Medicating the military

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/03/military_psychiatric_drugs_031710w/


At least one in six service members is on some form of psychiatric drug.

And many troops are taking more than one kind, mixing several pills in daily “cocktails” — for example, an antidepressant with an antipsychotic to prevent nightmares, plus an anti-epileptic to reduce headaches — despite minimal clinical research testing such combinations.

The drugs come with serious side effects: They can impair motor skills, reduce reaction times and generally make a war fighter less effective. Some double the risk for suicide, prompting doctors — and Congress — to question whether these drugs are connected to the rising rate of military suicides.

“It’s really a large-scale experiment. We are experimenting with changing people’s cognition and behavior,” said Dr. Grace Jackson, a former Navy psychiatrist.

A Military Times investigation of electronic records obtained from the Defense Logistics Agency shows DLA spent $1.1 billion on common psychiatric and pain medications from 2001 to 2009. It also shows that use of psychiatric medications has increased dramatically — about 76 percent overall, with some drug types more than doubling — since the start of the current wars.

antidepressant Paxil to blame for baby's heart defects

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/he...ury-rules.html

A prime example of why "The Mother's law" should not be allowed to come into effect.

A US family has been awarded $2.5 million (£1.6 million) in damages after a Philadelphia jury decided that the antidepressant Paxil, known as Seroxat in Britain, was responsible for their son's birth defects.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc, the British manufacturer of Seroxat, said it would appeal against the verdict in the case, which is the first of 600 such cases to come to trial.