After reports that most donations made to the big advocacy group came from drug makers in recent years, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) agreed to disclose its funding sources. The disclosure, however, came after protracted criticism of NAMI for coordinating lobbying efforts with drug makers and pushing legislation that also benefits the pharma industry.
The study examined data from 136,293 study participants, aged 50 to 79, who were not taking antidepressants when they enrolled in the study, and who were followed for an average of six years. The researchers observed a significant difference in stroke rates: antidepressant users were 45 percent more likely to experience strokes than women who weren’t taking antidepressants. The study also found that when overall death rates (all-cause mortality) were compared between the two groups, those on antidepressants had a 32 percent higher risk of death from all causes compared with non-users.
The $1 billion “would be worse than many people are expecting,” said Navid Malik, an analyst at Matrix Corporate Capital in London. “Paxil’s been different from most drugs,” said Harris Pogust, a lawyer from Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, who is handling suicide and withdrawal cases. “You’ve had three major personal injury litigations over one drug — the suicide, the birth defect and the withdrawal cases. To have three significant problems with one drug is really unusual.”
(Formerly National Depressive and Manic-Depressive Association – NDMDA) The NDMDA was one of the major front groups established in 1986 that could lobby Congress for…
Department of Children and Family Services Director Erwin McEwen reacted to the findings by angrily criticizing Streamwood Behavioral Health Center owner Psychiatric Solutions Inc., the nation’s largest for-profit behavioral health firm. “Profiteering at the expense of the mental health of vulnerable children will not be tolerated in Illinois.”