On last week’s episode of hit Fox TV series Glee, a psychiatrist played by Kathleen Quinlan counseled a patient played by Jayma Mays and prescribed an SSRI for her OCD. That is, she prescribed a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor for her obsessive compulsive disorder.

Though an SSRI might ease the OCD of Mays’ character, high school counselor Emma Pillsbury, it’s troublesome that the psychiatrist would prescribe it for a woman without first asking: “Are you pregnant, or do you expect to become pregnant soon?”

That’s because many SSRI drugs — though they may ease depression and anxiety — also may lead to serious birth defects for the offspring of women who take them during pregnancy. (more…)

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Many people believe America to be an over-prescribed nation. While many drugs are needed, many are not not — or they can do more harm than good.

In short, too many people take too many medications which make too much money for too many giant pharmaceutical companies. That includes antidepressant drugs which may or may not be needed by all of their millions of users.

But even when a drug does its job, as with antidepressant Zoloft, this may not be a good thing. That’s because there may be a trade-off. And in Zoloft’s case, that trade-off is risking a serious birth defect injury for newborn infant children whose mother took Zoloft during pregnancy.

Most likely such women didn’t know that the antidepressant could cause Zoloft birth defects. That’s because its manufacturer, Pfizer Inc., has not adequately warned potential users of such serious Zoloft side effects as heart, brain, gastrointestinal tract, lung and other vital organ injuries to babies whose mother takes the drug.

(more…)

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Actor James Marshall, best known for playing troubled teen James Hurley on TV’s Emmy-winning Twin Peaks and a Marine murder suspect in the Oscar-nominated film A Few Good Men, finally is getting his own day in court. Marshall has an Accutane lawsuit underway against the acne drug’s negligent manufacturer, Hoffman-La Roche.

The trial, now underway in Atlantic City, N.J., concerns Marshall’s complaint that Roche knew its acne treatment Accutane could cause lifelong bowel disease injuries, yet failed to warn potential users sufficiently. As a result, Marshall has suffered a debilitating and incurable inflammatory bowel disease, or IBD. This made it necessary that his colon be surgically removed, and it cut short his once promising acting career.

(more…)

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A big mystery on American Idol,  TV’s top-rated show, was cleared up recently. After finalist Casey Abrams mysteriously missed a results show, it was revealed that he’d been in Los Angeles’ Cedars Sinai Medical Center getting blood transfusions.

Why? Because Abrams, a promising 20-year-old singer from Wilmette, IL, suffers the lifelong, incurable and debilitating disease called ulcerative colitis.

Known as an IBD or inflammatory bowel disease, ulcerative colitis cannot be cured but can only be treated. That’s why Abrams was in the hospital when he should have been on the TV series of his dreams.

Then again, far too many Americans also suffer ulcerative colitis or UC when they should have been free from the horrific condition. Why? In their case, it’s because they took the acne medicine Accutane, a now-discredited and defective drug which was pulled from the market in 2009 but can affect people for years after they consumed it. (more…)

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When acne drug Accutane reached the market in 1982, many Americans wanted one thing cleared up: their acne. But since using Accutane, many may need another thing cleared up: Why do they now have painful digestive disorders or perhaps even an incurable bowel disease?

Clearly, the two go together. Accutane has been shown to cause severe, debilitating, incurable and lifelong maladies such as an inflammatory bowel disease, or IBD. This can take the form of Crohn’s (Crohns) disease or ulcerative colitis. It even can lead to colon removal surgery, as well as IBS, or irritable bowel syndrome.

Jim S. Adler & Associates has cleared up the link between such galling injuries and the negligent manufacturer whose defective acne drug caused them. The culprit is Accutane and its potent chief ingredient, a Vitamin A booster called Isotretinoin. Together, they’ve caused countless Americans a lifetime of misery and medical bills — all so that manufacturer Roche Pharmaceuticals could reap huge profits. (more…)

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A child’s birth can be a couple’s most glorious moment. But imagine when that moment is marred by learning their newborn infant suffers birth defects. That’s what is happening to many Americans after a mother-to-be took antidepressant Paxil during pregnancy.

This defective drug has been shown to cause dozens of birth defects, from heart, lung and brain ailments to defects of the spinal cord, digestive tract, urinary tracts, abdominal wall and limbs.

Some birth defects occur naturally and may be hereditary. Paxil birth defects do not. Paxil birth defects are directly caused by a defective drug taken during pregnancy.

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You’re pregnant!

Immediately a warning should flick on in your brain like a giant electric sign on Times Square: DON’T TAKE PAXIL.

This antidepressant can cause serious birth defects – bad news for moms trying to cope with mood swings caused by fluctuating hormonal levels in early pregnancy. What’s worse, the  news that Paxil is associated with these birth defects hasn’t had much publicity.

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A quick google search of the Internet turns up lots of websites selling Accutane in spite of federal warnings about the powerful drug. One site, with the unforgettable web address of “cheap pills,” has a brief two-line description of the acne treatment drug, followed by a lengthy price sheet offering Accutane pills in varying amounts with no reference to the drug’s side effects.

All this, despite a Food and Drug Administration website that warns against buying Accutane over the Internet because of the drug’s 15 serious side effects, including two life-long diseases of the gut with the potential to kill those who develop them after taking it.

(more…)

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When hundreds or even thousands of Americans are killed by a war, an accident or other violent means, the nation reacts with grief if not outrage. Yet 200,000 Americans are being killed each year by an entity that rarely rises on the nation’s outrage radar: the pharmaceutical industry.

You may wonder why. You may believe that new drugs are always pre-tested in pharmaceutical trials to ensure their safety. How can such drugs then kill thousands while earning billions in profits for their manufacturers?

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GlaxoSmithKline, or GSK, whose antidepressant drug Paxil causes heart injuries and other birth defects in innocent babies, has been hit with a $750 million fine after the U.S. Justice Department brought suit against it.

While British-based GSK makes billions of dollars in profits by selling drugs, it too often fails to use those profits to safeguard its customers. In this case, the government found gross negligence by GSK at its factory in Cidra, Puerto Rico.

There, the feds found that GSK was producing drugs for sale to Americans which were mislabeled, contaminated with micro-organisms and had the wrong dosage.

(more…)

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