In what was more than likely originally an attempt to prove that depression causes birth complications, researchers from Yale, Tufts, et al found in two new studies that antidepressants increase the risk of preterm birth and seizures. Read more at this link on the newly redesigned UNITE website.
Who Could Do This On Purpose
Canadian Regulation on Fetal Exposure to Psychotropic Drugs – Public Input Needed (Cross-Posted on The Bitter Pill blog)
Amery and Christiane Schultz have been asked to provide input on proposed recommendations regarding psychotropic drugs in pregnancy in Canada. Amery & Christiane are hard-working activists affiliated with UNITE and MADNAP. Please send any comments you may have to amy@uniteforlife.org by Thursday of this week (November 10, 2011), or call 817-793-8028.
See the following note from Amery:
I am looking for input as to what you feel should be included in recommendations for establishing protocols surrounding women being treated with and babies exposed to psychotropic medications during pregnancy. These recommendations will be presented to both the Canadian Pediatric Association as well as the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada. We have found a good ally who is proposing that we address the National Conference of the Canadian Pediatric Association.
Relentless and Tragic Marketing: Psychiatric Drugs from Before the Cradle to the Grave
These recent posts on The Bitter Pill and uniteforlife.org are of special importance. Check them out.
- My Bad – Mothering Magazine Promotes “Antipsychotics” Not Just Zyprexa
- Mothering Magazine Publishes Letter Reaming Them for Being So “Anti-drug”
- Open Letter to the Editor of Mothering Magazine – Re: “Beat The Baby Blues” by John Breeding and Amy Philo
- Relentless and Tragic Marketing: Psychiatric Drugs from Before the Cradle to the Grave
MADNAP Blanket Sale – UNITE, MADNAP, INDIANA STAR FUNDRAISER
We will be at the Addison Wellness Expo this weekend, October 16-17 with an educational booth for UNITE, MADNAP and The Indiana Star Foundation. We are conducting a fundraiser to defray the costs of participating in this event and conducting other awareness activities.
Several wonderful and generous donors have contributed. We are raffling off a free photography session with Natasha Hance. Tickets are $5. If you want to purchase online, you can use the donate button on this website to pay via our pledgie account and then send me an email to let me know how many tickets you bought.
- Photo Copyright Natasha Hance
We will be selling “Quilts for A Cause,” and various items such as hand-knit baby and children’s winter hats, bracelets, hand-made jewelry and other fun items.
- Photo Copyright Natasha Hance
My friend and fellow activist Ellen Liversidge (who lost her son Rob to Zyprexa-induced hyperglycemia) has generously allowed me to confiscate over two dozen of her vintage quilts to sell. She runs a business selling them, so we will be accepting all small to extravagant offers above cost for the sale of these quilts! I’ve set up a Flickr account and blog to showcase the quilts. Minimum prices on the quilts will be posted soon. If you see one that you want please email me at amy@uniteforlife.org so we can get it shipped to you.
Many thanks to the following donors:
Peek Aren’t You Curious at Northpark Mall (gift bags)
Jenny M Jewels (hand-made earrings)
Christian Delahunty (baby quilts, hand-made jewelry and more)
Amery & Christiane Schultz (MADNAP Teddy Bears)
We are also going to be handing out pink and blue ribbons in honor of October – Infant Loss Awareness Month.
Two $50 Flower Gift Certificates *** RAFFLE to benefit The Indiana Star Foundation **** – Two Drawings – We have two $50 flower gift certificates to raffle off!!! (donated by http://www.proflowers.com/) – For the next week you can buy raffle tickets (for $5 each) by donating to the cause here:
http://pledgie.com/campaigns/6067.
To enter, just use PayPal (through PayPal you can use your bank account or a credit card) on our Pledgie page, and then email amy@uniteforlife.org with your contact information and # of raffle tickets you bought, so we can send you the gift code if you win!!!
Two Hours With Matthew: Letters To Matthew One Year Later
Today Matthew Schultz would be one year old. Please read these posts on Christiane and Amery’s blog:
- Happy First Birthday my little man!
- To Matthew on your 1st Birthday
- Hi Son
- “February Twenty-First”
- Disgusted.
Then, please take action to spread the word by going here.
There are also several new articles on The Bitter Pill related to antidepressants during pregnancy. Check them out:
Dr. Grace Jackson Comments on Detoxing from Antidepressants & Pregnancy Exposure, Damage to DNA/Eggs
Recently we posed a question to MADNAP Co-Founder Psychiatrist Dr. Grace Jackson regarding how long antidepressants like Effexor remain in the body to damage it and a baby during pregnancy.
Here is her reply:
In my new book, Drug Induced Dementia – A Perfect Crime, (Amazon link) one of the points I tried to make in Appendix B is that most doctors have not been trained to appreciate that there are probably at least three discrete phases of drug withdrawal.
a) Acute withdrawal period
– How long it takes the drug to clear the bloodstream – and how long it takes the drug to clear the BRAIN TISSUE itself
In some cases, the elimination time for the blood vs. the brain tissue is NOT equal. This is known as “dissociation” but most doctors know nothing about this fact…
Also, we do not have good data on all drugs… Usually, this comes from research experiments using MRS [magnetic resonance spectroscopy] and fluorinated molecules.
b) Intermediate withdrawal period
– This refers to the length of time it takes for receptor physiology and receptor > 2nd messenger/3rd messenger events to “re-equilibrate.”
c) Long term withdrawal period
– This refers to the length of time it takes for GENE EXPRESSION to return to pre-drug status; and for protein expression >>> “cell-cell” communication and wiring to change.
When you are talking about miscarriages, rather than PPHN, all bets are off.
The reason for this is that UNLIKE sperm, which are made, secreted, and replaced for many decades, ALL of a woman’s eggs are present at BIRTH.
That means all of a woman’s eggs are being exposed to all chemicals throughout the mother’s lifespan, even before pregnancy… As I have written and lectured about in the past, all of the psychiatric drugs – with the exception of the stimulants so far, are being studied as adjuvant [add on] treatments for various cancers. The reasons why these drugs are effective in slowing tumor growth [etc.] is because they interrupt cell division and/or cell growth.
So, if you reason this through, it is extremely risky to expose any developing fetus to chemotherapy [thalidomide, for example, is now used as a chemotherapy for myeloma]. If any mother had been taking Effexor for years prior to conceiving, I know of no way to protect the new fetus from potential birth defects arising from the years of egg exposure to the Effexor during the past.
Unfortuately, I know of no one who is studying this question in any seriousness, because it is a question that is not generally posed.
I would suggest that it would be unlikely to find Effexor in the blood or brain 3 months after stopping Effexor, but this would not necessarily mean that 8 years of Effexor usage in the past would not still be capable of producing lasting effects.
We do not know how long term [or even short term] might be damaging eggs.
We also do not know how long term exposure to Effexor in the past might exert a lasting detrimental effect upon the mother’s ability to make serotonin. The fetus depends upon the mother for all of its serotonin for the first weeks of gestation [sorry, I do not recall from memory the exact week of development at which the fetus starts to make its own serotonin in the gut — I shall have to look this up for you or you should consult an embryologist].
Since long term users of antidepressants appear to develop a long-term vulnerability in the capacity to tolerate DECREASES in serotonin — which may involve their own increasing inabilty to make adequate serotonin, it stands to reason that chronic users of antidepressants place their fetuses at risk for a serotonin deficiency in the 1st trimester (etc.).
Why is this critical? Serotonin is an essential growth hormone for the fetus.
Grace
Question: I thought psychiatric drugs were also carcinogens – am I wrong on this? If I am right, are they both carcinogens AND tumor treatments?
But of course !!!!
This is a complicated phenomenon that, I guess, the public seldom (?never?) hears about.
All chemotherapies that “fight” cancers are also interventions that can “cause” cancer.
I’m not sure that anyone has made a good study of the exact prevalence of this phenomenon, but the classic case in point arises with a category of chemotherapies known as alkylating agents…
I quote from one of the most useful pharmacology textbooks which I own [Lippincott’s Illustrated Reviews – Pharmacology, 4th Edition Editors: Harvey and Champe] “Because most antineoplastic agents are mutagens, neoplasms [for example: acute nonlymphocytic leukemia] may arise 10 or more years after the original cancer was cured.”
This raises interesting questions about the long-term effects of many psychiatric medications — from everything that i have read and researched to date, it would seem that most consumers of neuroleptics and anticonvulsant drugs are dropping dead in their 50s and 60s PRIOR to the emergence of cancers… however, if we really think about what has happened since the epidemic spread of Prozac and other alleged “anti”-depressants since the 1990s, we do not yet have good long-term data on the possible emergence of a leukemia [or other] cancer epidemic that still might appear down the line…
Grace
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