Who Knew?: Effexor's Red Flag
UPDATE: SEE SUBSEQUENT BLOG POSTS ON THE EFFEXOR/YATES STORY AS IT UNFOLDS...
Possibly hedding more light on the Andrea Yates case and sending up red flags for patients across the country... the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram (Texas) has published a story on the antidepressant Effexor, a rare but deadly side effect of the drug, and this week's outcry from medical watchdogs at the height of the Yates retrial.
What most people - including doctors prescribing it - don't know is that "homicidal ideation" was added last year as one of the rare side effects on the drug Effexor XR's label and on Wyeth's website.
Dr. Moira Dolan, executive director of The Medical Accountability Network, said she discovered the labeling change only by accident about two weeks ago, when she stumbled across a seven-month-old FDA MedWatch newsletter from November 2005.
Wyeth, the New Jersey-based manufacturer of Effexor, did not send letters to doctors or issue warning labels.
According to the Star-Telegram's reporting, The U.S. Food and Drug Administration defines "rare" as occurring in less than one in 1,000 people. In the U.S. alone, about 19.2 million prescriptions for Effexor were filled last year, but that does not reflect the total number of people who take the drug, because some of those are refills.
The connection to the Yates infanticide? Shortly before drowning her five children, Andrea Yatess' psychiatrist removed from the anti-psychotic drug Haldol (which had been working quite effectively for her, according to Andrea's self-reports and those of her husband, Rusty). What did Andrea's psychiatrist replace the Haldol with? The antidepressant Effexor.
The Star-Telegram quotes Dolan, an Austin, Texas doctor who is not involved in the Yates case: "People need to be warned that this is a possible side effect. Families don't know to be aware of this possible effect. As doctors, we're not going to look through 36 pages of labeling."
Want to let Wyeth know how you feel about this? Mail to:
Wyeth Pharmaceuticals
5 Giralda Farms
Madison, NJ 07940
Comments
prescription effexor
Posted by: 75 effexor | May 19, 2007 04:22 PM