My Bad – Mothering Magazine Promotes “Antipsychotics” Not Just Zyprexa

Note

For background you should read the following blog posts:

• Mothering Magazine Publishes Letter Reaming Them for Being So “Anti-drug”
• Open Letter to the Editor of Mothering Magazine – Re: “Beat The Baby Blues” by John Breeding and Amy Philo

Recently John Breeding and I published an open letter to the editor of Mothering Magazine. After reading an unsettling letter to the editor which promoted Katherine Stone’s Postpartum Progress in the next edition of Mothering, I sent out an alert to everyone that they should express their disapproval with the magazine for promoting antidepressants and Zyprexa.

Even though the editor, Peggy O’Mara, had not responded to our letter when John Breeding emailed it to her (for weeks), she did choose to respond to one of the other letters to the editor (within three hours) as follows:

We have not recommended Zyprexa in any of our articles.
Peggy

My first reaction was, “OMG she is so full of it, yes they did.”

So I set out to find the old article. Unfortunately, I no longer have the hard copy because I gave it away at my speech in April in Austin. I searched for everything online and then I realized that I had probably made a technical mistake. I eventually figured out how it happened – that I had mistakenly come to think of their May 2007 article as one where they recommended Zyprexa. What I found online was a categorical statement that moms can take antipsychotics while breastfeeding and that antipsychotics are required for psychosis. I then remembered that at one point, in disbelief at Mothering’s promotion of antipsychotics for breastfeeding, I went to Thomas Hale’s website and searched for antipsychotics, and found that he was recommending Zyprexa for breastfeeding. Then, over time the two pieces of advice began to merge in my mind as I talked and wrote about them. What can I say, I’ve had a pretty busy 3 1/2 years and rewired lots of brain cells to devote large portions of my mind to the task of cramming for law school finals every semester. My bad.

Filed under: adverse drug reactions, antidepressants, pharmacology, Postpartum Progress, Postpartum Support International, PPD, antidepressants, Beat the Baby Blues, Breastfeeding, Breastfeeding and Depression, breastfeeding on antidepressants, breastfeeding on antipsychotics, Kathleen Kendall-Tackett, meds, Mothering Magazine, Paxil, Peggy O'Mara, SSRI, Thomas Hale, Wellbutrin, Zachary Stowe, Zoloft, Zyprexa

Open Letter to the Editor of Mothering Magazine – Re: “Beat The Baby Blues” by John Breeding and Amy Philo

Note

Please see updates to this letter on the following blog posts:

• My Bad – Mothering Magazine Promotes “Antipsychotics” Not Just Zyprexa
• Mothering Magazine Publishes Letter Reaming Them for Being So “Anti-drug”

To The Editor:

In May 2007 Mothering magazine published an article titled “Overcoming Postpartum Psychosis.” It featured the story of a woman who nursed while taking antipsychotic drugs but eventually found recovery through alternative means. The article also featured an excerpt from Kathleen Kendall-Tackett stating that Zyprexa was a good antipsychotic to use for breastfeeding moms who go psychotic.

This month (Sept/Oct 2010 edition of Mothering) the same article promoting Zyprexa to breastfeeding mothers is referenced at the end of the Kathleen Kendall-Tackett article on breastfeeding helping moms to “Beat the Baby Blues.” Adding insult to injury, you chose to publish a graphic encouraging the use of Wellbutrin, Paxil, and Zoloft for breastfeeding as though they are “compatible.” Based on what definition of compatible?

That breastfeeding helps alleviate depression, and co-sleeping helps prevent depression, is a wonderful topic for an article. We are very deeply concerned, however, about the misinformation regarding breastfeeding on psychotropic drugs! With all due respect to the admirable premise of the article, helping to encourage breastfeeding, it is a tragic mistake to encourage the notion that mothers can safely breastfeed while taking the antipsychotic drug Zyprexa—a drug that is well-documented to cause excessive sedation, diabetes, permanent neurological damage and high rates of death. Zyprexa is an extremely toxic and dangerous drug, and decidedly unsafe for babies.

After examining the literature critically we are sure that in 2007, the existing data, including one study cited by Thomas Hale as evidence of supposed safety which examined blood samples from only six babies, did not warrant a statement by anyone that Zyprexa is fine for nursing. As just one example of why it is still the case that Zyprexa cannot be considered safe for babies, consider a 2008 article by S. Gentile (J Clin Psychiatry, 2008; 69(4): 666-73.), “Infant safety with antipsychotic therapy in breast-feeding: a systematic review,” which specifically warns against using Zyprexa in breastfeeding mothers, stating, “The drug seems to be associated with an increased risk of inducing extrapyramidal reactions in the breast-fed babies.”

A vital omission for a magazine with such a critical eye on research is to forward any information based on studies, without mentioning that the research was conducted by people under Senate investigation for financial conflicts of interest with pharmaceutical companies.

Kathleen Kendall-Tackett has published other misleading statements in the past regarding antidepressant effectiveness. One example was a statement in an article on PPD alternatives in Leaven magazine, which claimed that antidepressants and exercise worked at relieving depression equally, when the actual study showed that by the end of the experiment, the medication groups relapsed while the exercise groups improved.

Presumably the editors of Mothering assume that mothers must be told to use antidepressants or antipsychotics because they cannot possibly be expected to get through the horrors of depression or psychosis without taking psychiatric drugs. The assumption is that babies will miss out if their mothers wean them. We think it is a regrettable mistake to ignore the immediate risk of death to the infant in favor of a hypothetical benefit from taking psychiatric drugs.

For a magazine such as Mothering to condone the use of drugs during breastfeeding that cause infants to develop serotonin syndrome, or vomit, aspirate, suffer seizures, slip into comas and die from various toxic reactions, and to ignore the other serious nonfatal risks of these drugs is unconscionable. The wide readership of breastfeeding advocates gives your magazine added responsibilities, and we urge you to reconsider your position.

Mothering has taken seriously the topics of the risks of medicated births, vaccines, circumcision, and even chemicals in toys. In almost every respect Mothering is satisfied with nothing less than perfection in the information conveyed which can affect the way that we raise our children. But we see a blind spot when it comes to the so-called experts that Mothering endorses on the topics of postpartum depression and psychosis.

We encourage the magazine to spend some time investigating the deaths of babies linked to psychiatric drugs and breastfeeding. If you refuse to address the issue honestly you will lose not only the trust of your readers, but credibility in the much larger community of critics and informed consent advocates.

Sincerely,

John Breeding, PhD
Amy Philo

Filed under: antidepressants, antipsychotics, pharmacology, PPD, Pregnancy, antidepressants, Beat the Baby Blues, Breastfeeding, Breastfeeding and Depression, breastfeeding on antidepressants, breastfeeding on antipsychotics, Kathleen Kendall-Tackett, meds, Mothering Magazine, Paxil, Peggy O'Mara, SSRI, Thomas Hale, Wellbutrin, Zachary Stowe, Zoloft, Zyprexa

PSI, Texas Red Dirt, and The Pursuit of Unhappiness

I interrupt my regularly scheduled blogcasting for the following, self-indulgent announcement. If you don’t know anything about country music you may want to fast forward. Unless you love to hate Postpartum Support International or anyone who supports pregnant and new moms taking dangerous psychotropic drugs, or unless you enjoy making fun of the DSM (“Diagnostic” and “Statistical” Manual of mental disorders, a.k.a. the billing bible of psychiatry), in which case you may wish to humor me.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

What is psychiatry if not the pursuit of unhappiness? The logic of those who want to screen the entire population and find those “at risk” of mental illness is basically this: that people can’t be left to their own devices, people cannot ask for help if they need or want it, and that it is the job of our government to ensure that all people are targeted by psychiatry and offered preemptive “help.”

I’d like to take this opportunity to announce that lately I have been very depressed. Why, might you ask am I admitting to this on my Bitter Pill blog? Shouldn’t I be afraid that someone will come and try to give me meds?

No, because quite honestly the cure for this depression has already been discovered and administered in my case. It’s amazing. I have the world’s shortest case of depression ever. In fact I’m not really sure if depression is the best word for it. I think after poring through my copy of the DSM IV (funny how much that reminds me of actual I.V. bags) I’ve decided that none of the four thousand and fifty disorders listed fits me, and I’d like to propose an entirely new disease.

“Scientists” are being called tomorrow to develop the proper brain scan and hormone theories for this one. I know what really causes it but I’d like to know which brain chemicals are associated and therefore which medication I can market to my fellow critics who may soon contract this disease.

Name and abbreviation nominations for this disorder are now being accepted on The Bitter Pill blog. Let me give you a rundown of this disease and its symptoms, along with the cure that has worked for me so far. Whoever submits the winning entry will receive one frosty mug of Shiner, or in the alternative, a piece of pizza.

Symptom one: extreme disappointment

Symptom two: frustration

Symptom three: sadness

Symptom four: denial

Symptom five: anger

Symptom five: changing the station

Criteria: these symptoms are intense and can last for between two weeks and several years or longer.

If you are confused, here is a chronological explanation.

***

1987:

- Prozac hit the market.

- Postpartum Support International was founded.

2001:

- Melanie Stokes was drugged with four triple drug cocktails within a period of about 3 months and electroshocked until she eventually jumped off a building.

- Andrea Yates killed her children under the influence of Effexor.

- A couple of Congressmen decided to introduce The MOTHERS Act.

2004:

- I had my run-in with Zoloft and psychiatry because I was considered “at high risk” of postpartum depression due to a screening I was never told was being conducted on me. Hmm, that reminds me of a certain screening / drugging program…

- Manie McNamee was born, and almost died due to Paxil.

- The FDA issued a black box suicide warning on antidepressants.

2008:

- I started fighting the MOTHERS Act along with thousands and thousands of other people. Published a YouTube video with my story that has had to this date over 44,000 views on YouTube alone, not counting embedded views.

- The MOTHERS Act fight was covered all over the media on TV, internet news, radio, and in various newspapers.

- The MOTHERS Act was slipped into an omnibus package which was subsequently killed.

- Indiana Delahunty died from Effexor.

- Wade Bowen, a modern Texas Red Dirt semi-legend, held a golf tournament and concert which raised $84,000 for Postpartum Support International in one day, along with Stoney LaRue, Cross Canadian Ragweed, and the Randy Rogers Band and others. He then posted what is, in my opinion, an incredibly lame YouTube video with a song called Turn on the Lights. The video does remind me a little bit of my own YouTube video except that it’s about 100 times less interesting and the slides keep repeating the same photos over and over, and the music isn’t as good. This song would never make it onto my iPod playlist. Sorry Wade.

Some reporter from a local Texas paper actually called me prior to the fund raising event to ask for my reaction. At the time I was upset about The MOTHERS Act, but had no idea who Wade Bowen was so I just assumed he was a famous golf star and philanthropist with mental health problems who wanted others to take drugs too.

I had heard of Cross Canadian Ragweed and decided to put them on my short list of people not to support, which includes a few obligatory and fun nicknames for each person or group on the list.

To the reporter I simply stuck to The MOTHERS Act, but had I known how much I would one day like to listen to country music I might have thrown in an “aww shucks” or a “dangit” as well regarding these musicians.

- The MOTHERS Act died with the end of the Congressional session.

2009:

- TIME Magazine covers The MOTHERS Act, with a paragraph about my story.

2010:

- The MOTHERS Act passed in the Health Care reform bill (Despite a total lack of consent of the governed, this highly controversial program was passed within another bill – health care reform – which was hotly contested and is currently the subject of lawsuit after lawsuit based on allegedly unconstitutional provisions. The MOTHERS Act arguably had far more people protesting it than supporting it, but that’s not going to stop it from becoming law thanks to back room deals.)

- Wade Bowen buys a new website for Postpartum Support International.

***

By this point in time I must confess it has been really difficult to avoid Cross Canadian Ragweed. Although I really like their music, I force myself to change the station if I realize that they are playing. Fortunately or unfortunately for me, since I boycotted them two years ago, I don’t actually know which songs are really theirs so, at times I can plead ignorance with my conscience.

It’s kind of like how I can’t listen to Queen in the car because I had a car accident while listening to “We Are The Champions” by Queen when I was sixteen. Call it OCD if you want. I don’t care. This avoidance of bad luck serves me well.

I had forgotten all about Wade Bowen until I read that he purchased a new website for Postpartum Support International (check it out and tell me it does not look like they ripped off the look from some drug company website or drug ad), and by this point in time I knew who he was from listening to Texas Red Dirt music on 95.3 The Range in Dallas.

Last weekend, I am happy to say that I attended a concert at the Fort Worth Stock Yards featuring Stoney LaRue, and I had one last hurrah enjoying “Oklahoma Breakdown” performed live.

A couple of weeks ago, however, I went to a concert with the Randy Rogers Band and Wade Bowen. The entire time I was there I kept thinking, “I can’t believe I am here giving money to Wade Bowen.” Then I left after 45 minutes of being bored and annoyed, partly because I felt like I was listening to a lamer version of my iPod, and partly because I felt an intense inner ethical conflict that practically forced me to put my pool stick down and walk out.

Only two days ago did I stumble again onto the article about the Wade Bowen benefit concert and realize that both Stoney LaRue and the Randy Rogers Band were at that event. Now not only do I have an intense disliking for Wade Bowen (not as a musician), but I also now have to contemplate that both the Randy Rogers Band and Stoney LaRue were at that benefit concert in 2008. Now every time I listen to “Oklahoma Breakdown,” instead of being happy I will have to be sad. And when I listen to “In My Arms Instead” I will have to decide whether to continue listening to one of my favorite songs or go change the station.

Like so many other problems that I have a duty to discuss on this blog, this particular, albeit minor, problem can be blamed almost entirely on psychiatry. This just adds to the already long list of diseases, excuse me, disorders, that they have created.

===

Dear Stoney LaRue,

Once upon a time, I stood two feet from you and requested Oklahoma Breakdown for some old lady’s birthday, and you did not oblige. Given that this is your biggest song, I just don’t get you. But I do know how to quit you. It’s Friday and you’re gettin’ tore up, goin’ down by the river in the back of my truck, remember one time, you said it was alright, gonna get juiced down by the riverbed tonight.

(Translation: I have taken your albums and thrown them in the river. I am now drinking a Shiner.)

===

Dear Randy Rogers,

Why is it that I love your music so much on the radio / iPod, yet I was so incredibly bored at both of your concerts I attended, that I left after 45 minutes? Maybe you should consider spicing it up a bit.

Regardless,  I’m deleting you from my facebook account as a band I like. I’m gonna break these chains around my broken heart – not gonna let you wear your crown this time around. There will have to be no more “Kiss Me In The Dark,” I swear I’m gonna change the station or hit forward on my iPod. I am also trashing that guitar chords printout I have for “In My Arms Instead.” And we both know it’s not worth another try, but it’s worth one more goodbye.

===

Dear Wade Bowen,

I actually don’t know any of your songs to parody. Sorry.

===

Dear Cross Canadian Ragweed,

You are great. Truly great. However since I don’t listen to you anymore, there’s really not much to say other than that  I’d like to suggest Shiner over Zoloft. It has way fewer side effects. And the warning label on beer actually tells women that they shouldn’t drink it while pregnant, unlike the crap that your friends over at PSI like to write online about antidepressants.

===

So this is me declaring my selective independence from Texas Red Dirt. I promise from now on that I will still listen to select other Texas Red Dirt bands who don’t go around supporting awful programs and websites that deal in deadly misinformation.

See what I mean by cured?

Filed under: antidepressants, Congress, Melanie Stokes, mothers act, PPD, Pregnancy, suicide, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Indiana, Manie, Postpartum Support International, psychiatry, Randy Rogers Band, Shiner, Stoney LaRue, Wade Bowen, Zoloft

Taking Antidepressants During Pregnancy Doubles Baby’s Risk of Heart Defect

http://www.naturalnews.com/028202_antidepressants_heart_defects.html

(NaturalNews) Women who take certain antidepressant drugs while pregnant may double their child’s risk of being born with a certain variety of heart defect, according to a study conducted by researchers from Aarhaus University in Denmark and published in the medical journal BMJ.

“Anyone who is pregnant or considering becoming pregnant and has any concerns about the treatment for depression should speak to their doctor,” said Cathy Ross of the British Heart Foundation.

Researchers compared the risk of birth defects in 1,370 children born to women who took at least one selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) while pregnant with the risk in 400,000 other children whose mothers had not taken any SSRIs while pregnant. They found that the drugs fluoxetine (marketed as Prozac), sertraline (marketed as Zoloft) and citalopram (marketed as Celexa) all significantly increased the risk that a child would be born with a defect in the septum, which separates the right and left halves of the heart.

Septum defects include a variety of conditions from minor blood vessel problems to outright holes in the heart. The researchers found that one extra septum defect would develop for every 246 pregnant women taking an SSRI during the time period from 28 days before through 112 days after conception.

Taking more than one SSRI drastically increased the risk of septum defects. While the risk of the defects was 0.5 percent in mothers not taking the drugs and 0.9 percent in those taking one drug (an 80 percent increase), it was 2.1 percent in mothers taking two or more (a more than 300 percent increase).

Sertraline appeared to increase the risk more than citalopram or fluoxetine did.

The study is not the first linking SSRIs to birth defects. Previous research has found a link between the drugs and defects of the heart and of other bodily systems.

Sources for this story include: www.reuters.com; www.telegraph.co.uk.

Filed under: anitdepressants and pregnancy, antidepressant side effects, antidepressants, antidepressants during pregnancy, antidepressants during pregnancy studies, Birth Defects, birth defects caused by antidepressant, causes for birth defects, Celexa, heart defects, Pregnancy, Zoloft, antidepressants, Celexa, doubled risk, heart defects, Pregnancy, Prozac, Zoloft

Zoloft Frequently Causes Heart Defects in Babies: BMJ

Another study (this time in the BMJ) finds an increased risk in heart defects, the severity of the risk depending on which SSRI you took. I see no mention of Paxil, which is curious in and of itself. (See: Paxil more powerful teratogen than Cocaine, court documents from the first Paxil birth defect trial, and other related articles concerning this trial on the Seroxat Sufferers blog. By the way, thanks to Fiddy for embedding our @pledgie “Stop Preventable Infant Deaths and Birth Defects” link!)

Also they seem anxious to let other birth defects off the hook and to regard not using SSRIs as not getting treatment. That’s ridiculous considering antidepressants can barely be considered to work at all and that they can actually make you worse and induce violence. How well do they work when your baby dies because of them? Are you supposed to feel happy if you keep taking your drugs?

This study seems to indicate that “about two” babies per 250 women who took an SSRI were born with a heart defect. I assume (though I haven’t read the study yet) that nobody looked at the heart defects leading to abortions or that they were not thinking about the babies who had so many other defects that they died in utero or after birth from some sort of “syndrome.” Probably like in other studies they would have excluded those babies with genetic problems that were linked to heart defects and multiple other defects, without considering if the rate of genetic defects was higher in the SSRI exposed group. If you don’t count all the miscarried babies either and you try to look at each individual type of heart defect and birth defect separately you can pretend the risk is small. But if you group all the risks together the supposed benefit pales in comparison to the risk. We know that antidepressants usually work about as well as a placebo (about one third of people showing mild improvement). But we also know that one third of women who expose their babies to antidepressants have a baby who is born early or underweight, who has seizures, or who dies (“women who take SSRIs have an increased risk of giving birth to a fetus who dies, having a premature delivery, giving birth to an underweight baby, and delivering babies who experience seizures. According to the study almost one-third of women on SSRIs experienced at least one of the complications”). So think about all the risks you would be exposing your baby to and then ask yourself if that’s depressing.

According to just this study, on average about two out of every 250 women taking SSRIs had a baby with a heart defect, compared to about one out of 250 who did not take SSRIs. But the same study said that the risk was more than three times higher with Zoloft than the non-exposed group, more than doubled with Celexa, and almost five times higher with more than one SSRI.

“Sertraline more than tripled the risk, while citalopram more than doubled it. Using more than one SSRI nearly quintupled the risk of the heart defect.”

According to the drug label, 1/100 to 1/1000 is an “infrequent” event, and fewer than 1/1000 is a “rare” event. “Frequent” means it occurs in at least 1/100 patients or more.

Two out of 250 is the same as .8 people per 100, or .008. That’s pretty close to bordering on the drug companies’ version of “frequent.” It’s definitely not in the rare category. But with Sertraline (Zoloft) it would be .012 or 1.2 babies per 100 babies, well into the frequent reaction zone. This is just one study and it’s hard to say without having read the whole thing how they came up with their results or what type of heart defect they looked at. I will update more later as I have time to do more research.

To see reports to the FDA of birth defects and deaths with psychiatric drug exposure go here: http://www.cchrint.org/psychdrugdangers/MothersAct.html

See Dr. Tracy’s commentary on the drugawareness.org website here.

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE58O39F20090925

Antidepressants in pregnancy up heart defect risk

Fri Sep 25, 2009 9:58am EDT

By Anthony J. Brown, MD

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – If you take antidepressants such as fluoxetine (marketed as Prozac) early in your pregnancy, you may be doubling the risk that your newborn will be born with a heart defect, according to a new study.

However, the vast majority of children born to women who take such antidepressants – known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) – do not have such defects, the researchers are quick to note.

Earlier studies have tied SSRIs during pregnancy to heart defects, but also to even more serious birth defects. According to the new study of nearly half a million children born in Denmark between 1996 and 2003, however, only heart defects are likely to be associated with the antidepressants, note co-author Dr. Lars Henning Pedersen, from Aarhus University, Denmark, and colleagues.

Along with fluoxetine, sertraline (marketed as Zoloft) and citalopram (marketed as Celexa) seemed to increase the risk more than others, as did using more than one antidepressant at a time, according to the report in the September 25th Online First issue of BMJ.

Overall, SSRI use in early pregnancy, defined as 28 days before to 112 days after conception, doubled the risk of a particular kind of heart defect involving a piece of tissue that separates parts of the heart.

Sertraline more than tripled the risk, while citalopram more than doubled it. Using more than one SSRI nearly quintupled the risk of the heart defect.

However, the number of children born with such defects was still quite small: For about every 250 pregnant women who did not take SSRIs, one infant was born with the defect, while about two were born with the defect for every 250 women who took one SSRI, and four for every 200 mothers who took more than one.

Pedersen told Reuters Health that the results surprised the team.

Still, in an accompanying editorial, Dr. Christina Chambers, from the University of California, San Diego, comments that doctors and patients “need to balance the small risks associated with SSRIs against those associated with undertreatment or no treatment.”

SOURCE: BMJ, online September 25, 2009.

Filed under: antidepressants, Congress, Melanie Stokes, mothers act, pharmacology, PPD, Pregnancy, suicide, antidepressant, British Medical Journal, Celexa, citalopram, Danish, exposure, fluoxetine, heart defects, Prozac, sertraline, SSRI, SSRIs, Zoloft

In Memory of the Roberts Family (Zoloft)

Filed under: antidepressants, suicide, Andrea Roberts, Dylan, FDA, gun, homicide, maternal, MedWatch, Micayla, Michael, mother, shooting, SSRI, suicide, violence, Zoloft