Unbelievable. Glad I absconded when I did.

Wasn't the FDA going to have this huge change under the new progressive administration?

Amazing that it still appears as if the FDA is completely on the take, bought, and paid for by the huge pharmaceutical conglomerates’

So much for government looking out for the people they represent. It's also too bad for all those that wasted their time sending in those letters and testimony into the FDA sub-committee on Seroquel XR getting a free ticket to treat just about anything including stubbed toes and tooth aches; since the public hearing is nothing but a check off box in the rubber stamp process.

What wonderful times we live in for all humanity.

Obama, is it true pay back is a ______?

This is a case study in how marketing prevails over best medical practice. This approval of the combination antidepressant-antipsychotic product Symbyax is bad for patients and may well be bad for Lilly. I told Lilly several years ago that I thought they were foolish and reckless to pursue approval of Symbyax for depression. Symbyax is Zyprexa plus Prozac.

For patients, taking the combination locks them in to a fixed ratio of the two medications, thus removing therapeutic flexibility. The side effect profile of the “atypical antipsychotic” drug Zyprexa is disturbing, and exposes patients to unnecessary risk. The worst side effect, besides the metabolic problems and diabetes, is tardive dyskinesia (TD) with long term use. Depressed patients seem to be especially susceptible to this syndrome of involuntary muscle movements in the mouth, tongue, face, and elsewhere. It can be very disfiguring. And permanent. We can put numbers on this risk of TD. In adult patients with schizophrenia the risk of TD with Zyprexa treatment is about 2.5% at 1 year. In children and adolescents treated with Zyprexa or similar “atypical antipsychotic” drugs for 6 months the risk is an alarming 6%.

So, when Symbyax is promoted early and often for depression in primary care, look for a new cohort of patients with TD and a fresh round of lawsuits against Lilly. This is a case where psychiatrist key opinion leaders have been found wanting and where patients will be damaged unnecessarily.

Here are some links.

http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2008/01/antipsychotic-drugs-for-depression.html#links

http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2008/01/variations-on-theme-of-sleaze.html#links

Lisa,
Me too! Me too!
So glad I made my escape from the psych "profession", their assurances of my everlasting damnation if I left them, their dangerous and ineffective drugs, their little machines to fry my brains...
Sherry (much improved on ten dollars worth of levothyroxin and Vitamin D, thank you)

Thanks for the information and the links, Bernard Carroll.

I just wanted to point out that the worst side effect of Zyprexa is death.

Lilly has balls to re-market Zyprexa and Prozac again, and drag out this old pill too. Will this ever stop?!

What the hell is the FDA? a worthless entity that pumps out drug approvals with reckless abandon! I can't wait to hear Seroquel XR gets approved despite public testimony.

A number of us emailed in before the deadline to testify at the Seroquel XR FDA Hearing April 8. Guess how many of us have been notified of our "moments to speak"?

Smbyaxx.....2 x 2 = DEATH

Sigh. Looks as if there is no chance for getting lithobid/Eskalith/lithium off the market even under a supposedly new FDA. I am being contacted by more and more folks with chronic kidney disease from lithium. Please folks, if you ever took it for any amount of time, like a year or more, get your kidney function checked by a blood test now. Some of these folks have been off of it for many years as I was...