Re: Lawsuit blames Zoloft for teenager's suicide

October 29, 2004

Please, people! How can it be that we have all become such sheep? Just because

a doctor says: " you must be depressed. take this drug " it doesn't mean you

have to do it. And it's not just psychoactive drugs. Medicine in general has

developed a mania for handing out drugs. I had a doctor in the early 1990s who

did everything short of knocking me to the floor and pouring hormones down my

throat. I said " NO, thanks " over and over and over, and what part of " NO "

don't you understand? She never caught on, but she was forced to give up, and I

had long since stopped consulting her. Ten years later, we were told,

officially, that maybe taking all those female hormones was not such a good idea

after all. For all the same reasons as I had in the first place to refuse the

prescription a decade earlier. Ditto for Lipitor two years ago. I just said

NO. You have that right. Their job is to tell you the diagnosis, if possible

the etiology, the prognosis, and what your treatment options are. One treatment

option is ALWAYS to do nothing, another is ALWAYS to change your diet or

exercise, or whatever. How did it come to this, that people feel like they have

not choice but to ingest pharmaceuticals just because the distributors (formerly

known as physicians) say so? I am not blaming the parents of the dead child

here, just saying that we must all start seeing ourselves as intelligent

,responsible creatures, not sheep. gertie

Lawsuit blames Zoloft for teenager's suicide

From Wildestcolts another gut wrenching story.

Lawsuit blames Zoloft for teenager's suicide

By Pamela Manson

The Salt Lake Tribune

A South Jordan couple on Tuesday accused pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. of

negligence in their daughter's " tragic, maddening, wrongful death " for allegedly

failing to warn doctors of a link between its antidepressant Zoloft and teenage

suicide.

In a suit filed in U.S. District Court, the parents of Shyra Marie Kallas

say the 15-year-old shot herself in November 2002, less than a month after her

family physician prescribed the antidepressant.

The girl originally went to see the doctor for warts but said, as part of

her patient history, that she felt overwhelmed with school work, according to

Ken and Kallas' suit.

" Her doctor then did precisely what Pfizer's salesmen regularly encourage

doctors to do, i.e., he (a) diagnosed 'depression' and ( prescribed Zoloft, "

claims the suit, which seeks unspecified damages.

The legal action alleges Pfizer knew of an association between Zoloft and

side effects that increase the risk for suicide. However, it claims, the company

continued to overpromote the medication and misled the public about the risk,

touting Zoloft as the " number one doctor-trusted antidepressant. "

Pfizer representatives could not be reached for comment Tuesday. In its

2004 third-quarter performance report released last week, the New York

City-based company said, " Zoloft is not approved for pediatric depression. In

fact, there have been no suicides in the Zoloft pediatric clinical program.

" Pfizer remains confident in the proven safety and efficacy of Zoloft to

treat millions of patients with mood and anxiety disorders. "

In an Oct. 15 advisory, the Food and Drug Administration said all

antidepressants will now carry labels that include a boxed warning about the

increased risk of suicide they pose to children and adolescents.

Shyra was described in her obituary as a star athlete who loved art, nature

and camping with her family.

pmanson@...

October 29, 2004