I'd not long finished writing my book, it's original title, "Seroxat Sufferers", didn't sit right with me...and then it came to me, in a flash. I was laying in bed, my four-legged companion, Benn, as always, by my side. That's when I heard the voice, a voice that had, if I'm being honest, haunted me for sometime.
"The evidence, however, is clear."
There's the title of the book right there, I thought.
I jumped out of bed, fired up the computer and brought up the manuscript. I deleted the title and replaced it with, "The evidence, however, is clear, the Seroxat scandal." - A book was born and the title was a two fingered salute to the person who coined the phrase.
It's fair to say that I'm not particularly fond of the former European Medical Director of GlaxoSmithKline, Alistair Benbow, but I can, at the very least, thank him for giving me the title of my book.
You see, it was Benbow who uttered that infamous line. "The evidence, however, is clear, these medicines are not linked with suicide, these medicines are not linked with an increased rate of self harm."
He, during his 10 year tenure at GSK, became the spokesperson for Seroxat in the UK. His appearance on BBC TV's Panorama shows were, if you had experienced the addictive qualities of Seroxat, annoying to say the least.
The first Panorama documentary regarding Seroxat first aired in 2002. The Secrets of Seroxat was, in the main, about the withdrawal problem that patients were enduring, it also featured the story of Don Schell, the 60 year-old who, after taking just two Seroxat tablets (called Paxil in the US) killed his wife, Rita Schell, 55. their daughter, Deborah Tobin, 31, and Alyssa Tobin, 9 months.
The Jury in that trial blamed Seroxat as the cause of Schell's induced psychosis and subsequent slaying of his family members. Schell took his own life after killing them.
The Secrets of Seroxat hit a nerve with the British public. The feedback was unprecedented with thousands of people contacting the programme.
Many of the e-mails and phone calls sent in from Panorama viewers after the first installment said they showed signs of violence, addiction, self-harm and suicide.
If, you have not watched the first of the Panorama programmes then watching the second may be confusing.
Both of them are now available.
There were four in all. Ill be uploading the last two shortly.
Shelley Jofre is the investigative journalist and her grilling of Benbow in these first two installments is a sight to behold.
Without further ado, as they say...
Bob Fiddaman
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