It’s true for SOME PATIENTS. Not all. Not NEARLY all.
OK.
Do you know the percentage of what is not 'nearly all'?
Can you tell me what percentage are not really helped by these drugs, but are just numbed emotionally, or worse?
The author argued this:
In November 2005, more than four years after Yates drowned her children, Effexor manufacturer Wyeth Pharmaceuticals quietly added "homicidal ideation" to the drug's list of "rare adverse events." The Medical Accountability Network, a private nonprofit focused on medical ethics issues, publicly criticized Wyeth, saying Effexor's "homicidal ideation" risk wasn't well-publicized and that Wyeth failed to send letters to doctors or issue warning labels announcing the change. And what exactly does "rare" mean in the phrase "rare adverse events"? The FDA defines it as occurring in less than one in 1,000 people. But since, according to an Associated Press report, about 19.2 million prescriptions for Effexor were filled in the U.S. alone in 2005, statistically that means thousands of Americans could experience "homicidal ideation" – murderous thoughts – as a result of taking just this one brand of antidepressant drug. Effexor is Wyeth's best-selling drug, by the way, bringing in $3.46 billion – with a "b" – in sales worldwide in 2005, almost one-fifth of the company's total revenues.
He also said this:
Before we go on, let's state the obvious: There are genuine, organic brain diseases that may benefit from drug therapy – but these are relatively rare. And there are also instances where an individual is so psychotic as to pose a direct danger to him/herself and others, where sedation might be appropriate. But what I'm writing about here is the overwhelming majority of cases where psychiatric drugs are unwisely relied on to fix Americans' mental-emotional-spiritual problems. In search of a quick, painless fix for the problems we develop when we fail to deal with the stresses of life properly, we've become a nation of drug-takers. Millions of us "medicate" the pain of life away by taking illegal drugs. And millions more take prescription drugs to accomplish much the same thing. As Fortune magazine reported in November 2005: Nearly 150 million U.S. prescriptions were dispensed in 2004 for SSRIs and similar antidepressants called SNRIs, according to IMS Health, a Fairfield, Conn., drug data and consulting company – more than for any other drug except codeine. Perhaps one out of 20 adult Americans are on them now, making brands like Zoloft, GlaxoSmithKline's Paxil, Forest Laboratories' Celexa, and Solvay Pharmaceuticals' Luvox household names.
What is your argument against his?
Thanks.