The revised label, posted without fanfare last week on the F.D.A. Web site, says Seroquel and extended-release Seroquel XR “should be avoided” in combination with at least 12 other medicines linked to a heart arrhythmia that can cause sudden cardiac arrest.

Sandy Walsh, a spokeswoman for the F.D.A., said the statement was only a precaution for doctors, and should not be considered a complete ban against prescribing Seroquel with the other drugs.

Ms. Walsh said the label was changed after the F.D.A. received new information about reports of arrhythmia in 17 people who took more than the recommended doses of Seroquel. Though it should not be a problem at a normal dosage, she said, it may still be good advice to avoid using the drugs together.

The arrhythmia, known as prolongation of the QT interval, referring to two waves of the heart’s electrical rhythm, is estimated to cause several thousand deaths a year in the United States.

As AstraZeneca prepares to report its second-quarter earnings at the end of this month, it faces additional scrutiny this week. The F.D.A. is considering the London-based company’s dapagliflozin, a proposed diabetes drug with Bristol-Myers Squibb, and is expected to decide soon on Brilinta, an anticoagulant. The company is facing the loss of patents for Seroquel next year and for the heartburn drug Nexium in 2014.

Seroquel is one of the top-selling drugs in the world, at $5.3 billion last year, including $3.7 billion in the United States. Introduced in 1997, it has been approved for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and severe depression. Seroquel has caused legal problems for AstraZeneca, including a $520 million payment in 2009 to settle government charges of illegal marketing. Thousands of lawsuits are pending over side effects like diabetes.

The previous Seroquel labels had mentioned the risk of a prolonged QT interval, but had not identified other drugs to avoid, Stephanie Andrzejewski, a spokeswoman for AstraZeneca, said Monday. The new warning also is separated from other warnings and precautions on the label, she said, “to provide some additional guidance to physicians” treating patients ”who are already at risk of QT prolongation.”

The new warning will be added to printed labels as soon as possible, Ms. Andrzejewski said.

The new label lists the other drugs to avoid as antiarrhythmic drugs like quinidine, procainamide, amiodarone and sotalel; antipsychotic drugs like ziprasidone, chlorpromazine and thioridazine; antibiotics like gatifloxacin and moxifloxacin; the anti-infective drug pentamidine; and synthetic opioids like levomethadyl acetate and methadone. The label also raises caution about use by the aged and people with heart disease.

James J. Pepper, a lawyer in Pennsylvania who is involved in drug litigation, has been arguing for months in letters to government officials that Seroquel has a potentially deadly interaction with methadone in regard to the QT interval.

“This is a huge, huge step,” Mr. Pepper said of the label change, though he said he thought it should be stronger.

Ms. Walsh said the F.D.A. action was unrelated to Mr. Pepper’s arguments.

Three months ago, Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the F.D.A. Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, rejected those arguments in a letter to the Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit group in Washington, which had also raised the issues. Dr. Woodcock wrote that a thorough agency review had found it “exceedingly unlikely” that patients faced an unreasonable risk from the interaction between Seroquel and methadone. The review found only one death that was probably caused by the interaction, she wrote.

Dr. Woodcock concluded that the F.D.A. would take no action to change the label. Ms. Walsh said that conclusion was still correct, because the F.D.A. had found no biological basis for a problem or unusual numbers of deaths at normal dosages.

Methadone use and deaths have increased drastically in recent years as more doctors prescribe it for chronic pain. The number of methadone prescriptions for pain in the United States rose to 4.3 million in 2010 from 2.2 million in 2006, IMS Health, an industry data firm, said Monday. The use for pain has surpassed that for heroin withdrawal and maintenance.

URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/19/health/19drug.html?_r=1

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Dr. Alan Gumer, 64, of Tamarac, Fla., pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud after being charged on Feb. 15, 2011, along with 19 others involved in the scheme, on various counts of health care fraud, money laundering and other offenses.

Gumer was a psychiatrist at American Therapeutic Corporation (ATC), a Miami-based corporation that supposedly operated partial hospitalization programs (PHPs) in seven locations throughout South Florida and Orlando. Co-defendants included ATC; its management company, Medlink Professional Management Group Inc.; and the owners and lead manager of ATC, Medlink and the American Sleep Institute (ASI).

PHPs administer intensive treatment to patients suffering from severe mental illness, and Gumer admitted signing evaluations, notes and other medical documents for patients he knew didn’t need the intensive — and expensive — treatment for which ATC billed Medicare.

Gumer admitted signing papers without examining the patients or even writing and reading the statements he was signing. He also confessed to writing prescriptions for unnecessary psychiatric medications in order to fool Medicare into believing the patients qualified for PHP treatment.

The crooked doctor also referred hundreds of ATC patients to a related company and co-conspirator, ASI, for pointless diagnostic sleep disorder testing. Gumer’s co-defendants, ATC’s owners and operators, paid kickbacks to owners and operators of assisted living facilities (ALFs), halfway houses and patient brokers in exchange for ineligible patients which ATC and ASI could use to defraud Medicare. “Patients” sometimes received a cut of the kickbacks as well.

Overall, the ATC and ASI paid out millions of dollars in kickbacks in exchange for bogus Medicare beneficiaries who didn’t qualify for PHP services to attend illegitimate treatment programs so ATC and ASI could swindle Medicare for more than $200 million in unnecessary medically services.

Gumer’s role in the scheme was responsible for $19.3 million in fraudulent Medicare billing alone, and he faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Gumer’s sentencing is scheduled for January 2012.

ATC, its owners, and the lead manager of ATC, Medlink and ASI were charged with various counts of health care fraud, money laundering and other offenses in a separate superseding indictment unsealed on Feb. 15, 2011.

Two of the three ATC owners and the lead manager, as well as both ATC and Medlink, have pleaded guilty to more than $200 million in fraudulent Medicare billing and are scheduled for sentencing in September 2011. The trial of the third owner charged is scheduled to begin in August of this year. The remaining 17 co-defendants named in the indictment in which Gumer was charged are scheduled to stand trial in November 2011.

The case was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, supervised by the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida. Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force has charged more than 1,000 defendants who fraudulently billed Medicare for more than $2.3 billion.

To learn more about the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), go to www.stopmedicarefraud.gov.

URL: http://www.walletpop.com/2011/07/08/psychiatrist-pleads-guilty-in-200-million-medicare-kickback-sch/

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Misconduct charges include accepting kidney from patient

The New York State Health Department has revoked the license of an Elmira psychiatrist who has admitted charges of misconduct including accepting a kidney from a patient.

Dr. Carlos Delos-Reyes received his license to practice medicine in New York in March 1987. His license will be permanently restricted, effective June 21, and he will be prohibited from practicing in New York State.

According to a statement of charges issued by the state Board for Professional Medical Conduct, Delos-Reyes provided psychiatric care to patients at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Elmira, Family Services of Chemung County Mental Health Clinic or at the patients’ homes.

The misconduct charges filed against him include gross negligence, moral unfitness, willfully making a false report and failure to maintain adequate records for each patient.

» Between January 2010 and October 2010, Delos-Reyes failed to document a patient’s psychiatric, drug and alcohol use histories, and didn’t notice the patient’s adverse reaction to lithium, a mood stabilizing drug that Delos-Reyes prescribed without first evaluating the patient’s baseline kidney and thyroid function. Delos-Reyes was also charged with prescribing Xanax, used to treat anxiety attacks, without documenting the prescription. He also transcribed a prescription for Wellbutrin, an antidepressant, in the patient’s medical records but didn’t actually prescribe the medication.

» Between December 2008 and October 2009, Delos-Reyes failed to coordinate his treatment of a patient with her therapist, did not appropriately follow up on the patient’s levels of Valproic acid, a mood stabilizer used to treat conditions such as epilepsy, and did not refer the patient for metabolic lab studies.

» Between November 2005 and April 2009, Delos-Reyes accepted a kidney from a patient while serving as the patient’s psychiatrist. He also prescribed several medications for the patient without adequate medical justification, failed to document the prescriptions, and, in one instance, allowed the patient to write his own prescription. He was also charged with keeping inadequate medical records for the patient.

» From August 2005 to April 2008, Delos-Reyes failed to consult a patient’s primary care physician before treating the patient for hypersomnia, a disorder characterized by excessive amounts of sleepiness, failing to maintain an appropriate medication list for the patient and allowing the patient to complete the physician’s section of his behavioral health intake evaluation.

» From January 2004 to February 2009, Delos-Reyes did not perform an adequate psychiatric evaluation of a patient and failed to refer the patient for lab work to monitor his blood glucose and triglyceride levels.

URL:  http://www.stargazette.com/article/20110616/NEWS01/106160393/Elmira-psychiatrist-lose-license

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Dr. Ramaro Makkena, who has a child-and-adolscent practice on West Vine Street, was arrested Friday on prostitution-related charges after entering a decoy house set up for the week-long investigation, according to police.

“Prostitution can bring with it drug related crimes, robbery and burglary,” Police Chief Fran Iwanski said in a statement released Monday. “By conducting operations like this one, we are taking steps on curtailing these types of crimes within the City of Kissimmee.”

Besides prostitution, detectives targeted unlicensed contractors by trying to lure them to the undisclosed residence to make repairs, the report stated.

“The detectives had all the appliances in the home inspected by a master electrician to ensure they were working properly. The detectives then unplugged the dryer and placed service calls to handyman services on the dryer,” the report stated. “The elderly decoy would explain to the handyman the dryer was not working.”

Javier Medina, 46, was accused of fraud after spending an hour taking apart a clothes dryer, putting it back together and charging $60 without explaining his repairs, according to the report.

Police sent a recommendation that he be charged with organized fraud less than $300 by the Orange-Osceola State Attorney’s Office.

“On the positive side, handyman John Deja plugged in the dryer and gave the decoy a reduced service call rate. Mr. Deja was contacted by the detectives and was commended for his honesty,” the report said.

“It is important to hire only licensed, reputable contractors to do work in your home,” Iwanski said. “The Better Business Bureau is an excellent tool to use when deciding who is trustworthy enough to allow into your home.”

Dr. Makkena, who charged with assignation of prostitution and entering a dwelling for prostitution, was released Friday on $500 bail from the Osceola County Jail. He could not be reached immediately Monday afternoon at his office.

Fifteen others were arrested on similar charges, according to police.

hcurtis@tribune.com or 407-420-5257

URL: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-prostitution-sex-sting-craigslist-20110613,0,1658874.story

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Daily News Staff Writer
Posted: 06/09/2011 06:12:59 PM PDT
Updated: 06/10/2011 12:11:49 AM PDT

The wife of Dr. William Ayres, a once-renowned child psychiatrist now accused of molesting several of his young male patients, testified in court Thursday that her 79-year-old husband can’t remember conversations, mixes up his words and once forgot his son’s name.

“He asks a question, he asks the same question 10 minutes later,” Solveig Ayres said during her husband’s competency trial, which began this week in San Mateo County Superior Court.

Defense attorney Jonathan McDougall is seeking to prove that his client suffers from Alzheimer’s-related dementia to such a degree that he is not competent to stand trial again on nine counts of lewd and lascivious conduct with minors under the age of 14.

Several of the doctor’s former patients — now in their 20s and 30s — claim he molested them during physical and genital exams he conducted as part of psychiatry sessions. Ayres was prosecuted for the alleged crimes in 2009, but a jury could not agree on a verdict and a mistrial was declared. The district attorney’s office announced in August 2009 it would refile charges, just a month after the first trial ended.

In opening statements Thursday, Deputy District Attorney Melissa McKowan said she does not dispute that Ayres suffers from dementia. But she said he is capable of understanding the legal proceedings well enough to aid in his own defense. She told jurors that two court-appointed doctors will testify that Ayres is competent.

In
a competency trial, the burden of proof falls on the defense to prove that the defendant is incompetent, she added.

“I will never disagree with the fact that he has some cognitive impairment,” McKowan said. “That is going to be obvious. … But the fact that he is suffering from this mental defect does not mean he cannot stand trial for the crimes he is accused of.”

McDougall said he plans to call as many as seven doctors to the witness stand to cast doubt on Ayres’ competency.

“How is that person that is not able to remember the name of his son, able to function in the legal world?” McDougall asked during his opening statement.

Solveig Ayres, the first witness called by the defense, said her husband began worrying about his memory at the end of the 2009 trial — he couldn’t remember former patients who testified.

“He said, ‘There’s something wrong in my brain,’” Solveig Ayres said.

His condition has worsened since then, she said. William Ayres could not remember what time the judge had told them to be at court the day before. During meetings with McDougall to talk about the case, Solveig said she takes notes and reviews them with William to remind him what was discussed.

On one occasion last December, he couldn’t remember his son’s name, she testified.

Lately, she added, he has been mixing up his words. For example, while talking with her about the Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, her husband said “Republican” instead of “Rachmaninoff.” Solveig testified that William makes lists of the words he switches and tries to find a correlation between them.

Under cross-examination, Mc-Kowan portrayed that as an indication that William Ayres is well enough to be aware that he is making mistakes and is trying to figure out why.

“So he will think rationally and logically even though, at a moment in time, he switched a word?” she asked Solveig Ayres.

The trial is scheduled to resume on Monday.

Email Diana Samuels at dsamuels@dailynewsgroup.com.-

URL: http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_18242724?nclick_check=1

Related stories: Ayres’ Dementia Too Severe For Him To Face Molestation Charges

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Opening statements were given in San Mateo County Superior Court this morning in the competency trial of William Ayres, 79, who has been charged with nine counts of performing lewd acts with seven boys during psychiatric examinations that took place between 1991 and 1996.

Ayres admitted in a 2009 trial that he conducted exams in which boys were naked from the waist down, but said that nothing inappropriate happened. The trial ended in a hung jury when jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict on any of the counts.

The district attorney’s office decided in August 2009 to retry the case, but criminal proceedings have been suspended to allow a jury to decide whether Ayres remains competent enough to face charges.

In his opening statement Thursday morning, defense attorney Jonathan McDougall said Ayres’ mental deterioration has made it increasingly difficult for his client to understand his place in the legal proceedings or aid in his own defense.

McDougall said that at times, Ayres is unable to remember his own address, what he ate for dinner or the name of his son.

Deputy District Attorney Melissa McKowan said court-appointed psychiatrists agree with the defense that Ayres is showing signs of early-onset dementia and mental atrophy, but that the defendant remains well aware of the charges against him and is fit to stand trial.

Testimony in the competency trial began later Thursday morning.

URL: http://www.ktvu.com/news/28185802/detail.html

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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina » A psychiatrist who has spent a lifetime traveling the world, meeting famous people and giving spiritual awareness lectures has been arrested in Argentina on charges of falsely billing $1 million in health insurance claims in Hawaii, authorities said Tuesday.

Dr. Carlos Livio Warter, 61, was arrested Monday afternoon at his home in a wealthy Buenos Aires neighborhood, where he had been working as a psychiatrist and leading seminars based on his latest book, “Pathways to the Soul.”

He will be extradited to the United States, said Osvaldo Magnoli, chief of fugitives investigations for Interpol in Argentina.

A Chilean-born naturalized U.S. citizen, Warter traveled regularly to Argentina, Chile and Hawaii, FBI special agent Tom Simon said in Honolulu.

Simon said FBI agents working out of the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires were coordinating with their Argentine counterparts on the extradition.

Warter says on his website that he has spent 30 years “journeying between the fields of western medicine and the deep exploration of spiritual practices from around the world,” doing his residency at Harvard University’s Children’s Hospital and later lecturing at Esalen Institute.

He has written dozens of books in Spanish and English, and his site shows photos of him meeting with world leaders from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the Dalai Lama, Pope John Paul II, Brazilian soccer legend Pele and former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. The site says his nonprofit groups include the World Health Foundation for Development and Peace, Heartnet International and Gota de Miel (Drop of Honey), which aided orphanages in Latin America.

A federal grand jury indictment accuses Warter of knowingly sending about $1 million in inflated bills to Medicaid, the Hawaii Medical Service Association and TRICARE, a federally funded program that provides care to military personnel. It alleges he overbilled for sessions that didn’t last as long as he claimed, and even billed for sessions when he wasn’t physically in the state, pocketing more than $530,000 to which he wasn’t completely entitled.

In addition to the federal indictment, Warter was charged in August 2009 with 37 state felonies accusing him of Medicare fraud, each punishable by up to five years in prison. This February he voluntarily surrendered his medical license for failure to comply with professional conduct laws, said Connie Cabral, executive officer of the Hawaii Medical Board, which is attached to the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.

Argentine police said Warter, who is married and has four children, has been living for more than a year in Argentina. A woman answering his phone in Buenos Aires refused to comment Tuesday.

Jim Carter, listed by Warter as a U.S. contact for his seminars, said the arrest “has got me flabbergasted.”

“Everything I’ve done with him has been on the up and up, and he’s made a big positive impact on my life. I’m sure a lot of other people will say the same thing,” said Carter, who lives in the Lansing, Mich., area and began following Warter’s advice years ago.

“His day job is psychotherapy, and the other stuff he does is life coaching, with a spiritual bent,” Carter said. “A lot of his work is showing people how their ego is interfering, and to get that out of the way so their essence can grow.”

Associated Press writers Almudena Calatrava in Buenos Aires and Jennifer Kelleher and Mark Niesse in Honolulu contributed to this report.

URL: http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/hawaiinews/20110525_Psychiatrist_accused_of_overbilling.html

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A third former Hernando County Jail inmate filed suit against a psychiatrist accusing him of sexually harassing her.

The lawsuit, filed by a woman identified as “Jane Doe III,” was filed Tuesday in Hernando County Circuit Court, less than two weeks after the first suit was filed against the same doctor.

Dr. James Yelton Rossello is accused of fondling and molesting the three women while they were under his care last year. All three plaintiffs were inmates at the jail while Yelton was on the medical staff.

Corrections Corporation of America, which managed the jail, also has been named in the suits.

The latest plaintiff said CCA kept her in solitary confinement for 10 days after she reported the incidents to a correctional officer.

She alleges Yelton asked her intrusive questions about her sex life, propositioned her to have sex with him and told her to pull down her pants so he could touch her tattoo.

No criminal charges have been filed against Yelton, but the State Attorney’s Office is still investigating.

When the allegations first came to light in March, the Florida Surgeon General restricted Yelton from treating female patients.

Yelton is no longer employed by CCA.

Reporter Tony Holt can be reached at 352-544-5283 or wholt@hernandotoday.com.

URL: http://www2.hernandotoday.com/content/2011/jun/07/071406/another-suit-filed-against-embattled-jail-psychiat/

Related stories: Florida restricts license of ex-Hernando jail psychiatrist accused of molesting female inmates

Updated information.

By TONY HOLT | Hernando Today

She was offended, violated and wasn’t going to take it anymore, she said.
The former Hernando County jail inmate reported the alleged sexual harassment by her psychiatrist to a female correctional officer.
She consoled the shaken inmate. The two women talked. They cried. The officer promised to report it to her supervisors.
Less than an hour later, the inmate was led to a dark, isolated cell with no windows. She remained in solitary confinement for another nine days, she said.
She only received one visitor – an investigator from Corrections Corporation of America, the company that ran the jail.
Feeling ignored and intimidated, she was too scared to push the matter further, she said.
When she learned last month two of her former inmates filed lawsuits against Dr. James Yelton Rossello, she changed her mind and joined them, said attorney Samuel Rogatinsky.
Rogatinsky, of South Florida, is representing all three women in the lawsuit.
The latest plaintiff, identified in court documents as Jane Doe III, filed her suit Tuesday in Hernando County Circuit Court.
She sobbed during a conference call with her attorney.
“It wasn’t about me getting money,” she said. “It’s about him not being able to do this to anyone else.”
Jane Doe III was incarcerated at the jail from May to October 2010. CCA managed the jail until late August of that year.
She was released from solitary confinement about two weeks before the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office took over jail operations.
By then, the officer who consoled her was no longer employed at the jail and the other CCA managers who supposedly handled the complaint were gone. Yelton also had transferred.
CCA eventually fired him following a slew of sexual misconduct allegations.
Yelton has never been criminally charged, but the State Attorney’s Office is still investigating the Hernando cases.
Jane Doe III described Yelton as a large, broad-shouldered man who weighed about 250 pounds.
“He could have restrained one of us easily if he really wanted to,” she said.
In his court filing, Rogatinsky stated Yelton “sexually molested the Plaintiff on numerous occasions by touching the tattoo that was just above her buttocks while counseling her.”
Jane Doe III said Yelton repeatedly asked her about her sexual preferences, including whether she was bisexual or had any “lesbian relationships” in the jail. He also asked her to describe her favorite sexual positions.
Rogatinsky said Yelton initially would ask his patients sexually charged questions, but made them think it was part of his psychoanalysis.
Eventually, he stopped asking questions and started beckoning his patients to shed their clothes or perform other sexual favors, Rogatinsky said.
During her second visit with Yelton, the latest plaintiff told him she had gained weight. She assumed it was a side effect from one of the drugs the doctor had prescribed her.
“He told me to pull my pants down,” she said. “He told me he wanted to have sex with me.”
At one point, Yelton ordered her to show him her tattoo. When she lifted her shirt and revealed her lower back, he caressed it, she said.
The other two plaintiffs accused Yelton of rubbing, kissing and fondling them during their visits.
Yelton would invite his patients into a small office and he would lock the door to prevent correctional officers from entering, Rogatinsky said.
Jane Doe I accused Yelton of “threatening her with additional criminal charges and threatening to withhold her medications if she refused to cooperate with his deviant behavior,” the attorney wrote.
Jane Doe II accused him of forcing her to sit on his lap while he was sexually aroused, grabbing her crotch area and sexually battering her.
When the allegations first came to light in March, the Florida surgeon general restricted Yelton from treating female patients.
Rogatinsky said Yelton told at least one of the plaintiffs he was “98 percent faithful” to his wife and claimed he had an expense account and a hotel room for when she would be released from jail.
Rogatinsky said he would contact the State Attorney’s Office about the latest allegations.
CCA, based out of Nashville, Tenn., has declined to comment on the Yelton lawsuit.

Reporter Tony Holt can be reached at 352-544-5283 or wholt@hernandotoday.com.

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I would like to address the subject of medicating students at the school’s “request” or demand is more like it. This is our family’s experience.

My 12-year-old grandson is ADHD and does have some social and some behavioral issues. We are well aware of his issues and do not try to dismiss them. The school has tried to insist that he be medicated. His mother has refused to medicate him because of the damage from the ADHD drugs to his older brother. This has been explained many, many times to the school personnel.

The side effects of the drugs, Concerta, Strattera, Ritalin and Seroquel vary and the intensity varies from person to person. My older grandson who has taken these various drugs has had severe reactions to them. Some of his reactions are delusions, paranoia, the need for higher doses consistently, mood swings, and when the doses were changed to higher levels, uncontrollable anger. My daughter’s refusal to medicate the younger son stems from the reactions of her older son to the drugs.

When the school was told no, they constantly asked the child if his mother had taken him to the doctor and told him he needs to be medicated. It is very sad that a child comes home and tells his parent that he needs to be medicated. In response to her refusal and the arguments that ensued over the issue, the school has exacted what in my opinion is revenge on the child for his mother’s decision to do what she believes is best for him in the long run.

They put in place a discipline plan that my daughter did not approve of or sign but it didn’t matter. I understand that some of detentions were deserved but I disagree with the nitpicking. Examples and these are just a few: Forgetting a pencil, being early to class, being put in detention for not spitting out gum when in fact the child had and the proof was in the trash can, telling another person that they don’t want him around and he can hear it. The detentions for these silly nitpicking items added up and have created a real problem on the child’s record.

The real topper for me is the fact that they allowed him to sign up for an overnight camping trip and then decided my grandson could not go because of his record and missing assignments. How strange when we checked online to see if there are any missing assignments, they show as completed.

There are many more details to this situation. The bottom line is that they have humiliated, belittled him openly and made this child feel very unwanted. No child reacts well to this type of treatment, no child deserves this. I believe that the school lacks education in some of these disorders and needs some training. If trained properly they would be able to identify that the social, behavioral issues and learning disabilities are a part of the complex disorder and there are better ways to handle the problems.

I would be curious to know how many children are medicated and how many times the school recommends the medication because it makes the staff’s life easier. They have no concept of the long-term effects of the drugs. They are not doctors. I would also be interested in knowing how many others had experiences like this.

I am sure that this will evoke a response again blaming all of the poor behavior on the child, but I think that the professionals should take a deep look at themselves and evaluate why they behave as they have.

Diana Strohm
Muskegon

URL: http://www.mlive.com/opinion/muskegon/index.ssf/2011/06/letters_should_a_school_insist.html

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When Judge Robert Heinrichs renders sentence on August 4, will your portfolio be the one to take the fall?

On that date, it is expected that the judge will make his rulings on sentencing for a teenage boy, arrested after allegedly killing a fellow teenager in what one doctor calls a clear case of “Prozac reaction.”

“There is no reason other than a Prozac reaction,” said Dr. Peter Breggin, a New York state-based psychiatrist and author of the book, Talking Back to Prozac. “(The killing) is a mystery without that.”

The entire affair starts with, of all things, an accidental dent put in the wood floor of the home of the accused by the victim. The accused, who was not home at the time of the accident, later invited the boys back to his house to hang out. When they were hanging out, the accused pulled out a knife and stabbed the boy in the chest.

The accused had been treated for depression and was prescribed Prozac three months prior to the killing. Some studies link the drug Prozac, first patented by Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) with behavioral and emotional changes in users under 18 years of age, including an increased risk of suicide.

After days after he began taking Prozac, the accused attempted suicide with some medication of his grandfather’s. His parents complained to the physician that, rather than help, the drug was making the boy’s condition worse. Rather than switch to a different drug, doctors increased the dosage of Prozac.

“It was a prescription for violence,” Breggin wrote in a report for the defense.

“Within a reasonable degree of medical certainty, I believe that Prozac drove (the accused) into a state of severe agitation with manic-like symptoms including mood swings, confusion, irrationality, extreme irritability, hostility and violence.”

Breggin said the teen should have stopped taking Prozac immediately after he attempted suicide.

“Right then and there should have been the end of the Prozac,” Breggin said. “When you have a drug that is causing mania, you stop taking the drug.”

Now, one boy is dead and another is in the morgue. Will Eli Lilly’s stock take a tumble after the verdict, or will the judge find the boy’s Prozac defense is nonsense? Will other lawsuits emerge? It could be a rough season of discontent for Eli Lilly.

Read more: http://www.benzinga.com/news/global/11/06/1142243/will-prozac-murder-trial-doom-eli-lilly-stock

Related stories:  Did Prozac Cause Teenager to Kill? Psychiatrist Says Yes

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