Furious Seasons

September 28, 2009

British PM Asked By BBC If He's Taking Anti-Depressants

Apparently the British blogosphere is nuttier than the American one, because rumors began circulating round the Net recently that Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister of Britain, was coming unhinged in private, had OCD and depression and was allegedly taking anti-depressants. The hubub on the issue became so great that an interviewer for the BBC pressed him on it during a radio show.

Here's the Guardian's account of what went on:

"Marr [of the BBC] said this morning: 'A lot of people in this country use prescription painkillers and pills to help them get through. Are you one of those people?'
"Brown replied: 'No.' And when Marr asked him about the issue again later in the interview, he said that he had already dealt with the question.

"The prime minister seemed to object to Marr raising the matter, saying this was 'the sort of question that is all too often entering the lexicon of British politics.'"

Standards at the BBC have sure gone into the tank. I can't see where a bunch of half-baked Internet rumors should lead to a legitimate journalist pressing a public official about what pills they take. Unless there's something else going on that I don't know about. But it's basically no one's business I would think.

It all kind of reminds of lefty bloggers painting a psychological profile of President George W. Bush a few years ago. One psychologist even wrote a book about the President and his alleged maladies. I did not like Bush 43 much at all, but this sort of thing is just out of hand and is wildly disrespectful of the office and I hope that right wing bloggers and others don't attempt to play DSM game with President Barack Obama.

Posted by Philip Dawdy at September 28, 2009 12:03 AM

del.icio.us Digg it reddit

Comments

Very well put Phil. That type of behavior is disgusting!

Posted by: John Sorboro MD at September 28, 2009 04:18 AM

"Unless there is something else going on I don't know about".

This question about antidepressants & the Prime Minister from this journalist might have been spurred on by the following story.

http://ssristories.com/show.php?item=3649

Paragraph eight reads: "Even before the scandal broke, when he was the frontbench home affairs spokesman, he was regularly taking antidepressants. He thinks at least a fifth of MPs have mental problems, although he says: 'Round here it is a taboo subject. Very few will admit to not coping with the stress. You can’t be vulnerable or weak if you are waiting for the next promotion'.”

Paragraph 22 reads: "When the news broke he fled over the garden wall and drove to Cornwall while Belinda took the children to Austria skiing. Depression soon took hold. 'I was just drowning. I was totally out of control in my mind. There was no immediate sense of perspective for months. Each day was about survival with sleeping tablets and Prozac'.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6840288.ece

From The Times
September 19, 2009

Mark Oaten: my dark days should serve as a warning to other politicians
Rachel Sylvester and Alice Thomson

Mark Oaten is sitting in his eyrie in Westminster, wearing a blue and white striped shirt, sipping from a carton of Ribena and ruminating on the mental health of MPs.

Posted by: Rosie at September 28, 2009 06:28 AM

Nine years ago when I was working in a newsroom in London, I was taken under the wing by a top journalist at the BBC who was retiring and liked to mentor young talent. She was- the first woman working at the BBC to get a CBE, but she never used it, and I did not know she had it until she passed. She was a brilliant woman and was complaining back then about the "Americanization" of the BBC.

Posted by: susan at September 28, 2009 07:32 AM

Although I don't believe we should attach a DSM diagnosis to VIPs, both political and otherwise, I am constantly amazed that people feel so strongly about the injuries caused by the ADHD drugs, the antipsychotics, the mood stabilizers and even the benzodiazepines. Yet, when it comes to the SSRIs and SNRIs, nobody wants to admit that they can cause much harm.

The 49 school shootings/incidents on www.SSRIstories.com should be a wake-up call to parents that they need to know WHO their classmates are that are taking antidepressants.

For those who work in bioterroism, the Bruce Ivins anthrax case should be a working model. Remember that he was given the SSRI Celexa first - then went nuts and was given the antipsychotics. You would think that journalists would be particularly interested in this case since he mailed the anthrax to newspapers and other media. Five died in this case.

http://www.ssristories.com/show.php?item=2753

For those parents who are endangered by the SSRIs & SNRIs, I believe they should be informed if their sons or daughters are taking these killer drugs. The parents of the Crown Prince of Nepal had no clue when their son killed nine family members and them himself. http://www.ssristories.com/show.php?item=1372

Moms should be informed as to which mothers of their playmates are taking SSRIs & SNRIs. Melisssa Huckaby raped and murdered the 8 year old girl who was her daughter's playmate. http://ssristories.com/show.php?item=3279

Parents of minor boy students should know which of their woman school teachers are taking SSRIs & SNRIs. There are ten cases on SSRI Stories but here is the most egregious example: http://www.ssristories.com/show.php?item=3652 This woman school teacher not only had an affair with her 15 year old student but she convinced him that he must kill her husband.

Since tragically, there are now more suicides among soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan then there are combat deaths, I think we should know which soldiers have been given SSRIs and SNRIs. At least the Senate now wants to study this. 40% of all soldiers who committed suicide were on antidepressants [this doesn't count the withdrawal cases]. http://www.ssristories.com/show.php?item=3657

Finally, I think the American public should know if we went into Iraq because of WMDs or because of PROZAC.

These Prozac/SSRIs are causing a NEW and terrible kind of mental illness. I wonder why doctors are not interested. Is it because the illness is new and they don't recognize it or what?

Posted by: Rosie at September 28, 2009 07:33 AM

Peace be with you Philip

I'm not so sure it is not our business to know what is wrong with our elected leaders. I suggest two readings; Political Ponerology, A science on the nature of evil adjusted for political purposes, by Andrzej Łobaczewski; and Twilight of the Psychopaths, by Kevin Barrett.

love eternal
tad

Posted by: tad at September 28, 2009 08:05 AM

Personally I think the medical treatments the leader of a country is undergoing should be in the public domain, no doubt about it. If a president or prime minister is taking antidepressants that is an extremely relevant fact to their ability to do a good job -- a safe job. I think it should be an issue of grave concern to a country and should be actively discouraged. Knowing that is far different than speculating about their "diagnoses" or "mood disorders." But even the book Bush On the Couch, while going overboard in some ways with its psychoanalytic bias, did tell a narrative of his childhood and adolescence that went a long way towards explaining some of his bizarre behavior. The story of someone's life and emotional history is relevant.

Posted by: Sara at September 28, 2009 09:08 AM

Obama and his supporters seem to be the ones playing the DSM game with their opponents.

The right, clutching a Bible in their hands, calls their detractors evil and godless. The left, standing on medical science, calls their opponents crazy.

Not exactly a winning situation.

Posted by: marlborojones at September 28, 2009 04:48 PM