- I am Ann Blake Tracy, PhD, head of the International
Coalition for Drug Awareness. I am the author of Prozac: Panacea or Pandora?
- Our Serotonin Nightmare and have testified in court cases involving
antidepressants for 12 1/2 years. The last 15 years of my life have been
devoted full time to researching and writing about SSRI antidepressants.
- Research on serotonin has been clear from the very beginning
that the most damaging thing that could be done to the serotonin system
would be to impair one's ability to metabolize serotonin. Yet that is
exactly how SSRI antidepressants exert their effects.
- For decades research has shown that impairing serotonin
metabolism will produce migraines, hot flashes, pains around the heart,
difficulty breathing, a worsening of bronchial complaints, tension and
anxiety which appear from out of nowhere, depression, suicide - especially
very violent suicide, hostility, violent crime, arson, substance abuse,
psychosis, mania, organic brain disease, autism, anorexia, reckless driving,
Alzheimer's, impulsive behavior with no concern for punishment, and argumentative
behavior.
-
- How anyone ever thought it would be "therapeutic"
to chemically induce these reactions is beyond me. Yet, these reactions
are exactly what we have witnessed in our society over the past decade
and a half as a result of the widespread use of these drugs.
-
- In fact we even have a whole new vocabulary as a result
with terms such as "road rage," "suicide by cop,"
"murder/suicide," "going postal," "false memory
syndrome," "school shooting," "bi-polar" - every
third person you meet anymore - along with the skyrocketing rates of antidepressant-induced
diabetes and hypoglycemia.
- Can you remember two decades ago when depressed people
used to slip away quietly to kill themselves rather than killing everyone
around them and then themselves as they do while taking SSRI antidepressants?
-
- A study out of the University of Southern California
in 1996 looked at a group of mutant mice in an experiment that had gone
terribly wrong. These genetically engineered mice were the most violent
creatures they had ever witnessed. They were born lacking the MAO-A enzyme
which metabolizes serotonin. As a result their brains were awash in serotonin.
This excess serotonin is what the researchers determined was the cause
for this extreme violence. Antidepressants produce the same end result
as they inhibit the metabolism of serotonin.
-
- These are extremely dangerous drugs that should be banned
as similar drugs have been banned in the past.
-
- As a society we once thought LSD and PCP to be miracle
medications with large margins of safety in humans. We have never seen
drugs so similar to LSD and PCP as these SSRI antidepressants. All of
these drugs produce dreaming during periods of wakefulness. It is believed
that the high serotonin levels over stimulate the brain stem leading to
a lack of muscle paralysis during sleep thus allowing the patient to act
out the dreams or nightmares they are having. The world witnessed that
clearly in the Zoloft-induced murder-suicide of comedian Phil Hartman
and his wife, Brynn.
-
- Connecticut witnessed the Prozac-induced case of Kelly
Silk several years ago. This young mother attacked her family with a knife,
then set the house on fire killing all but her 8 year old daughter who
ran to the neighbors. As she stood bleeding and screaming for help she
explained, "Help! My mommy is having a nightmare!"
-
- Out of the mouths of babes we will understand these nightmares
for what they are. She understood that this was something her mother
would do ONLY in a nightmare, never in reality.
-
- This is known as a REM Sleep Behavior Disorder. In the
past it was known mainly as a drug withdrawal state, but the largest sleep
facility in the country has reported that 86% of the cases they are diagnosing
are patients on antidepressants.
-
- Because this was known in the past as a condition manifesting
mainly in drug withdrawal you should see how dangerous the withdrawal
state from these drugs will prove to be. That is why it is so critical
to make sure patients are weaned EXTREMELY slowly so as to avoid ANY chance
of going into a withdrawal state
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- _________________
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- Dr. Ann Blake Tracy's December 13, 2006 to the FDA
-
- Ann Blake-Tracy, PhD, head of the International Coalition
for Drug Awareness, author of Prozac: Panacea or Pandora? & Our Serotonin
Nightmare. For 15 years I have testified in court cases involving antidepressants.
The last 17 years of my life have been devoted to researching, writing,
and lecturing about these drugs.
-
- Two of my nieces in their early 20's, a decade apart,
attempted suicide on antidepressants, the first on Prozac, the second
just a month ago on Wellbutrin.
-
- Due to time constraints I refer you to my September,
2004 testimony on the damaging effects of inhibiting serotonin metabolism
- the very mode of action of antidepressants. Impairing serotonin metabolism
results in a multitude of symptoms including suicide, violent crime, mania
and psychosis. Suicidal ideation is, without question, associated with
these drugs.
-
- Rosie Meysenburg, Sara Bostock and I have collected and
posted 1200 news articles documenting many exaggerated acts of violence
against self or others at www.drugawareness.org with a direct link to
www.ssristories.com
-
- Beyond suicidal ideation we have mania/bipolar increasing
dramatically. Antidepressants have always been known to trigger both.
-
- According to the Pharmaceutical Business Review in the
last 11 years alone, the number of people in the U.S. with "bipolar"
disorder has increased by 4.8 million.
-
- Dr. Malcolm Bowers of Yale, found in the late 90's over
200,000 people yearly are hospitalized with antidepressant-induced manic
psychosis. They also point out that most go unrecognized as medication-induced,
remain un hospitalized, and a threat to themselves and others.
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- What types of threats from manias?
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- Pyromania: A compulsion to start fires
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- Kleptomania: A compulsion to embezzle, shoplift, commit
robberies
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- Dipsomania: An uncontrollable urge to drink alcohol
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- Nymphomania and erotomania: Sexual compulsions - a pathologic
preoccupation with sexual fantasies or activities
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- Child sex abuse has increased dramatically with even
female teachers going manic on these drugs and seducing students. The
head of the sex abuse treatment program for Utah estimated 80% of sex
crime perpetrators were on antidepressants at the time of the crime.
While Karl Von Kleist, an ex-LAPD officer and leading polygraph expert
estimated 90% - strong evidence of manic sexual compulsions that demand
attention.
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- Diabetes has skyrocketed, has been linked to antidepressants,
and blood sugar imbalances have long been suspected as the cause of mania
or bipolar. Anyone who has witnessed someone in insulin shock would see
the striking similarity to a violent reaction to an antidepressant.
-
- If there has been any increase in suicide since the black
box warning it is due to doctors not knowing how to get patients off
these drugs safely.
-
- Clearly, far too many lives are being destroyed in various
ways by these drugs.
-
-
- ?Dr. Ann Blake-Tracy, holds a Ph.D. in Health Sciences
with the emphasis on Psychology, and serves as the executive director
of the International Coalition for Drug Awareness. She has specialized
for 17 years in adverse reactions to serotonergic medications (such as
Prozac, Sarafem, Zoloft, Paxil, Luvox, Celexa, Lexapro, Effexor, Serzone,
Remeron, Anafranil, Fen-Phen, Redux and Meridia as well as the new atypical
antipsychotics Zyprexa, Geodon, Seroquel and Abilify), as well as pain
killers, and has testified before the FDA and congressional subcommittee
members on antidepressants. Since 1992 she has testified as an expert
witness in Prozac and other SSRI related court cases around the world.
Some of the more high profile cases she has worked on would be the murder/suicide
of comedian Phil Hartman and his wife Brynn, the Columbine & Red Lake
School shootings, Andrea Yates - the Texas mother who drowned her five
children, the Atlanta Day Trader, Princess Di's death, the murder/ suicide
of the royal family of Nepal, etc.
-
- Dr. Blake-Tracy will amaze you with documentation as
to how often these drugs have lurked silently behind the scenes of major
headlines worldwide!! To get an idea of how often and the types of reactions
we are seeing in the news go to www.drugawareness.org and click on the
database of 1000's of articles on patients on these drugs and the adverse
results appearing as headlines.
-
- Her first book on the issue was published in 1991. What
scientists are just now learning about these drugs she spelled out in
this book and other early writings. She has participated in innumerable
radio, television, newspaper and magazine interviews since 1989. We know
of no one with such extensive experience and expertise on all of these
issues surrounding the SSRI antidepressants as Dr. Ann Blake-Tracy. She
knows this issue like no one you have ever met! Her latest book on the
Prozac family of antidepressants: PROZAC: PANACEA OR PANDORA?-Our Serotonin
Nightmare (2001) is the product of many, many years of intensive research,
and the cases of approximately 1,000 patients on a long-term basis. Dr.
Tracy also has an hour and a half long audio tape/CD, "Help! I Can't
Get Off My Antidepressant!," which explains the safest withdrawal
methods from these antidepressants and how to rebuild the body and brain
after the use of these drugs - the product of many years working with
patients in withdrawal from antidepressants.
-
- Dr. Tracy has appeared on or consulted for television
presentations for FOX News, the History Channel, CNN, PBS programs, Dateline
and 20/20, the Geraldo Show, the Leeza Gibbons Show, the Montel Williams
Show, the Maury Povich Show. She has also appeared on national
radio shows such as NPR, Coast to Coast, the Jeff Rense Show, and
the Alex Jones Show.
-
- Dr. Tracy has also appeared in two recent major film
documentaries released the end of 2005, The Drugging of Our Children,
by award- winning documentary filmmaker Gary Null, which contains interviews
with Michael Moore and Neil Bush agreeing on the subject of the horrors
of giving our children drugs as a supposed solution to life's problems;
(This movie is available in its entirety at www.drugawareness.org) and
Prescription Suicide, a look into the lives of families who experienced
the tragedy of antidepressants, produced by five-time Emmy Award winning
Hollywood producer Robert Manciero.
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