Re: Zoloft for non depressed violent convicts ...........!!!!!

[Guest guest]

How would you say ? Bullocks!!

On 11/19/2010 4:18 PM, jeremy9282 wrote:

Benefit to

boosting criminals' serotonin

Amy Corderoy HEALTH

November 17, 2010

http://www.smh.com.au/national/benefit-to-boosting-criminals-serotonin-20101116-17vzf.html

VIOLENT criminals may be less likely to reoffend if they

take antidepressant medication, an Australian-first study

has found.

Men recruited at three Sydney magistrates courts were given

the drug Zoloft to see whether it would curb impulsiveness

and irritability, which are linked to repeat offending.

All of the men had at least one conviction for a violent

offence. After a three-month trial the men, who were not

suffering depression, asked to continue taking the drug,

saying they felt less angry and engaged in less direct and

indirect physical assaults, and verbal assault.

Advertisement:

Story continues below

"Criminal behaviours are very costly for the community and

the individuals," said Schofield, the study's

co-author and director of the neuropsychiatry service at

Hunter-New England Health. "If they benefited from

medication I would see that as a win-win situation."

People with depression sometimes have low levels of the

brain chemical serotonin. Low serotonin is also linked to

impulsiveness and irritability in some people, which may be

an underlying factor in violent acts, Associate Professor

Schofield said.

The antidepressant given to the offenders, Zoloft, did not

act as a sedative, he said.

Violent offenders are particularly difficult to

rehabilitate. About 50 per cent of violent offenders in NSW

return to prison within two years of release, the study

authors wrote in the Australian and New Zealand Journal

of Psychiatry.

In the general prison population only 20 per cent of

prisoners return within two years, according to the

Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Professor Philip , study co-author and head of the

School of Psychiatry at the University of NSW, said no

previous Australian research had examined the effects of

antidepressants on people who had a conviction for a violent

offence.

The 32 men were recruited from magistrates courts at

Burwood, Liverpool and Blacktown. All 20 men who completed

the study asked to continue taking the medication, he said.

Professor was "intrigued and excited" by the

results. "The study raises a lot of complex questions in

terms of issues about responsibility," he said. "These sorts

of studies … question how much [violent] behaviour is under

the individual's control."

The team was applying to undertake a larger, randomised

study to examine the effects of antidepressant medication on

participants' long-term chances of reoffending.

[Guest guest]

How would you say ? Bullocks!!

On 11/19/2010 4:18 PM, jeremy9282 wrote:

Benefit to

boosting criminals' serotonin

Amy Corderoy HEALTH

November 17, 2010

http://www.smh.com.au/national/benefit-to-boosting-criminals-serotonin-20101116-17vzf.html

VIOLENT criminals may be less likely to reoffend if they

take antidepressant medication, an Australian-first study

has found.

Men recruited at three Sydney magistrates courts were given

the drug Zoloft to see whether it would curb impulsiveness

and irritability, which are linked to repeat offending.

All of the men had at least one conviction for a violent

offence. After a three-month trial the men, who were not

suffering depression, asked to continue taking the drug,

saying they felt less angry and engaged in less direct and

indirect physical assaults, and verbal assault.

Advertisement:

Story continues below

"Criminal behaviours are very costly for the community and

the individuals," said Schofield, the study's

co-author and director of the neuropsychiatry service at

Hunter-New England Health. "If they benefited from

medication I would see that as a win-win situation."

People with depression sometimes have low levels of the

brain chemical serotonin. Low serotonin is also linked to

impulsiveness and irritability in some people, which may be

an underlying factor in violent acts, Associate Professor

Schofield said.

The antidepressant given to the offenders, Zoloft, did not

act as a sedative, he said.

Violent offenders are particularly difficult to

rehabilitate. About 50 per cent of violent offenders in NSW

return to prison within two years of release, the study

authors wrote in the Australian and New Zealand Journal

of Psychiatry.

In the general prison population only 20 per cent of

prisoners return within two years, according to the

Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Professor Philip , study co-author and head of the

School of Psychiatry at the University of NSW, said no

previous Australian research had examined the effects of

antidepressants on people who had a conviction for a violent

offence.

The 32 men were recruited from magistrates courts at

Burwood, Liverpool and Blacktown. All 20 men who completed

the study asked to continue taking the medication, he said.

Professor was "intrigued and excited" by the

results. "The study raises a lot of complex questions in

terms of issues about responsibility," he said. "These sorts

of studies … question how much [violent] behaviour is under

the individual's control."

The team was applying to undertake a larger, randomised

study to examine the effects of antidepressant medication on

participants' long-term chances of reoffending.

[Guest guest]

How would you say ? Bullocks!!

On 11/19/2010 4:18 PM, jeremy9282 wrote:

Benefit to

boosting criminals' serotonin

Amy Corderoy HEALTH

November 17, 2010

http://www.smh.com.au/national/benefit-to-boosting-criminals-serotonin-20101116-17vzf.html

VIOLENT criminals may be less likely to reoffend if they

take antidepressant medication, an Australian-first study

has found.

Men recruited at three Sydney magistrates courts were given

the drug Zoloft to see whether it would curb impulsiveness

and irritability, which are linked to repeat offending.

All of the men had at least one conviction for a violent

offence. After a three-month trial the men, who were not

suffering depression, asked to continue taking the drug,

saying they felt less angry and engaged in less direct and

indirect physical assaults, and verbal assault.

Advertisement:

Story continues below

"Criminal behaviours are very costly for the community and

the individuals," said Schofield, the study's

co-author and director of the neuropsychiatry service at

Hunter-New England Health. "If they benefited from

medication I would see that as a win-win situation."

People with depression sometimes have low levels of the

brain chemical serotonin. Low serotonin is also linked to

impulsiveness and irritability in some people, which may be

an underlying factor in violent acts, Associate Professor

Schofield said.

The antidepressant given to the offenders, Zoloft, did not

act as a sedative, he said.

Violent offenders are particularly difficult to

rehabilitate. About 50 per cent of violent offenders in NSW

return to prison within two years of release, the study

authors wrote in the Australian and New Zealand Journal

of Psychiatry.

In the general prison population only 20 per cent of

prisoners return within two years, according to the

Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Professor Philip , study co-author and head of the

School of Psychiatry at the University of NSW, said no

previous Australian research had examined the effects of

antidepressants on people who had a conviction for a violent

offence.

The 32 men were recruited from magistrates courts at

Burwood, Liverpool and Blacktown. All 20 men who completed

the study asked to continue taking the medication, he said.

Professor was "intrigued and excited" by the

results. "The study raises a lot of complex questions in

terms of issues about responsibility," he said. "These sorts

of studies … question how much [violent] behaviour is under

the individual's control."

The team was applying to undertake a larger, randomised

study to examine the effects of antidepressant medication on

participants' long-term chances of reoffending.

[Guest guest]

How would you say ? Bullocks!!

On 11/19/2010 4:18 PM, jeremy9282 wrote:

Benefit to

boosting criminals' serotonin

Amy Corderoy HEALTH

November 17, 2010

http://www.smh.com.au/national/benefit-to-boosting-criminals-serotonin-20101116-17vzf.html

VIOLENT criminals may be less likely to reoffend if they

take antidepressant medication, an Australian-first study

has found.

Men recruited at three Sydney magistrates courts were given

the drug Zoloft to see whether it would curb impulsiveness

and irritability, which are linked to repeat offending.

All of the men had at least one conviction for a violent

offence. After a three-month trial the men, who were not

suffering depression, asked to continue taking the drug,

saying they felt less angry and engaged in less direct and

indirect physical assaults, and verbal assault.

Advertisement:

Story continues below

"Criminal behaviours are very costly for the community and

the individuals," said Schofield, the study's

co-author and director of the neuropsychiatry service at

Hunter-New England Health. "If they benefited from

medication I would see that as a win-win situation."

People with depression sometimes have low levels of the

brain chemical serotonin. Low serotonin is also linked to

impulsiveness and irritability in some people, which may be

an underlying factor in violent acts, Associate Professor

Schofield said.

The antidepressant given to the offenders, Zoloft, did not

act as a sedative, he said.

Violent offenders are particularly difficult to

rehabilitate. About 50 per cent of violent offenders in NSW

return to prison within two years of release, the study

authors wrote in the Australian and New Zealand Journal

of Psychiatry.

In the general prison population only 20 per cent of

prisoners return within two years, according to the

Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Professor Philip , study co-author and head of the

School of Psychiatry at the University of NSW, said no

previous Australian research had examined the effects of

antidepressants on people who had a conviction for a violent

offence.

The 32 men were recruited from magistrates courts at

Burwood, Liverpool and Blacktown. All 20 men who completed

the study asked to continue taking the medication, he said.

Professor was "intrigued and excited" by the

results. "The study raises a lot of complex questions in

terms of issues about responsibility," he said. "These sorts

of studies … question how much [violent] behaviour is under

the individual's control."

The team was applying to undertake a larger, randomised

study to examine the effects of antidepressant medication on

participants' long-term chances of reoffending.

[Guest guest]

They should look in their own back yard Jim @ case of Regina v. Hawkins !!

And they propose to give this drug to violent convicts.

see

http://www.factsantidepressants.com/Hawkins-Zoloft-9.htm

Drug turned loving man into a killer, says judge Out of character . . . Hawkins. Photo: n Esposito

By

A Supreme Court judge has blamed Australia's most widely used antidepressant for causing a 76-year-old man to kill his wife of 50 years.

Justice Barry O'Keefe said Hawkins strangled his wife, Margaret, as a result of taking 250mg of Zoloft - five times the recommended dose.

"The killing was totally out of character for the prisoner, inconsistent with the loving, caring relationship which existed between him and his wife, and with their happy marriage of 50 years," Justice O'Keefe said.

"I am satisfied that but for the Zoloft he had taken, he would not have strangled his wife."

Hawkins, a retired mechanic from Tumbarumba, in southern NSW, pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

In sentencing him to a minimum two years' jail, Justice O'Keefe said Hawkins was genuinely remorseful for killing his "soulmate" and was unlikely to reoffend.

Hawkins has already spent 22 months in jail and will be released on July 31 to live with his daughter and son-in-law at Wagga Wagga.

Yesterday medical experts defended the drug, saying it was a safe and effective treatment for depression.

The chairman of the national drug initiative, beyondblue, Professor Ian Hickie, said: "Generally speaking, [Zoloft] is extremely safe ... but, like all drugs that work, in some situations they are associated with unusual reactions."

Hawkins first took Zoloft in 1996 after the death of his youngest daughter from breast cancer. He suffered an adverse effect after taking one tablet.

His depression returned in 1999 and Hawkins saw a different doctor, who prescribed him Zoloft again.

The doctor told him not to take the medication until breakfast on Sunday, August 1. But he woke at 2am and took five tablets. At 7.30am, as his wife prepared to light the fire, Hawkins strangled her.

"I was looking at my wife but I wasn't seeing her face," he told a doctor. Hawkins then attempted to kill himself.

A spokesman for Pfizer, which makes Zoloft, defended the drug, saying there was no evidence to suggest it had any side effects of aggression or aggravation.

Dr Bill Ketelbey said: "It is pure speculation that aggression is a side effect.

"In a few instances where patients have inadvertently taken an overdose [of medication], there has been a very wide margin of side effects."

Pfizer lists more than 30 possible side effects in boxes of Zoloft, including agitation, anxiety, nervousness, abnormal thinking, lack of feeling, vomiting and twitching.

Zoloft came under scrutiny in the United States after the murder-suicide of actor Phil Hartman and his wife, Brynn Omdahl.

Omdahl, 40, shot Hartman, 49, star of the TV sitcom News Radio and the voice of several characters in The Simpsons, in 1998 after spending an evening drinking with a friend.

Omdahl shot herself four hours later.

Her brother launched legal action against Pfizer Inc and a psychiatrist, claiming she was under the influence of Zoloft.

A civil action lawyer, Mr Semmler, QC, said that while it was "theoretically" possible for a drug manufacturer to be sued if one of its products was shown to have caused homicidal behaviour, it would have to be proved that the company had failed to take reasonable care in the manufacture of the drug or in giving adequate instructions or warnings.

Professor Hickie said the community needed to be better informed about depression and the drugs used to treat the illness.

"We need to make sure that doctors and pharmacists provide adequate information and in forms that people can understand.

"That traditionally has not been the case," he said.

An Australian Medical Association psychiatrist, Dr Bill Pring, said there was no reason to ban Zoloft. If used early and effectively, it could prevent violent behaviour, he said.

A spokeswoman for the Therapeutic Goods Administration said it would review evidence linking Zoloft to Hawkins's violent behaviour.

It would consult national drug regulatory agencies and Pfizer about whether they were aware of other reports attributing serious criminal behaviour to Zoloft.

> >> >> > Benefit to boosting criminals' serotonin> >> >> > Amy Corderoy HEALTH> >> > November 17, 2010> > http://www.smh.com.au/national/benefit-to-boosting-criminals-serotonin-20101116-17vzf.html> >> > VIOLENT criminals may be less likely to reoffend if they take > > antidepressant medication, an Australian-first study has found.> >> > Men recruited at three Sydney magistrates courts were given the drug > > Zoloft to see whether it would curb impulsiveness and irritability, > > which are linked to repeat offending.> >> > All of the men had at least one conviction for a violent offence. > > After a three-month trial the men, who were not suffering depression, > > asked to continue taking the drug, saying they felt less angry and > > engaged in less direct and indirect physical assaults, and verbal assault.> >> > Advertisement: Story continues below> >> > "Criminal behaviours are very costly for the community and the > > individuals," said Schofield, the study's co-author and director > > of the neuropsychiatry service at Hunter-New England Health. "If they > > benefited from medication I would see that as a win-win situation."> >> > People with depression sometimes have low levels of the brain chemical > > serotonin. Low serotonin is also linked to impulsiveness and > > irritability in some people, which may be an underlying factor in > > violent acts, Associate Professor Schofield said.> >> > The antidepressant given to the offenders, Zoloft, did not act as a > > sedative, he said.> >> > Violent offenders are particularly difficult to rehabilitate. About 50 > > per cent of violent offenders in NSW return to prison within two years > > of release, the study authors wrote in the /Australian and New Zealand > > Journal of Psychiatry/.> >> > In the general prison population only 20 per cent of prisoners return > > within two years, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.> >> > Professor Philip , study co-author and head of the School of > > Psychiatry at the University of NSW, said no previous Australian > > research had examined the effects of antidepressants on people who had > > a conviction for a violent offence.> >> > The 32 men were recruited from magistrates courts at Burwood, > > Liverpool and Blacktown. All 20 men who completed the study asked to > > continue taking the medication, he said.> >> > Professor was "intrigued and excited" by the results. "The > > study raises a lot of complex questions in terms of issues about > > responsibility," he said. "These sorts of studies ... question how > > much [violent] behaviour is under the individual's control."> >> > The team was applying to undertake a larger, randomised study to > > examine the effects of antidepressant medication on participants' > > long-term chances of reoffending.> >> >> >> >>

[Guest guest]

They should look in their own back yard Jim @ case of Regina v. Hawkins !!

And they propose to give this drug to violent convicts.

see

http://www.factsantidepressants.com/Hawkins-Zoloft-9.htm

Drug turned loving man into a killer, says judge Out of character . . . Hawkins. Photo: n Esposito

By

A Supreme Court judge has blamed Australia's most widely used antidepressant for causing a 76-year-old man to kill his wife of 50 years.

Justice Barry O'Keefe said Hawkins strangled his wife, Margaret, as a result of taking 250mg of Zoloft - five times the recommended dose.

"The killing was totally out of character for the prisoner, inconsistent with the loving, caring relationship which existed between him and his wife, and with their happy marriage of 50 years," Justice O'Keefe said.

"I am satisfied that but for the Zoloft he had taken, he would not have strangled his wife."

Hawkins, a retired mechanic from Tumbarumba, in southern NSW, pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

In sentencing him to a minimum two years' jail, Justice O'Keefe said Hawkins was genuinely remorseful for killing his "soulmate" and was unlikely to reoffend.

Hawkins has already spent 22 months in jail and will be released on July 31 to live with his daughter and son-in-law at Wagga Wagga.

Yesterday medical experts defended the drug, saying it was a safe and effective treatment for depression.

The chairman of the national drug initiative, beyondblue, Professor Ian Hickie, said: "Generally speaking, [Zoloft] is extremely safe ... but, like all drugs that work, in some situations they are associated with unusual reactions."

Hawkins first took Zoloft in 1996 after the death of his youngest daughter from breast cancer. He suffered an adverse effect after taking one tablet.

His depression returned in 1999 and Hawkins saw a different doctor, who prescribed him Zoloft again.

The doctor told him not to take the medication until breakfast on Sunday, August 1. But he woke at 2am and took five tablets. At 7.30am, as his wife prepared to light the fire, Hawkins strangled her.

"I was looking at my wife but I wasn't seeing her face," he told a doctor. Hawkins then attempted to kill himself.

A spokesman for Pfizer, which makes Zoloft, defended the drug, saying there was no evidence to suggest it had any side effects of aggression or aggravation.

Dr Bill Ketelbey said: "It is pure speculation that aggression is a side effect.

"In a few instances where patients have inadvertently taken an overdose [of medication], there has been a very wide margin of side effects."

Pfizer lists more than 30 possible side effects in boxes of Zoloft, including agitation, anxiety, nervousness, abnormal thinking, lack of feeling, vomiting and twitching.

Zoloft came under scrutiny in the United States after the murder-suicide of actor Phil Hartman and his wife, Brynn Omdahl.

Omdahl, 40, shot Hartman, 49, star of the TV sitcom News Radio and the voice of several characters in The Simpsons, in 1998 after spending an evening drinking with a friend.

Omdahl shot herself four hours later.

Her brother launched legal action against Pfizer Inc and a psychiatrist, claiming she was under the influence of Zoloft.

A civil action lawyer, Mr Semmler, QC, said that while it was "theoretically" possible for a drug manufacturer to be sued if one of its products was shown to have caused homicidal behaviour, it would have to be proved that the company had failed to take reasonable care in the manufacture of the drug or in giving adequate instructions or warnings.

Professor Hickie said the community needed to be better informed about depression and the drugs used to treat the illness.

"We need to make sure that doctors and pharmacists provide adequate information and in forms that people can understand.

"That traditionally has not been the case," he said.

An Australian Medical Association psychiatrist, Dr Bill Pring, said there was no reason to ban Zoloft. If used early and effectively, it could prevent violent behaviour, he said.

A spokeswoman for the Therapeutic Goods Administration said it would review evidence linking Zoloft to Hawkins's violent behaviour.

It would consult national drug regulatory agencies and Pfizer about whether they were aware of other reports attributing serious criminal behaviour to Zoloft.

> >> >> > Benefit to boosting criminals' serotonin> >> >> > Amy Corderoy HEALTH> >> > November 17, 2010> > http://www.smh.com.au/national/benefit-to-boosting-criminals-serotonin-20101116-17vzf.html> >> > VIOLENT criminals may be less likely to reoffend if they take > > antidepressant medication, an Australian-first study has found.> >> > Men recruited at three Sydney magistrates courts were given the drug > > Zoloft to see whether it would curb impulsiveness and irritability, > > which are linked to repeat offending.> >> > All of the men had at least one conviction for a violent offence. > > After a three-month trial the men, who were not suffering depression, > > asked to continue taking the drug, saying they felt less angry and > > engaged in less direct and indirect physical assaults, and verbal assault.> >> > Advertisement: Story continues below> >> > "Criminal behaviours are very costly for the community and the > > individuals," said Schofield, the study's co-author and director > > of the neuropsychiatry service at Hunter-New England Health. "If they > > benefited from medication I would see that as a win-win situation."> >> > People with depression sometimes have low levels of the brain chemical > > serotonin. Low serotonin is also linked to impulsiveness and > > irritability in some people, which may be an underlying factor in > > violent acts, Associate Professor Schofield said.> >> > The antidepressant given to the offenders, Zoloft, did not act as a > > sedative, he said.> >> > Violent offenders are particularly difficult to rehabilitate. About 50 > > per cent of violent offenders in NSW return to prison within two years > > of release, the study authors wrote in the /Australian and New Zealand > > Journal of Psychiatry/.> >> > In the general prison population only 20 per cent of prisoners return > > within two years, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.> >> > Professor Philip , study co-author and head of the School of > > Psychiatry at the University of NSW, said no previous Australian > > research had examined the effects of antidepressants on people who had > > a conviction for a violent offence.> >> > The 32 men were recruited from magistrates courts at Burwood, > > Liverpool and Blacktown. All 20 men who completed the study asked to > > continue taking the medication, he said.> >> > Professor was "intrigued and excited" by the results. "The > > study raises a lot of complex questions in terms of issues about > > responsibility," he said. "These sorts of studies ... question how > > much [violent] behaviour is under the individual's control."> >> > The team was applying to undertake a larger, randomised study to > > examine the effects of antidepressant medication on participants' > > long-term chances of reoffending.> >> >> >> >>

[Guest guest]

They should look in their own back yard Jim @ case of Regina v. Hawkins !!

And they propose to give this drug to violent convicts.

see

http://www.factsantidepressants.com/Hawkins-Zoloft-9.htm

Drug turned loving man into a killer, says judge Out of character . . . Hawkins. Photo: n Esposito

By

A Supreme Court judge has blamed Australia's most widely used antidepressant for causing a 76-year-old man to kill his wife of 50 years.

Justice Barry O'Keefe said Hawkins strangled his wife, Margaret, as a result of taking 250mg of Zoloft - five times the recommended dose.

"The killing was totally out of character for the prisoner, inconsistent with the loving, caring relationship which existed between him and his wife, and with their happy marriage of 50 years," Justice O'Keefe said.

"I am satisfied that but for the Zoloft he had taken, he would not have strangled his wife."

Hawkins, a retired mechanic from Tumbarumba, in southern NSW, pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

In sentencing him to a minimum two years' jail, Justice O'Keefe said Hawkins was genuinely remorseful for killing his "soulmate" and was unlikely to reoffend.

Hawkins has already spent 22 months in jail and will be released on July 31 to live with his daughter and son-in-law at Wagga Wagga.

Yesterday medical experts defended the drug, saying it was a safe and effective treatment for depression.

The chairman of the national drug initiative, beyondblue, Professor Ian Hickie, said: "Generally speaking, [Zoloft] is extremely safe ... but, like all drugs that work, in some situations they are associated with unusual reactions."

Hawkins first took Zoloft in 1996 after the death of his youngest daughter from breast cancer. He suffered an adverse effect after taking one tablet.

His depression returned in 1999 and Hawkins saw a different doctor, who prescribed him Zoloft again.

The doctor told him not to take the medication until breakfast on Sunday, August 1. But he woke at 2am and took five tablets. At 7.30am, as his wife prepared to light the fire, Hawkins strangled her.

"I was looking at my wife but I wasn't seeing her face," he told a doctor. Hawkins then attempted to kill himself.

A spokesman for Pfizer, which makes Zoloft, defended the drug, saying there was no evidence to suggest it had any side effects of aggression or aggravation.

Dr Bill Ketelbey said: "It is pure speculation that aggression is a side effect.

"In a few instances where patients have inadvertently taken an overdose [of medication], there has been a very wide margin of side effects."

Pfizer lists more than 30 possible side effects in boxes of Zoloft, including agitation, anxiety, nervousness, abnormal thinking, lack of feeling, vomiting and twitching.

Zoloft came under scrutiny in the United States after the murder-suicide of actor Phil Hartman and his wife, Brynn Omdahl.

Omdahl, 40, shot Hartman, 49, star of the TV sitcom News Radio and the voice of several characters in The Simpsons, in 1998 after spending an evening drinking with a friend.

Omdahl shot herself four hours later.

Her brother launched legal action against Pfizer Inc and a psychiatrist, claiming she was under the influence of Zoloft.

A civil action lawyer, Mr Semmler, QC, said that while it was "theoretically" possible for a drug manufacturer to be sued if one of its products was shown to have caused homicidal behaviour, it would have to be proved that the company had failed to take reasonable care in the manufacture of the drug or in giving adequate instructions or warnings.

Professor Hickie said the community needed to be better informed about depression and the drugs used to treat the illness.

"We need to make sure that doctors and pharmacists provide adequate information and in forms that people can understand.

"That traditionally has not been the case," he said.

An Australian Medical Association psychiatrist, Dr Bill Pring, said there was no reason to ban Zoloft. If used early and effectively, it could prevent violent behaviour, he said.

A spokeswoman for the Therapeutic Goods Administration said it would review evidence linking Zoloft to Hawkins's violent behaviour.

It would consult national drug regulatory agencies and Pfizer about whether they were aware of other reports attributing serious criminal behaviour to Zoloft.

> >> >> > Benefit to boosting criminals' serotonin> >> >> > Amy Corderoy HEALTH> >> > November 17, 2010> > http://www.smh.com.au/national/benefit-to-boosting-criminals-serotonin-20101116-17vzf.html> >> > VIOLENT criminals may be less likely to reoffend if they take > > antidepressant medication, an Australian-first study has found.> >> > Men recruited at three Sydney magistrates courts were given the drug > > Zoloft to see whether it would curb impulsiveness and irritability, > > which are linked to repeat offending.> >> > All of the men had at least one conviction for a violent offence. > > After a three-month trial the men, who were not suffering depression, > > asked to continue taking the drug, saying they felt less angry and > > engaged in less direct and indirect physical assaults, and verbal assault.> >> > Advertisement: Story continues below> >> > "Criminal behaviours are very costly for the community and the > > individuals," said Schofield, the study's co-author and director > > of the neuropsychiatry service at Hunter-New England Health. "If they > > benefited from medication I would see that as a win-win situation."> >> > People with depression sometimes have low levels of the brain chemical > > serotonin. Low serotonin is also linked to impulsiveness and > > irritability in some people, which may be an underlying factor in > > violent acts, Associate Professor Schofield said.> >> > The antidepressant given to the offenders, Zoloft, did not act as a > > sedative, he said.> >> > Violent offenders are particularly difficult to rehabilitate. About 50 > > per cent of violent offenders in NSW return to prison within two years > > of release, the study authors wrote in the /Australian and New Zealand > > Journal of Psychiatry/.> >> > In the general prison population only 20 per cent of prisoners return > > within two years, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.> >> > Professor Philip , study co-author and head of the School of > > Psychiatry at the University of NSW, said no previous Australian > > research had examined the effects of antidepressants on people who had > > a conviction for a violent offence.> >> > The 32 men were recruited from magistrates courts at Burwood, > > Liverpool and Blacktown. All 20 men who completed the study asked to > > continue taking the medication, he said.> >> > Professor was "intrigued and excited" by the results. "The > > study raises a lot of complex questions in terms of issues about > > responsibility," he said. "These sorts of studies ... question how > > much [violent] behaviour is under the individual's control."> >> > The team was applying to undertake a larger, randomised study to > > examine the effects of antidepressant medication on participants' > > long-term chances of reoffending.> >> >> >> >>

[Guest guest]

They should look in their own back yard Jim @ case of Regina v. Hawkins !!

And they propose to give this drug to violent convicts.

see

http://www.factsantidepressants.com/Hawkins-Zoloft-9.htm

Drug turned loving man into a killer, says judge Out of character . . . Hawkins. Photo: n Esposito

By

A Supreme Court judge has blamed Australia's most widely used antidepressant for causing a 76-year-old man to kill his wife of 50 years.

Justice Barry O'Keefe said Hawkins strangled his wife, Margaret, as a result of taking 250mg of Zoloft - five times the recommended dose.

"The killing was totally out of character for the prisoner, inconsistent with the loving, caring relationship which existed between him and his wife, and with their happy marriage of 50 years," Justice O'Keefe said.

"I am satisfied that but for the Zoloft he had taken, he would not have strangled his wife."

Hawkins, a retired mechanic from Tumbarumba, in southern NSW, pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

In sentencing him to a minimum two years' jail, Justice O'Keefe said Hawkins was genuinely remorseful for killing his "soulmate" and was unlikely to reoffend.

Hawkins has already spent 22 months in jail and will be released on July 31 to live with his daughter and son-in-law at Wagga Wagga.

Yesterday medical experts defended the drug, saying it was a safe and effective treatment for depression.

The chairman of the national drug initiative, beyondblue, Professor Ian Hickie, said: "Generally speaking, [Zoloft] is extremely safe ... but, like all drugs that work, in some situations they are associated with unusual reactions."

Hawkins first took Zoloft in 1996 after the death of his youngest daughter from breast cancer. He suffered an adverse effect after taking one tablet.

His depression returned in 1999 and Hawkins saw a different doctor, who prescribed him Zoloft again.

The doctor told him not to take the medication until breakfast on Sunday, August 1. But he woke at 2am and took five tablets. At 7.30am, as his wife prepared to light the fire, Hawkins strangled her.

"I was looking at my wife but I wasn't seeing her face," he told a doctor. Hawkins then attempted to kill himself.

A spokesman for Pfizer, which makes Zoloft, defended the drug, saying there was no evidence to suggest it had any side effects of aggression or aggravation.

Dr Bill Ketelbey said: "It is pure speculation that aggression is a side effect.

"In a few instances where patients have inadvertently taken an overdose [of medication], there has been a very wide margin of side effects."

Pfizer lists more than 30 possible side effects in boxes of Zoloft, including agitation, anxiety, nervousness, abnormal thinking, lack of feeling, vomiting and twitching.

Zoloft came under scrutiny in the United States after the murder-suicide of actor Phil Hartman and his wife, Brynn Omdahl.

Omdahl, 40, shot Hartman, 49, star of the TV sitcom News Radio and the voice of several characters in The Simpsons, in 1998 after spending an evening drinking with a friend.

Omdahl shot herself four hours later.

Her brother launched legal action against Pfizer Inc and a psychiatrist, claiming she was under the influence of Zoloft.

A civil action lawyer, Mr Semmler, QC, said that while it was "theoretically" possible for a drug manufacturer to be sued if one of its products was shown to have caused homicidal behaviour, it would have to be proved that the company had failed to take reasonable care in the manufacture of the drug or in giving adequate instructions or warnings.

Professor Hickie said the community needed to be better informed about depression and the drugs used to treat the illness.

"We need to make sure that doctors and pharmacists provide adequate information and in forms that people can understand.

"That traditionally has not been the case," he said.

An Australian Medical Association psychiatrist, Dr Bill Pring, said there was no reason to ban Zoloft. If used early and effectively, it could prevent violent behaviour, he said.

A spokeswoman for the Therapeutic Goods Administration said it would review evidence linking Zoloft to Hawkins's violent behaviour.

It would consult national drug regulatory agencies and Pfizer about whether they were aware of other reports attributing serious criminal behaviour to Zoloft.

> >> >> > Benefit to boosting criminals' serotonin> >> >> > Amy Corderoy HEALTH> >> > November 17, 2010> > http://www.smh.com.au/national/benefit-to-boosting-criminals-serotonin-20101116-17vzf.html> >> > VIOLENT criminals may be less likely to reoffend if they take > > antidepressant medication, an Australian-first study has found.> >> > Men recruited at three Sydney magistrates courts were given the drug > > Zoloft to see whether it would curb impulsiveness and irritability, > > which are linked to repeat offending.> >> > All of the men had at least one conviction for a violent offence. > > After a three-month trial the men, who were not suffering depression, > > asked to continue taking the drug, saying they felt less angry and > > engaged in less direct and indirect physical assaults, and verbal assault.> >> > Advertisement: Story continues below> >> > "Criminal behaviours are very costly for the community and the > > individuals," said Schofield, the study's co-author and director > > of the neuropsychiatry service at Hunter-New England Health. "If they > > benefited from medication I would see that as a win-win situation."> >> > People with depression sometimes have low levels of the brain chemical > > serotonin. Low serotonin is also linked to impulsiveness and > > irritability in some people, which may be an underlying factor in > > violent acts, Associate Professor Schofield said.> >> > The antidepressant given to the offenders, Zoloft, did not act as a > > sedative, he said.> >> > Violent offenders are particularly difficult to rehabilitate. About 50 > > per cent of violent offenders in NSW return to prison within two years > > of release, the study authors wrote in the /Australian and New Zealand > > Journal of Psychiatry/.> >> > In the general prison population only 20 per cent of prisoners return > > within two years, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.> >> > Professor Philip , study co-author and head of the School of > > Psychiatry at the University of NSW, said no previous Australian > > research had examined the effects of antidepressants on people who had > > a conviction for a violent offence.> >> > The 32 men were recruited from magistrates courts at Burwood, > > Liverpool and Blacktown. All 20 men who completed the study asked to > > continue taking the medication, he said.> >> > Professor was "intrigued and excited" by the results. "The > > study raises a lot of complex questions in terms of issues about > > responsibility," he said. "These sorts of studies ... question how > > much [violent] behaviour is under the individual's control."> >> > The team was applying to undertake a larger, randomised study to > > examine the effects of antidepressant medication on participants' > > long-term chances of reoffending.> >> >> >> >>