Last month I wrote a piece entitled, 'Antidepressants: The Power To Harm' which, basically, highlighted the Japanese drug regulator and the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. [MHLW]
A 2009 review of antidepressants in Japan [1] resulted in MHLW issuing an alert to patients and their families to pay due attention to changes in patient condition during the course of treatment. On May 8, 2009, MHLW required marketing authorization holders [MAHs] to revise precautions in package inserts.
They found that causality between SSRi antidepressants and harmful behavior to others could not be denied in 2 cases of reported adverse reactions associated with fluvoxamine maleate and 2 cases of reported adverse reactions associated with paroxetine hydrochloride hydrate. For the remaining 35 cases of adverse reactions, causality between the drug and adverse reactions was considered unknown.
After reading this review I wrote to the British drug regulator, the MHRA.
Dear Sir/Madam,
I would like to know if the MHRA have any information, be it by study or review, regarding SSRi adverse reactions of aggression including harmful behavior to others (including injury).
Please state if any alerts to patients and their families have ever been sent out regarding this issue.
Please state if any revision to package inserts have been made regarding this issue.
The MHRA have now answered and, it has to be said, it would appear that patient welfare is far higher on the list in Japan than it is in the UK.
First off, their cover letter to me.
"The information supplied in response to your request is the copyright of MHRA and/or a third party or parties, and has been supplied for your personal use only. You may not sell, resell or otherwise use any information provided without prior agreement from the copyright holder."
I'm not going to bother asking the MHRA if I am allowed to republish, what I deem as, important safety information regarding SSRi use and aggression. They've used this threat before with me, see 'The evidence, however, is clear, the Seroxat scandal'. [2]
The MHRA have provided me with 30 pages of information with regard to the question I put to them, much of which is redacted [blacked out]
It would be pointless to post all 30 pages but those wishing to scrutinize can request a copy from me by emailing me.
Some points...
The information sent to me from the MHRA was taken from meetings that occurred between the years 1996 and 2001.
Contrast that to the Japanese information on SSRis and aggression. Their information is more up to date, in fact it is 8 years more up to date than what the MHRA have given me.
The MHRA, or the data they sent me, points to two SSRis causing aggression. Fluoxetine and Paroxetine, namely, Prozac and Seroxat (Paxil)
Remarkably these findings of aggression with Prozac and Seroxat use have been played down by claiming that the reporting rates of aggression increased when stories started appearing in the media. The MHRA do not balance this claim, for instance, (i) the reporting rates may have increased because patients may not have known that the MHRA actually collected such reports and (ii) consumers may have attributed their aggression and suicidal thinking to their illness, opposed to it being a possible adverse reaction to the drug they were taking.
Page 23 of the 30 page document they sent me is quite telling. [Fig 1]
Fig 1
So, when there is a clear sign that aggression is occurring during Prozac and/or Seroxat treatment it has, if you believe the above, nothing to do with the drug/s, it is possibly a "separate event from the underlying illness" or it's "part of a discontinuation syndrome", or maybe the aggression has appeared because of the removal of the therapeutic benefits of the drug.
Once again, the suggestion of media reports on antidepressants and the suicide link are mentioned. It's almost as if they [the committees who reviewed the aggression link in SSRi use] are putting something in place. Rather than look at the blindingly obvious problem they chose to deflect and lay the blame on intense media reporting.
Now, contrast this stance with those of the Japanese.
2009:
The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare issued an alert to patients and their families to pay due attention to changes in patient condition during the course of treatment. On May 8, 2009, MHLW required marketing authorization holders [MAHs] to revise precautions in package inserts.
The above was based on a review where they found an association with SSRis and aggression.
No pussy-footing around, no blaming the media, no blaming a discontinuation syndrome or no blaming the underlying illness causing the aggression. Moreover, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare sent an alert out to patients and their families about their findings.
I don't know about you but if one regulator flags a warning about patients becoming aggressive on antidepressants then other regulators around the world should act promptly.
Judging by the material sent to me by the MHRA, they put the SSRi aggression link to bed in 2002 and have done nothing more about it since then.
The MHRA is responsible for regulating all medicines and medical devices in the UK by ensuring they work and are acceptably safe.
Oh really?
Bob Fiddaman
1. 2009 Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors and Aggression [Japanese Review] [Link]
2. The evidence, however, is clear, the Seroxat scandal. [Link]
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