Seroxat and Violence – the link is made

Published on September 12, 2006, this study by David Healy, Andrew Herxheimer and David B. Menkes deals with an issue that cannot be ignored. So many people take Seroxat and find it starts to give them unexplained violent and aggressive episodes.

“Recent regulatory warnings about adverse behavioural effects of antidepressants in susceptible individuals have raised the profile of these issues with clinicians, patients, and the public. We review available clinical trial data on paroxetine and sertraline and pharmacovigilance studies of paroxetine and fluoxetine, and outline a series of medico-legal cases involving antidepressants and violence.

Both clinical trial and pharmacovigilance data point to possible links between these drugs and violent behaviours. The legal cases outlined returned a variety of verdicts that may in part have stemmed from different judicial processes. Many jurisdictions appear not to have considered the possibility that a prescription drug may induce violence.

The association of antidepressant treatment with aggression and violence reported here calls for more clinical trial and epidemiological data to be made available and for good clinical descriptions of the adverse outcomes of treatment”.

The link to the paper is here and I suggest you scroll down to the end and read the 9 cases listed in the annex.