled (and it may be years), I've got to put up with this.

As I said, a total authoritarian Republican and dain bramaged, too boot.

That said, I'm glad you seem to be happy with the care you're receiving. Her rollercoaster of drugs and hormones was never going to end well.

[bemildred]

5. Why yes, yes they are. nt

[cbayer]

8. I can't open this link at all. Anyone else having trouble?

[marmar]

9. I think the Consortium News website is having trouble......try it a little later.

nt