Addiction - An MHRA Failure to Regulate

It's about time something was done about this problem. I've scoured through the Internet and looked for addiction helplines - not one for SSRi's.

Interestingly though it seems there are detox units across the UK to help people. These are private clinics and the patient has to pay to taper off a drug that both the manufacturer and the medicines regulator say isn't addictive.

The Promis Treatment Centre is one such clinic.

I applaud their service to help those addicted to antidepressants but have to question why the patient should have to pay. I'm not having a dig at Promis here, I think they are actually addressing this very serious issue, an issue ignored by our own medicines regulator, in particular the CEO of that regulator, Kent Woods.

This from the Promis website:

Treating addiction to antidepressants is therefore among the most difficult of all addictions to treat, precisely because its true nature is so poorly understood and because doctors may inadvertently work against the best clinical interests of their patients. Faced with the prospect of a suicide, doctors often reach for a prescription pad so that they can be seen to be "doing" something. However, when a successful suicide has used antidepressants the doctor is not blamed but thought to have done his or her best to "help" the patient. Nothing could be further from the truth. Prescribing a mood-altering drug makes it less likely that the patient will find a solution to internal as well as external problems because the sense of equanimity is artificially induced. - Dr Robert Lefever

Hallelujah! Someone who actually understands.

Take note MHRA. One simple paragraph sums up what myself and others have been telling you for years and you have done... and continue to do NOTHING!

Now, how about opening some clinics for the poor souls who cannot afford private healthcare or do you wish for them to go back to their own GP only to be prescribed more of the same SSRi?

All you are doing by your act of stubbornness is lining the pockets of pharmaceutical companies. You are also adding to the patients mental torture by sitting on your fat, overpaid arses by doing nothing!

Have you no shame?

Has your Chairman, Alasdair Breckenridge changed his opinion yet?... "The so-called scandal of Seroxat is something I want to nail every time I speak in front of compatriots because it is absolute rubbish”.

Will the MHRA be investigating clinics such as the Promis Treatment Clinic? After all they are offering a service that is not even recognised by yourselves or indeed the manufacturers of antidepressants.

So what are you going to do? Do you pull the plug on Promis or do you allow them to treat people suffering from an addiction that YOU say does not exist?

I put it to you that you haven't got the balls to take on the likes of Promis, am I right? One walk around their clinic and you would see with your own eyes the pain and suffering you are allowing to happen. You couldn't quite stomach that could you?

It's quite laughable isn't it? The CEO of the MHRA does not believe there is an addiction problem with SSRi's yet there are centres around the UK helping people with antidepressant addiction!

What a crazy world we are living in - so crazy that the cure seems to be waiting around the corner as the pharmaceutical peddler (Rep) waits like the Grim Reaper touting his wares to GP's and other health professionals.

And what happens when a pharmaceutical company are found to be marketing antidepressants to the vulnerable (Children)?

Absolutely nothing! A letter telling them to stand at the back of the class, do 100 lines, smack their wrist and tell them not to do it again.

What happens when a patient sends information to the CEO of the MHRA that highlights the seriousness of this problem - A 172 page document detailing how people all over the world are struggling with Seroxat withdrawal? Absolutely nothing! Not even an acknowledgement of gratitude.

There IS an addiction problem with Seroxat and the MHRA are ignoring it, hoping that one day they will wake up and find that it has been one big ghastly dream. The MHRA have failed us all and continue to do so by totally ignoring the facts (albeit anecdotal ones)

I call for the resignation of the CEO of the MHRA, also their Chairman. Let somebody else try where you have failed. Your refusal to budge from your position is an act of complete disregard for patient safety. You are an embarrassment... you are a liability!

Fid

Read the new book, The Evidence, However, Is Clear...The Seroxat Scandal

By Bob Fiddaman

ISBN: 978-1-84991-120-7
CHIPMUNKA PUBLISHING

AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD HERE


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