invincible summers

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click here to read this incredibly sad and SHOCKING story. it is well-documented and everyone should read it. major kudos to the washington times and abc.

Mentally distressed veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are being recruited for government tests on pharmaceutical drugs linked to suicide and other violent side effects, an investigation by ABC News and “The Washington Times” has found.

James Elliott and his fiancee tell Brian Ross about his experience on Chantix. The report will air on “Good Morning America” and will also appear in “The Washington Times” on Tuesday.

In one of the human experiments, involving the anti-smoking drug Chantix, Veterans Administration doctors waited more than three months before warning veterans about the possible serious side effects, including suicide and neuropsychiatric behavior.

“Lab rat, guinea pig, disposable hero,” said former US Army sniper James Elliott in describing how he felt he was betrayed by the Veterans Administration.

Elliott, 38, of suburban Washington, D.C., was recruited, at $30 a month, for the Chantix anti-smoking study three years after being diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He served a 15-month tour of duty in Iraq from 2003-2004.

Months after he began taking the drug, Elliott suffered a mental breakdown, experiencing a relapse of Iraq combat nightmares he blames on Chantix.

In case you’re not aware: Chantix, the anti-smoking drug made by Pfizer, was the subject of a Food & Drug Administration (FDA) suicide warning on February 1st of this year. The FDA warning followed a Nov. 20, 2007, FDA Early Communication to the public and health care providers that the agency was evaluating postmarketing adverse event reports on Chantix related to changes in behavior, agitation, depressed mood, suicidal ideation, and actual suicidal behavior. The VA withheld this information from the veterans. Miles McFall (i’d like to run into this man in a dark alley) who is the director of the VA’s programs for PTSD sufferers, had this to say:

While the alerts from Pfizer and the FDA clearly mentioned suicide and suicidal thoughts as possible side effects, the VA’s letter to its veterans used no such language.

“Scientists have recently learned that varenicline can sometimes have serious side effects in some people,” the VA letter said. “These side effects may include an increase in psychiatric symptoms such as anxiety, nervousness, tension and depression as well as untoward changes in behavior.”

Asked why the letter omitted the most significant side effect, Mr. McFall said “the more verbiage you use, the more difficult and lengthy it becomes, hard to read. It’s more likely veterans won’t pay attention to it if you overdo.”

However, a secondary research consent form sent with the letter that participants are now being asked to sign cites “changes in behavior, anxiety, nervousness, tension, depression, thoughts of suicide, and attempted and completed suicide.”

Mr. McFall said the serious side effects were included in the secondary consent form, and not the notification letter, because “it’s better to have the letter be brief” so that it is not a “burden for people who sometimes have problems reading.”

The article also mentions 3 other meds the VA currently uses in the program:

Paroxetine/Paxil (sides effects include: suicidal thoughts or self-harm urges in children or teenagers up to 18 years of age, nausea, vomiting, drowsiness, dizziness, diarrhea, trouble sleeping, yawning, constipation, dry mouth, fainting, irregular heartbeat, muscle pain, trouble swallowing, unusual swelling, seizures, tingling or numbness of the hands/feet)

Mirtazapine/Remeron (side effects include: the list is long but suicidal thoughts is included)

Citalopram/Celexa (side effects include: nausea, dry mouth, sexual dysfunction, vomiting, excessive sweating, headache, tremor, drowsiness, and inability to sleep and and increased the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior. symptoms of withdrawal include dizziness, tingling sensations, tiredness, vivid dreams, and irritability or poor mood)

This is a huge story and wake-up call for CHANGE. I’m left feeling outraged, sad and speechless…

Dan Rather addressed the 2008 National Conference On Media Reform in Minneapolis on Saturday, where he warned of the dangers of corporate media ownership and urged the crowd to protect the first amendment.

It means that we need to be on the alert for where, when, and how our news media bows to undue government influence. And you need to let news organizations know, in no uncertain terms, that you won’t stand for it… that you, as news consumers, are capable of exerting pressure of your own.

It means that we need to continue to let our government know that, when it comes to media consolidation, enough is enough. Too few voices are dominating, homogenizing, and marginalizing the news. We need to demand that the American people get something in exchange for the use of airwaves that belong, after all, to the people.

It means that we need to ensure that the Internet, where free speech reigns and where journalism does not have to pass through a corporate filter… remains free.

We need to say, loud and clear, that we don’t want big corporations enjoying preferred access to — or government acting as the gatekeeper for — this unique platform for independent journalism.

And it means that we need to hold the government to its mandate to protect the freedom of the press, including independent and non-commercial news media.

The stakes could not possibly be higher. Scott McClellan’s book serves as a reminder, and the current election season, not to mention the gathering clouds of conflict with Iran, will both serve as tests of whether lessons have truly been learned from past experience. Ensuring that a free press remains free will require vigilance, and it will require work.

Please, take tonight’s energy and inspiration home with you. Take it back to your desks and your workplaces, to your colleagues and your fellow citizens. magnify it, multiply it, and spread it. Make it viral. Make it something that cannot be ignored — not by the powers in Washington, not by the owners and executives of media companies. Write these people. Call them. Send them the message that you know your rights, you know that you are entitled to news media as diverse and varied as the American people… and that you deserve a press that provides the raw material of democracy, the good information that Americans need to be full participants in our government of, by, and for the people.

From the NY Times:

A world-renowned Harvard child psychiatrist whose work has helped fuel an explosion in the use of powerful antipsychotic medicines in children earned at least $1.6 million in consulting fees from drug makers from 2000 to 2007 but for years did not report much of this income to university officials, according to information given Congressional investigators.

By failing to report income, the psychiatrist, Dr. Joseph Biederman, and a colleague in the psychiatry department at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Timothy E. Wilens, may have violated federal and university research rules designed to police potential conflicts of interest, according to Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa. Some of their research is financed by government grants.

Like Dr. Biederman, Dr. Wilens belatedly reported earning at least $1.6 million from 2000 to 2007, and another Harvard colleague, Dr. Thomas Spencer, reported earning at least $1 million after being pressed by Mr. Grassley’s investigators. But even these amended disclosures may understate the researchers’ outside income because some entries contradict payment information from drug makers, Mr. Grassley found.

In one example, Dr. Biederman reported no income from Johnson & Johnson for 2001 in a disclosure report filed with the university. When asked to check again, he said he received $3,500. But Johnson & Johnson told Mr. Grassley that it paid him $58,169 in 2001, Mr. Grassley found.

The Harvard group’s consulting arrangements with drug makers were already controversial because of the researchers’ advocacy of unapproved uses of psychiatric medicines in children.

In an e-mailed statement, Dr. Biederman said, “My interests are solely in the advancement of medical treatment through rigorous and objective study,” and he said he took conflict-of-interest policies “very seriously.” Drs. Wilens and Spencer said in e-mailed statements that they thought they had complied with conflict-of-interest rules.

John Burklow, a spokesman for the National Institutes of Health, said: “If there have been violations of N.I.H. policy — and if research integrity has been compromised — we will take all the appropriate action within our power to hold those responsible accountable. This would be completely unacceptable behavior, and N.I.H. will not tolerate it.”

he takes the conflict-of-interest policy “very seriously” oh please… (more…)

Antipsychotics were the sixth best selling class of medications globally in 2007, according to IMS Health. They raked in a cool $20.7 billion, an increase of 10.7% from 2006. The sales of three antipsychotics made the top ten list—Zyprexa, Risperdal and Seroquel. Why I am not surprised? Read the full story (and an excellent post) at Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry: A Closer Look.

a sweet, sweet video:

to read more on christian, click here.

people died so that tonight could happen and it was a beautiful night.

“There are those who say that this primary has somehow left us weaker and more divided. Well I say that because of this primary, there are millions of Americans who have cast their ballot for the very first time. There are Independents and Republicans who understand that this election isn’t just about the party in charge of Washington, it’s about the need to change Washington. There are young people, and African-Americans, and Latinos, and women of all ages who have voted in numbers that have broken records and inspired a nation. All of you chose to support a candidate you believe in deeply. But at the end of the day, we aren’t the reason you came out and waited in lines that stretched block after block to make your voice heard. You didn’t do that because of me or Senator Clinton or anyone else. You did it because you know in your hearts that at this moment – a moment that will define a generation – we cannot afford to keep doing what we’ve been doing. We owe our children a better future. We owe our country a better future. And for all those who dream of that future tonight, I say – let us begin the work together. Let us unite in common effort to chart a new course for America.” –Barack Obama June 3, 2008

part one
to watch parts two and three click (more…)

from The Washington Post:

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne listed polar bears as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act yesterday, saying the loss of Arctic sea ice in a warming climate could drive them to the brink of extinction in less than four decades.

Although the Bush administration handed environmentalists a victory they had sought for more than three years, Kempthorne said he would ensure that his decision did not “open the door” for activists to force the adoption of limits on greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming.

The act “is not the right tool to set U.S. climate-change policy,” he said in a news conference. “This has been a difficult decision. But in light of the scientific record and the restraints of the inflexible law that guides me, I believe it was the only decision I could make.”

The decision to list polar bears, which have become the iconic symbol of global warming’s impact, highlights how an administration opposed to mandatory cuts in emissions has begun to acknowledge the growing evidence of their effects. Kempthorne pointed to satellite images of shrinking Arctic sea ice that has outpaced scientists’ most dire projections. Polar bears use sea ice as a platform to hunt ringed seals and other prey.

“The fact is that sea ice is receding in the Arctic,” he said. “As you can see, when we have looked at what is actually happening in the Arctic, we have found considerably less sea ice than the models are projecting. Because polar bears are vulnerable to this loss of habitat, they are, in my judgment, likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future — in this case, 45 years.”