Seroquel user’s testimony for FDA’s psychopharmacology advisory committee

Philip at Furious Seasons who has been covering the AstraZeneca debacle gave me permission to post a “consumers” testimony that is going to be part of the hearings. I’ve barely mentioned what’s going on with Seroquel and AstraZeneca lately and it’s very important stuff. Do go have a visit to the second link I list there. It’s a list of posts on the issues of late from Furious Seasons.

These hearings are AstraZeneca’s attempt to get Seroquel approved for things like “depression” and insomnia and anxiety. Scary shit.

Here is the Seroquel user’s testimony. For many of us, it will be a sadly familiar, if not also dramatic example of the same old thing:

I was prescribed 300 mg.seroquel in 2000 for sleep problems. I gained 75 pounds in 6 months. I developed diabetes. I went through profound withdrawals when I inadvertently missed a dose and had to be hospitalized. The withdrawal caused psychosis which was attributed to a new diagnosis rather than to the drug. I lost all my teeth due to dry mouth. I developed cataracts. I had constant intrusive suicidal ideation. I had akathisia, difficulty swallowing and severe muscle cramps. I lost my critical thinking ability, the ability to make decisions and generally access my ‘executive functioning.’ Because the medical establishment refused to accept that their “therapy” could be poisonous they continued me on this drug for 8 years and added new drugs to cover up the symptoms of massive endocrine dysregulation.

“The use of these classes of drugs must be sharply curtailed. These drugs must not expand the wealth of shareholders as they destroy the bodies and brains of the most vulnerable classes of people in our society. Psychoactive chemicals ‘work’ by disabling nerves, not by restoring their normal function. Emotions cause chemical changes in the brain not the other way around. No-one knows how the staggeringly complex interactions of neurons actually work. The neurotransmitter theory is based on observing the brain damage caused by psychoactive chemicals, not on any understanding of how a normal brain operates. Time and human support are the safest and most effective means for getting through difficult emotional challenges.