Medical professionals are meeting with the public on April 9 for a panel discussion that will tackle the devastating effects that antidepressants like Paxil and Effexor have on families. The panel, titled “Psychiatric Drug Tragedies: Personal, Legal and Medical Perspectives,” is a part of international Empathic Therapy Conference put on by the Center for the Study of Empathic Therapy, Education & Living. It will run April 8-10 in Syracuse, New York.
The presentation is expected to last for 2 hours and will focus mostly on the negative effects of antidepressants that cause patients to kill themselves and even commit murders. The panel will make special mention of specific cases of aggression and suicidal behavior and how the cases are related to antidepressants like Paxil and Effexor, among others.
After numerous tragedies, the FDA issued a black box warning against antidepressants like Paxil and Effexor; this included adding more information to the drugs’ labels that made it a point to let patients understand that all negative side effects applied to users of all ages. The added label warnings included the drug’s abilities to cause serious adverse side effects including aggression, hostility and mania. The new labels also contained a medication guide that provided more details to the side effects from the antidepressants.
Antidepressants like Paxil and Effexor have caused a firestorm of lawsuits and will likely be the subject of thousands more before it is all over. Drug companies that make these drugs have also gone under fire for hiding the dangerous effects of their drugs from the public. GlaxoSmithKline, the makers of Paxil, even has been investigated for manufacturing and packaging adulterated drugs at its Cidra, Puerto Rico, plant that has since been closed down. The panel discussions should help victims of these drugs and medical professionals better understand each other, which may help to prevent more tragedies in the future.
