Tag Archives: Paxil

Doctor: Paxil “Especially Notorious” for Causing Withdrawal

Dr. Charles Raison, an associate professor at Emory University, wrote in response to a reader’s question on CNN that about 20 percent of patients experience withdrawal symptoms when they stop taking antidepressants. Paxil is “especially notorious for causing withdrawal problems” because of its short half-life in the body. Paxil is also associated with a number of side effects for those currently taking the medication, including birth defects and depression.

Making a Market in Antipsychotic Drugs: An Ironic Tragedy

Remember not so long ago when Prozac became the world’s largest selling medication of any kind, and then for years how Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft took over many of the top 10 spots? Remember the explanations at the time–that they were wonder drugs and that 15-50 percent or more of Americans would need them some time in their lives? To many people this seemed like a scientific breakthrough when in reality it was … a triumph of marketing.

Big Pharma’s Next Big Thing: Antipsychotic Medicines for Preschoolers

Dr. Joan Luby, the preschool depression researcher at the center of a New York Times article that failed to mention her past research was funded by Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Shire (SHPGY) and AstraZeneca (AZN), is currently testing the antipsychotic Risperdal on autistic children aged 30 months to 5 years old, according to the ClinicalTrials.gov database. Although the study is not funded by Janssen, the unit of J&J that makes Risperdal, it nonetheless typifies a new field of drug research: The use of mood-altering pharmaceuticals on the very, very young.

Psychotropic Drugs, Our Children and Our Pill-Crazed Society

Today, the use of psychoactive drugs by children (6-17) is all too common, relied on far too much and growing at an alarming rate. It all started in the ’70s. Memorialized in 1966 by the Rolling Stones’ “Mothers Little Helpers,” it was at that time that our society took the first steps at becoming “Pill Crazy.”