Here’s a disheartening question to ponder: Is an anti-psychotic drug being prescribed for troubled war veterans killing them?
The drug in question is AstraZeneca’s powerful Seroquel. Recently two Marine corporals, Andrew White and Chad Oligschlaeger, both died in their sleep after being given a variety of drugs, Seroquel included, to treat their post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to Natural News.
http://www.naturalnews.com/030645_veterans_psychiatric_drugs.html
Autopsies determined that both men were killed by “multiple drug toxicity,” meaning that a fatal interaction of their various medications did them in. Before he died, White took more than double the suggested maximum dosage of Seroquel recommended for those with schizophrenia, at his doctor’s direction, to help him sleep.
And now White’s and Oligschlaeger’s families and veterans’ advocates are blaming Seroquel for the deaths of the two Marines, arguing that the government should change its protocol for prescribing the drug.
Make no mistake that Seroquel, the fifth-best-selling drug in the United States, is serious stuff. It is also increasingly being prescribed by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Seroquel is approved to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression, but vets’ advocates charge that the military is giving it to service members for insomnia and other symptoms of PTSD, Natural News reported.
Seroquel has also been suspected of causing heart failure.
Our soldiers have suffered enough, both in combat and on their return home. The veterans’ administration should take a close look at Seroquel to ensure that we’re not killing them back on the supposedly safe home front.
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My brother is not and never has been schizophrenic, he has major depression and anxiety. Four years ago he could think , reason, make decisions, kept himself groomed and has stayed employed at the same job for over 20 years, His pcp referred him to a psychiatrist to allow him the ability to obtain xanax on a regular monthly basis. The psychiatrist also started prescribing seroquel to him. He has been on short term disability and went back to work about a year ago, Now he has trouble speaking, reasoning, agoraphobia, paranoia, doesn’t bathe, never leaves his bedroom, currently on possible long term disability, very much in danger of losing his job, his wife is threatening divorce, he has diabetes, very lethargic, and desires to sleep as much as possible. He has become a body with an empty shell for a brain. My family needs to obtain some kind of professional help and rehabilitation to save his life. But he refuses to try to stop taking the seroquel because of his desire to sleep almost 24 hrs a day. He was functioning at a tremendously higher level before the seroquel. Is there a way for us, his family, to force him into a treatment program, he could not possibly function independently after a divorce, and nobody in the family has the room or financial resources to house and help him improve his mental and physical health? His life is in danger! What can we do to help him save his life by changing his behavior. Without help from an outside source he will die. He is a 50 yr old male, not eating, rapid weight loss, with a total lack of ability to make his own decisions and live independently! Our father went through this exact same deterioration after being prescribed Zyprexa, our father committed suicide after long term use of Zyprexa in 2004! We all have chronic anxiety and depression, this condition is definitely genetic from our grandmothers’s side of the family over the last four generations. How can one of us obtain some kind of legal guardian ship to protect my brother from falling victim of the same type of death as our father experienced?
Terry Spicer
terry.spicer8109@gmail.com
1-501-672-4324
Seroquel also known as quetiapine fumarate=death.
seroquel is killer drug. the drug is just dangerous to use and its overuse or misuse can easily kill people. i’m not even sure if it possible to safely withdraw from it. it seems that it kills people’s ability to sleep and it is not good antipsychotic either.
problems:
– it is short-acting drug (short half-life). if you use low doses your receptors open/close all the time. that’s not very good for you. (doses below 200mg should be taken 3-4 times a day maybe to have stable levels (6h half-time)). brain can handle (somewhat) the constant presence of drug but not constant on/off (think sleeping pills vs. constant benzo use)
– only safe(?) level that i know is 300mg/night + 25mg day. no many bad side-effects and the levels don’t go too low
it seems that doctors unethically describe it for disorders that have nothing to do with mental illness.