Posts Tagged ‘Pregnancy’

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Prescription Drug Epidemic Spreads to Babies

Friday, July 16th, 2010

St. Petersburg Times
By Richard Martin
July 16, 2010

Dr. Mary Newport sees the symptoms more and more in the babies she treats: oddly stiff limbs, severe tremors, vomiting, diarrhea, insomnia, crying that never stops.

The common denominator: Their mothers were taking prescription drugs, mostly painkillers like OxyContin and Vicodin, and antianxiety drugs like Xanax during pregnancy.

Some of the moms had no idea these medications would hurt their developing babies — after all, it’s not like it’s heroin or cocaine, many think.

“They are seriously misinformed,” said Newport, medical director of Spring Hill Regional Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit.

The prescription drug epidemic, well documented among teens and adults, now is claiming victims before they are even born. Tampa Bay area doctors and addiction specialists are reporting a dramatic increase in the number of pregnant addicts and infants needing treatment for withdrawal from prescription drugs.

The trend is reminiscent of the “crack baby” epidemic of the 1980s, when mothers used crack cocaine during their pregnancies.

But area neonatologists say that in some ways, the current trend is worse. Some women don’t understand that prescription drugs can be dangerous during pregnancy. Others decide to stop the drugs as soon as they learn they are pregnant, causing sudden withdrawal that can lead to miscarriage.

And doctors say that treating a baby with drugs like oxycodone, methadone or Xanax in the system takes longer, and involves more medication, than treatment for heroin or cocaine.

“Babies are suffering more,” said Dr. Terri Ashmeade, medical director of Tampa General Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit. “Withdrawal patterns seem to be worse (with prescription drugs) than what we were seeing with heroin.”

Note from CCHR Int: To see for yourself what psychiatric drug reactions for infants and babies have been reported to the U.S. FDA’s medwatch system (by doctors, pharmacists, consumers etc),  go to our decrypted Medwatch reports: Under the drop down menu for DRUG NAME/DRUG CLASS, scroll all the way down to the bottom until you see CLASS OF DRUGS such as ATYPICAL ANTIPSYCHOTICS or ANTIDEPRESSANTS or STIMULANTS and select one of those.   In the AGE RANGE drop down menu select 0-1 year old then click GENERATE REPORT.   You can do this for each class of psychiatric drug.  And consider this,   by the FDA’s own admission, only 1-10% of side effects are ever reported, so the actual side effects occurring in the general population are much higher.

Click here for Decrypted Medwatch Reports http://www.cchrint.org/psychdrugdangers/medwatch_psych_drug_adverse_reactions.php

Click her to read the rest of the article:  http://www.tampabay.com/news/health/article1109348.ece

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New Study—Psychiatric Drugs Cause Birth Defects— pregnant women warned about smoking/alcohol but not psychiatric drugs

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

Lawyers and Settlements
By LAS Newswire
July 6, 2010

Copenhagen, Denmark: A recent Danish study found a high number of Prozac birth defects among the children of women who took the drug while pregnant.

The study, conducted by the University of Copenhagen, warns that Prozac and other psychotropic drugs can cause serious birth defects and other maladies, according to United Press International.

Researchers discovered 429 instances of adverse reactions when women took the drugs while pregnant. Of those 429 cases, more than half involved serious reactions and a number of them involved birth defects.

“We are constantly reminded about the dangers of alcohol use and smoking during pregnancy, but there is no information offered to women with regards to use of psychotropic medication,” researcher Lisa Aagaard said in a statement. “There is simply not enough knowledge available in this area.”

Researchers found that 42 percent of the reactions were linked to psychostimulants like Ritalin, 31 percent to antidepressants such as Prozac and 24 to anti-psychotics like Haldol.

Read entire article:  http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/articles/14468/prozac-pphn-birth-defects-lawyer-3.html

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Medscape – Psychotropic Medications Linked to Serious Adverse Drug Reactions in Children

Friday, July 2nd, 2010

Medscape
By Deborah Brauser
July 2, 2010

Psychotropic medications are associated with adverse drug reactions (ADRs), many of which are serious, in children younger than 17 years, according to a new database study from Danish researchers.

Results also showed that all but one of the psychotropic-related ADRs for children between the ages of birth and 2 years were serious, including birth defects such as neonatal withdrawal syndrome, ventricular septal defects, and premature labor.

These findings were “probably due to the mothers’ intake of psychotropic medicine, primarily antidepressants and antipsychotics, during pregnancy,” write the study authors.

For the overall patient population, the largest share of reported ADRs came from psychostimulants (42%), followed by antidepressants (31%) and antipsychotics (24.5%).

“The high number of serious ADRs reported for psychotropic medicines in the pediatric population should be a concern for health care professionals and physicians,” the study authors write.

In addition, “clinicians must be aware of the risks for the unborn child if they treat pregnant women with [these drugs],” coinvestigator Ebba Hansen, MSc, professor of social pharmacy and director for the FKL-Research Center for Quality in Medicine Use at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, told Medscape Medical News.

She noted that many of the general practitioners interviewed for this study “thought that SSRI [selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor] antidepressants are harmless. Therefore, we recommend that treatment of pregnant women with psychotropic drugs should be an issue for specialists only.”

The study is published online in BMC Research Notes.

ADR Evidence Lacking

Although regulatory authorities have issued warnings about risks associated with the use of psychotropics in pediatric patients, “little evidence has been reported about the ADRs of these medicines in practice,” write the study authors.

“Overall, we have very little information about [ADRs] in children, and especially in infants, as vulnerable groups are excluded from the clinical trials that document a medication’s efficacy and safety before licensing and marketing,” said Professor Hansen.

For this study, her team evaluated 4500 ADRs in children listed in the national Danish ADR database between 1998 and 2007.

“Spontaneous ADR reporting [is] an important contributor to knowledge about safety of medicines,” the study authors write. They note that spontaneous reports are “the main source for information about new and previous unknown ADRs.”

Serious ADRs Found

Results showed that 429 of the ADRs reported during the study period were for psychotropic medications. Of these, 241 (56%) were deemed serious.

A total of 50% of the psychotropic ADRs reported were for adolescents between the ages of 11 and 17 years (n = 214), of which 45% were serious. Almost 19% were for children between the ages of birth and 2 years (n = 80).

In addition, 39% of the overall psychotropic-related ADRs were from the “nervous and psychiatric disorders” categories. When looking at sex, 59% of the total ADRs reported were for boys.

A total of 79 of the 80 ADRs associated with psychotropics in the children younger than 2 years were serious, and 2 of these were fatal (one was associated with citalopram due to chorioamnionitis and the other with fluoxetine due to persistent fetal circulation).

Finally, 40% of all psychotropic ADRs were associated with the psychostimulants methylphenidate and atomoxetine, whereas 59% of the ADRs reported for antipsychotics were associated with ziprasidone, olanzapine, and risperidone. A total of 61% of the total ADRs reported for antidepressants were with sertraline and citalopram.

Read entire article:  http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/724547
(Free registration required for Medscape)

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INFOWARS.COM — Madhouse Medical Tyranny: When Health Becomes Sickness

Friday, July 2nd, 2010

INFOWARS.COM
By John Galt
July 2, 2010

Dictatorships know that the battle for complete control is ultimately won or lost in the minds of the target population.  As the oppression advances, it tends to move from propaganda mind control to the direct intervention into the mind via pharmaceuticals.  We are now seeing the overt global coordination of the psychiatry profession to convince every resident of planet Earth that all clear thinking, healthy living, and wholesome innocence is some kind of disorder that needs to be corrected (suppressed) with drugs to render zombie-like those whose instincts afford them the ability of discernment.

We have seen this before — the role of the medical establishment in dictatorships such as Nazi Germany is well documented. It is the pre-Endgame, if you will, before the final culling takes place.  The proof that we are being led by a medical tyranny to soften us up for population reduction is of course not something to make light of.  However, it is absurd, because it is a manufactured attempt to re-define the natural human condition.  So, let us get up to speed on our mental disorders as a gallows humor descends.

Independent Thinking

This disorder is naturally a wide-ranging one, as each unique human being tends to have opinions.  Some of the more deviant forms of individuality are questioning authority and anxious distress, which includes symptoms like the “fear that something awful may happen.”  Like the fear that individuality will be declared a mental disorder by a scientific dictatorship?

Emotions

The natural highs and lows that come with being a sentient human being experiencing the joys and sorrows of life apparently need to be eradicated.  Happiness tests should be given to children to be sure that they feel elated at all times, and perfectly at peace with their indoctrination. If not, be sure to take your happy pills each day.

Healthy Eating

Concern for your own well-being is apparently in direct opposition to the goals of those who wish to keep the population fat, dumb, and toxic.  Mike Adams gives a run-down on the latest crazy thinking associated with eating broccoli, taking vitamins and minerals, drinking purified water, and avoiding known toxins.

Pregnancy

The act of experiencing the emotions of childbirth is definitely something that needs strong legislation.  Instead of thinking about creating life, and the family bonding process, it is much healthier instead to focus on the increasing numbers of disorders surrounding the most natural of processes and how the medical establishment can keep mothers worried sick about their babies.

And Now: BEING BORN

The Psychiatric Dictatorship has begun in earnest to target infants as mental patients.  The amniotic world and the newly born are now under surveillance by agents of the medical elite such as John H. Gilmore, Director of the UNC Schizophrenia Research, for signs of schizophrenia.  Unfortunately, Gilmore is not an isolated mad scientist; this is a global initiative.  The Citizens Commission on Human Rights International recently covered the story of “Australian of the Year,” Patrick McGorry, who would like Australia to lead the world in treating mental illness.  Consulting fees and research grants are raining down on pre-detection initiatives from all of the major pharmaceutical peddlers.

Read entire article:  http://www.infowars.com/madhouse-medical-tyranny-when-health-becomes-sickness/

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University of Copenhagen; Psychiatric Drugs Cause Birth Defects—responsibility must be taken to warn pregnant women

Monday, June 28th, 2010

HealthJockey.com
June 28, 2010

Some psychotropic drugs may be recommended to treat depression as they are believed to affect the mind, emotions, and behavior of an individual. But these medications appear to elevate the risk for various birth defects. As a recent study initiated by the University of Copenhagen suggests, the consumption of psychotropic medication ought to be avoided during pregnancy.

Investigators observed the link of psychotropic medications with birth defects. They analyzed the data between 1998 and 2007 regarding Danish children under the age of 17. The study claims that the data highlighted 429 adverse drug reactions in these children. After thorough examinations the authors concluded that more than half of these cases indicated extreme birth defects including birth deformities and severe withdrawal syndromes.

Associate Professor Lisa Aagaard affirmed, “A range of serious side effects such as birth deformities, low birth weight, premature birth, and development of neonatal withdrawal syndrome were reported in children under two years of age, most likely because of the mother’s intake of psychotropic medication during pregnancy.”

In addition, the investigators inspected 4,500 pediatric adverse drug reaction reports and revealed a clear link between psychotropic medications and birth defects. It was ascertained that psychostimulants like Ritalin known to treat attention deficit disorder (ADD) was accountable in 42 percent of unfavorable reactions. And while antidepressants such as Prozac probably caused 31 percent reactions, 21 percent were contributed by antipsychotics similar to Haldol.

Read entire article: http://www.healthjockey.com/2010/06/28/birth-defects-appear-due-to-intake-of-psychotropic-medications-during-pregnancy/

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Study shows antidepressants cause major increase in miscarriages (68%) yet pregnant women still being targeted for usage

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

Before It’s News
June 23, 2010

This study comes on the heels of ones showing these drugs cause birth defects. But even now, regulatory agencies aren’t taking action.

Medical powers-that-be are pressing to identify women “at risk” of depression during pregnancy—likely to push them into taking anti-depressants. Now, a study has shown that SSRI and SNRI antidepressants can increase miscarriages by 68 percent. These drugs have also been associated with birth defects. Now, that is truly depressing.

A study published in the online edition of the Canadian Medical Association Journal reported a 68% increase in miscarriages in women who take modern antidepressants. Paroxetine, the SSRI sold as Paxil or Seroxat, and venlafaxine, the SNRI sold as Effexor, were especially risky, and taking more than one antidepressant was also particularly dangerous.

As previously documented in Babies of Women Taking Antidepressants Born With Deformities, Dr. Anick Bérard, PhD, one of the study’s authors, has also noted that antidepressants have been associated with birth defects. It shouldn’t, of course, come as any surprise that an agent guilty of causing birth defects would also result in miscarriages.

Overall, antidepressant use was found to increase the risk of miscarriage by 68%. Paroxetine increased the risk by 75% and venlafaxine more than doubled the risk to a 110% greater chance of spontaneous abortion.

In comparison, the increased risk of miscarriage due to untreated depression is 19 percent.

It’s obvious that increased miscarriage risks of 68 percent, 75 percent, and 110% with SSRI and SNRI treatment make a 19 percent increase in untreated pregnancy depression pale by comparison.

Read entire article: http://beforeitsnews.com/news/84/868/Antidepressants_Cause_Major_Increase_in_Miscarriages.html

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Lawyers & Settlements—Mom Alert: Would you want a 68% Higher Risk of Miscarriage? (Antidepressants & Pregnancy study)

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

Lawyers & Settlements
By LucyC
June 2, 2010

A new study out yesterday—June 1, 2010—has revealed a higher rate of miscarriages in women who were taking antidepressants during pregnancy. How much higher? Sixty-eight percent—yes —that’s 68%—higher. Frankly, that is nothing short of shocking.

Published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, the study was done in Canada through the University of Montreal. FYI—This was no small study either—the investigators used data from 5,124 women who are part of a large, population-based study of pregnant women who had clinically verified miscarriages, and a large sample of women from the same registry who did not have a miscarriage. Among the women who miscarried, 284 or 5.5 percent, had taken antidepressants during their pregnancy.

In fact the findings are so robust that the physicians who did the study are suggesting that this is a class effect—in other words the effect could be attributed to all selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors—or SSRIs. Here’s what’s being reported in the press:

“These results, which suggest an overall class effect of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, are highly robust given the large number of users studied,” the study’s senior author, Dr. Anick Berard, said in a statement. (UPI.com)

The antidepressants that showed a particular association with miscarriage in the study were paroxetine (trade names: Seroxat and Paxil) and venlafaxine (trade names: Effexor, Efexor, Alventa, Argofan, Trevilor). The investigators also found that the risk of miscarriage doubled with a combination of different antidepressants.

Just for the record, the antidepressants “investigated” in the University of Montreal study are serotonin reuptake inhibitors (citalopram, fluoxetine, fluvoxa-mine, paroxetine and sertraline); tricyclic antidepressants (ami-triptyline, clomipramine, desipramine, doxepin, imipramine, nortriptyline, trimipramine), serotonin– norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (venlafaxine) and “other antidepressants” (serotonin modulators, monoamine oxidase inhibitors, tetracyclic piperazino-azepines, and dopamine and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors).

This study is just the latest to show an association between, well, for lack of a better term let’s say “serious adverse events” and SSRIs and SNRIs in particular.

Read entire article:  http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/blog/mom-alert-would-you-want-a-68-higher-risk-of-miscarriage-03819.html

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New Study—Taking Antidepressants While Pregnant More Than Doubles Risk of Miscarriage

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

Los Angeles Times
By Thomas H. Maugh II
May 31, 2010

Taking antidepressants during pregnancy increases the risk of spontaneous abortions by about two-thirds, Canadian researchers reported Monday. The increased risk was greatest with the family of drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), especially paroxetine and venlafaxine, and when more than one family of drugs were used.

Depression in women is most common during the child-bearing years, and estimates suggest that as many as 15% of pregnant women suffer from it. Because of fears about the effects of drugs, particularly psychiatric drugs, during pregnancy, only about 3.7% of women use them during the first trimester. Most studies looking at the use of antidepressants during pregnancy have focused on their effects on the fetus. Small studies of their effects on abortion have produced inconsistent results. Expecting mothers cannot routinely stop using the drugs, however, because that also presents risks to both the mother and the fetus.

Producing a controlled clinical trial examining the effects of the drugs is virtually impossible because few women would be willing to participate, experts said. The only way to get at the data is to examine it retrospectively.

In the new study, Dr. Anick Berard, director of the University of Montreal’s Research Unit on Medications and Pregnancy at University Hospital Center Sainte-Justine used information from the Quebec Pregnancy Registry to identify 5,124 women who had a spontaneous abortions between 1998 and 2003 — before warnings about the risks of the drugs became more common — and compared them with about 10 times that many carefully matched women who did not have abortions. A separate database provided information about prescriptions the women had filled.

Read entire article:  http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2010/05/antidepressants-during-pregnancy-increase-risk-of-sponaneous-abortion-study-finds.html

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UK Drug Regulatory Agency issues warning about potential birth defects from Prozac

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

Lawyers & Settlements
By Heidi Turner
April 28, 2010

London, England: The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the government agency in the UK responsible for medicines and medical devices, has issued a warning about potential SSRI birth defects related to the use of fluoxetine (Prozac).

The MHRA issued the warning in its monthly drug safety update. The agency warns that there is a small risk of congenital cardiac defects in infants of mothers who took fluoxetine during the first trimester of pregnancy. According to the safety update, the risk is similar to that posed by paroxetine (Paxil/Seroxat).

The MHRA notes that an analysis of data from seven cohort studies found a slightly increased risk of congenital cardiac defects when fluoxetine was taken early in pregnancy. Those cardiac defects reportedly varied and ranged in severity from reversible ventricular septal defects to transposition of the great vessels. The safety update notes that the increased absolute risk is less than two per 100 pregnancies.

Prozac is an antidepressant classed as a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI). The MHRA says that there is not enough data to conclude that other SSRIs carry the same risk, but it is unwilling to rule out the possibility of a “class effect,” meaning other drugs in the same class may carry the same risks.

The agency also says that the risk of giving birth to an infant with congenital cardiac defects should be weighed against the risks of having untreated depression during pregnancy, which carries its own risks, including low birth weight, preterm delivery and lower Apgar scores.

Read entire article:  http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/articles/14025/interview-ssri-birth-defects-side-effects-pphn.html

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UK: Pregnant women warned about antidepressants

Friday, March 12th, 2010

Bounty
March 12, 2010

Women expecting a baby have been warned over taking Prozac while they are pregnant, after a new study found it could be harmful to an unborn child.

According to a study from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency there is a “small risk” of babies developing heart problems should their mother take the drug early on in their pregnancy.

The researchers behind the study said that pregnant mothers who use Prozac could be twice as likely to have children with a congenital heart problem, such as a murmur, or a hole in the heart.

Read entire article:  http://www.bounty.com/node/2191

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