There's a great editorial from yesterday's Oakville Beaver regarding the Jury's recommendations in the Sara Carlin inquest [See PDF below]
It touches on the decisions made by the 5 person jury, in particular the call for the creation of a province wide drug information system, a provincial and national suicide prevention program and a national independent drug safety board, which would report to Parliament.
The editorial also points out that these list of recommendations will all be for nothing if the government fails to implement them and points out that some of these recommendations were also made by the jury at the inquest into the death of Vanessa Young (MP for Oakville, Terence Young's daughter) and never acted upon.
Download Editorial
The Oakville Beaver also yesterday published a letter from the parents of Sara Carlin, Neil and Rhonda.
The letter is with regard to the Oakville Beaver's reporting of the inquest.
The Carlin's make some interesting points about 'expert' witness, Dr. David Juurlink.
As reported by the Beaver, Coroner’s expert Dr. David Juurlink (who is not trained, qualified or licenced to practice psychiatry) said most suicides and side effects from Paxil occur within the first few weeks and months after a person starts taking it. Sara had been taking the drug for more than a year before her death.
Presumably, this lack of temporality being the primary reason for his opinion that Sara’s suicide was not Paxil-related.
We believe Dr. Juurlink’s evidence on this point to be extremely disingenuous. The US FDA Paxil product monographs clearly state: “clinical worsening, suicidality, and unusual changes in behaviour, especially during the initial few months of a course of drug therapy, or at times of dose changes, either increases or decreases.”
The full statement can be read HERE
Juurlink was called as the Coroner's Counsel expert witness, he didn't believe that Paxil caused Sara to kill herself.
As I pointed out in my earlier reporting on this inquest, Juurlink is or was an internist and Head of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto. [LINK]
The Sunnybrook Foundation rely on donations - in 2008 GlaxoSmithKline donated $140,000. [LINK]
Juurlink is or was also a Medical Toxicologist at the Ontario Regional Poison Information Centre at the Hospital for Sick Children.
In 2008 GlaxoSmithKline donated $625,000 GlaxoSmithKline to Hospital for Sick Children. [LINK]
I consider Juurlink's statement/opinion quite unprofessional. I also fear that the Oakville Beaver's reporting, and lack of understanding with regard to Paxil and its withdrawal problems, quite unbalanced. I do, however, applaud them for allowing the Carlin's the chance to rebut and to set the record straight.
There is a desperate need for an independent regulatory drugs panel, not only in Canada but globally too, if only for the reasons above.
Information provided by 'experts' and the media should be cross-checked. Juurlink's opinion did not tally with the Paxil monograph, something the Oakville Beaver should have pointed out in their original article. The Beaver also failed to mention that Juurlink is not trained, qualified or licenced to practice psychiatry therefore, I believe, the Beaver gave a false representation and mislead the public with their reporting.
Once again, it has taken the parents of a deceased child to point out the facts, something that journalists writing for the Beaver should have done before printing and disseminating information to the Canadian public.
In my final post on the Sara Carlin inquest I will be naming and shaming the activities and abhorrent behaviour of a list owner of a Yahoo Group. This despicable man has been using the death of Sara Carlin to promote and direct people to a blog he created that basically criticises everyone and anyone that has ever spoken out against Paxil. What's abhorrent is that this sick individual wants people [readers] to believe that I am the author. His blog is the same name as this one, his url is all but the same as this one and he posts as 'Bob Fiddleman'.
He will be outed, as will his online girlfriend, who has in the past, shown a complete lack of tact concerning the mother of another teenager who died from hanging as a result of Paxil usage.
Later this month I will be uploading the 58 page document sent to me by the Federal Aviation Administration, it's in connection with SSRi usage in pilots and stems from a Freedom of Information request sent to me a few weeks ago.
At some point I will gather all of the Sara Carlin articles I have wrote during the course of her inquest and beyond and make them available as a pdf download.
Once all of the above is in place I will be taking a hiatus from blogging. This is something that I have considered long and hard over the past few months or so. There are many reasons for this which I will explain at a later date.
I've been writing about Paxil/Seroxat for over 4 years. This blog is approaching 200,000 hits so I think the message is getting out regarding the way SSRi's, in particular Paxil,Seroxat, are regulated.
For now, I have much to do with my book, omissions and additions to get it ready for its paperback release later this year.
I also have to prepare myself for some "me" time - September this year sees my eldest son heading off to Afghanistan to fight for his country, worrying times ahead and a time for me, as a parent, to collect my thoughts and run alongside my son in the battle zones of Afghanistan [in the spiritual sense]
I'll still use Facebook to chat with my friends but will be disconnecting myself from forums I am subscribed to in the field of mental health.
Anyway, more about this at a later date.
Fid
ORDER THE PAPERBACK
'THE EVIDENCE, HOWEVER, IS CLEAR...THE SEROXAT SCANDAL' By Bob Fiddaman
SIGNED COPIES HERE OR UNSIGNED FROM CHIPMUNKA PUBLISHING
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