Reference:
“Antidepressant-induced akathisia-related homicides associated with diminishing mutations in metabolizing genes of the CYP450 family”
by Yolande Lucire and Christopher Crotty
Pharmacogenomics and Personalized Medicine, 1 August 2011
[doi: 10.2147/PGPM.S17445]
This research paper details patients who had been referred to Dr. Lucire’s practice for expert opinion or treatment. More than 120 subjects were diagnosed with akathisia [a neurotoxic psychosis often characterized by a feeling of inner restlessness and inability to stay still] or serotonin toxicity [extremely high levels of serotonin causing toxic and potentially fatal effects] after taking psychiatric drugs that had been prescribed for psychosocial distress. Akathisia has been known to be associated with suicide since the 1950s and with homicide since 1985.
They were tested for variant alleles in cytochrome P450 (CYP450) genes, which play a major role in the metabolism of all antidepressant and many other drugs, indicating ultrarapid metabolism due to allele duplications. This seems to be strongly associated with a large number of deaths from intoxication and suicide. High or fast-changing levels of psychotropic substances can cause unpredictable toxicity leading to violent behavioral effects, including akathisia. [An allele is one of two or more alternative forms of a gene that arise by mutation and are found at the same place on a chromosome.]
Psychiatric drugs are metabolized in the liver by cytochrome P450 enzymes in order to be eliminated from the body. Abnormal CYP450 metabolism, either ultrarapid and/or diminished, can lead to the drug or its metabolites reaching a toxic level in hours or days, correlating with the onset of intense dysphoria [unease or generalized dissatisfaction with life] and akathisia. A person genetically deficient in these enzymes, or who has an ultrarapid drug metabolism, or who is taking other (legal or illegal) drugs that diminish CYP450 enzyme activity, is at risk of a toxic accumulation of the drug leading to more severe side effects.
Eight of these cases had committed homicide and many more became extremely violent or suicidal while on antidepressants. Ten representative case histories involving serious violence are presented in great detail in the paper. None of the ten subjects described had any history of mental illness; none had been violent before. All recovered from akathisia after stopping the medication without assistance or supervision and, frequently, against medical advice.
Akathisia suicides and homicides, particularly when they involved children, gave rise to the first antidepressant suicide advisories by the FDA in 2004.
Personal, medical, and legal problems can arise from using psychiatric drugs and experiencing the resulting toxicity from these metabolic effects. The results presented in this paper demonstrate the grave extent to which the psychiatric industry has expanded its influence beyond its ability to cure.
As the authors state, “In all of the cases presented here, the subjects were prescribed antidepressants that failed to mitigate distress emerging from their predicaments, which encompassed psychosocial stressors such as bereavement, marital and relationship difficulties, and work-related stress. Every subject’s emotional reaction worsened while their prescribing physicians continued the “trial and error” approach, increasing from standard to higher dose and/or switching to other antidepressants, with disastrous consequences. In some cases the violence ensued from changes occasioned by withdrawal and polypharmacy. In all of these cases, the subjects were put into a state of drug-induced toxicity manifesting as akathisia, which resolved only upon discontinuation of the antidepressant drugs.”
“It is the authors’ contention that prescribing antidepressants without knowing about CYP450 genotypes is like giving blood transfusions without matching for ABO groups [the classification of human blood].”
In general, the psychiatric industry pushes psychotropic drugs without regard to these CYP450 cautions, but this is the direct result of the unscientific psychiatric diagnoses perpetrated by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) which fraudulently justifies prescribing these harmful drugs for profit in the first place.
Recommendations
1. Practice Full Informed Consent by asking your doctor for information about possible side effects and benefits, ways to treat side effects, and risks of other conditions, as well as information about alternative treatments.
2. If your doctor diagnoses a mental disorder and prescribes a psychiatric drug, ask to see the clinical lab tests proving the diagnosis. (There won’t be any.)
3. All treatment options should include checking for real underlying medical conditions that could cause a patient’s mental or emotional duress.
4. Write your state and federal legislators to establish rights for patients and their insurance companies to receive refunds for mental health treatment which did not achieve the promised result or improvement, or which resulted in proven harm to the individual, thereby ensuring that responsibility lies with the individual practitioner and psychiatric facility rather than the government or its agencies.
6. Patients, doctors and insurance companies should report all instances of adverse side effects from psychiatric drugs to the FDA.
7. The pernicious influence of psychiatry has wreaked havoc throughout society, especially in hospitals, educational systems and prisons. Citizens groups and responsible government officials should work together to expose and abolish psychiatry’s hidden manipulation of society for profit.