DEREK SCOTT has first- hand experience of the side-effects experienced by thousands of people being treated with Seroxat.
Derek (36), of Linfield Street, Dundee, was addicted to the drug for almost five years and believes he has suffered permanent psychological damage by the treatment.
As a result of allegedly poor guidelines from the drugs regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), Derek was prescribed up to three-times the recommended dose for many years.
When he tried to come off it he suffered panic attacks and nightmares, and the strain resulted in an attempt to take his own life.
Since then, with the help of a cocktail of other anti-depressants and psychiatric treatment, he has been working for a ban on the drug he is convinced has ruined his life.
“I tried coming off it in 2004 and that’s when my problems started. I had absolutely no idea that it could cause this kind of reaction. I suffered from persistent sickness, sweating, thoughts of death, nightmares and physical sensations that felt like electric shocks all over my body.”
While trawling the internet for information he found there were thousands of other people who had the same symptoms, and the same suspicions about the drug, as he did.
He decided to start a website of his own—the Online Seroxat Support Group—as a meeting place for other people to share their experiences.
He said, “The internet seems to be the best place to get people together with this type of illness.”
In 2005 Derek’s cause was taken up by MP Stewart Hosie, who submitted a petition in his name to parliament calling for suspension of new prescriptions until the drug can be investigated. Derek has been in continual correspondence with Mr Hosie since his election to the Dundee East seat in May 2005, and the list of evidence he has compiled is kept in a file over 12 inches thick.
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