Strattera - 10,988 adverse "psychiatric reactions" reported in less than three years

    /24-7PressRelease/ - HAGERSTEN, SWEDEN, August 01, 2006 - The document, Psychiatric Adverse Events including Cumulative review of spontaneous reports of suicidal and self-injurious behaviour, is an attachment to an unpublished report about Strattera from the British Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), January 2006. The attachment, mentioning the 10,988 "psychiatric reactions", also gives a good insight into how psychiatric drugs and drug cocktails are killing children and adults, and how psychiatric diagnoses are used to hide the harmful effects of drugs.

A court in Sweden has recently ordered the document to be made public. This was done after the Swedish Medical Products Agency (MPA) and the British MHRA in their response to FOIA requests had treated this document as if it was a "state secret". In its arguments to the court the Swedish MPA even said that issuance of it would hurt the relations between Sweden and UK. Neither the British National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), responsible for "guidance on the appropriate treatment", being in possession of the document, was willing to reveal the data in it. NICE said in an answer to a FOIA-request that the document was "received in confidence and disclosure of that information would amount to an actionable breach of confidence".

These agencies, responsible for protecting the public from harmful drugs and for "appropriate treatment", consider a document reviewing the "suicidal and self-injurious behaviour" caused by a psychiatric drug in the category of state secrets, and that it would be "an actionable breach of confidence" to let the public know about these data.

But a court in Sweden has made the document public. The document consists mainly of Eli Lilly's review of the 431 cases of suicidal and self-injurious behaviour reported for Strattera from November 2002 up to October 2005. 130 of these reports were submitted in one month (October 2005), after the warnings were issued in September that Strattera increased the risk for suicidality.

Lilly's review is an excellent example of how to explain away suicides, suicide attempts and suicide ideation caused by psychiatric drugs - and of how the assessing medical agency then buys these explanations.

It can be seen in the review that children and adolescents in many cases are getting psychiatric drug cocktails - Strattera together with antidepressant SSRI drugs (as Zoloft and Prozac) and antipsychotic drugs (as Risperidone and Zyprexa). The reason for the adding of more drugs to the first one, is that one psychiatric drug's harmful effect - according to the psychiatric ideology - is seen as yet another "psychiatric disorder", to be treated with yet another mind altering (poisonous) drug. And so on.

The alleged psychiatric brain disorder ADHD (without any objective abnormality) is NOT associated with suicidal thoughts in its list of "symptoms". However as the reports of suicidal behaviour from "treatment" with Strattera kept coming in, Eli Lilly had to connect depression and suicidal behaviour with ADHD, to exonerate the drug and blame it on the children's "underlying condition". For this purpose Eli Lilly claimed in its submission to the FDA in September 2005: "Depression is present in up to 40% ...of ADHD adolescents and children."

It is very convenient for drug companies that psychiatrists are adding more poisonous drugs to the first one when its harmful effects are showing up. No single drug can then be blamed for the death of children. It is even more convenient to blame the harmful effects of a drug on a (presumed) "underlying condition". This is what Eli Lilly and the psychiatric experts at the MHRA are doing when they in cases of suicidal behaviour in connection with Strattera find "confounding factors" present. No matter how obvious the case of poisoning the conclusions from the medical agency become (at best): "the possibility that atomoxetine [Strattera] may have exacerbated the individuals underlying condition in these cases cannot be excluded."

In its report about Strattera (January 2006) the MHRA talks about "the large number of psychiatric reactions". It says the agency in September 2005, due to this large number of harmful effects, had requested Eli Lilly "to perform a cumulative review of all psychiatric disorders reported for atomoxetine [Strattera]".

In the attachment, containing the review by Eli Lilly of suicidal behaviour, no review of "the large number of psychiatric reactions" can be found. What can be found is the number of reported reactions (up to September 2005): 10,988 adverse "psychiatric reactions" described in 6,751 reports. Example of reactions: The two categories aggression and anger are reported in 1117 cases, abnormal behaviour in 989 cases, and homicidal ideation in 19 cases.

The MHRA has still not let the public know any details about this "large number of psychiatric reactions". Neither has the agency let the public know the updated figures for suicidal behaviour in connection with Strattera.

Janne Larsson
writer from Sweden - investigating psychiatry

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