the truth about meds

[jemappellesuzie]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=9578009&dopt=AbstractPlus

PURPOSE: To describe an 11-year-old girl with symptomatic localization-related epilepsy and normal intelligence who developed reversible mental deterioration and pseudoatrophic brain changes while receiving valproate (VPA) . METHODS: Assessment of mental function using Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III (WISC) and Raven's Progressive Matrices (PM), EEG recordings while awake and asleep, and brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), were performed at the beginning of VPA therapy, after 2 years and 8 months of treatment and following VPA discontinuation. RESULTS: After 2 years and 6 months on VPA (< or = 26 mg/kg/day) the girl insidiously developed mental deterioration (loss of 18 IQ points and drop in age-adjusted PM score from the 95th to the 50th percentile) associated with MRI-documented pseudoatrophy of the brain. Onset of severe cognitive impairment coincided with serum VPA concentrations near 100 microg/ml. There were no other manifestations of drug toxicity or hyperammonemia. Background EEG activity was normal. Reduction of VPA dosage and subsequent discontinuation 4 months later resulted in disappearance of clinical symptoms with a 20-point improvement at IQ testing and recovery of previous PM score. Repeat MRI showed disappearance of pseudoatrophic changes. CONCLUSIONS: The striking cognitive improvement and reversal of pseudoatrophic brain changes following VPA discontinuation strongly suggest a drug-induced condition. Based on this and previous reports, the syndrome of VPA-associated mental deterioration and pseudoatrophy of the brain appears to encompass different but possibly related clinical entities, which include parkinsonism with cognitive deterioration, mental deterioration with signs of VPA-toxicity, and isolated mental deterioration, as seen in our patient. A drug-induced effect should be considered whenever cognitive deterioration and imaging findings of brain atrophy occur in VPA-treated patients.

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the rest is here: http://pharmatruth.tumblr.com

[provis99]

1. uh, okay, Scientology Person

Frankly, I'll stick with the valproic acid. It stops me from slipping into mania and going on an orgy of destruction. And no reputable scientific publication refers to a pseudo-intellectual concept like IQ anymore.

[jemappellesuzie]

2. scientology person? quite an assumption.

pubmed is just about as reputable as it gets.

and i'm not a scientologist. i took depakote for bpd and suffered hyperammonemia, which had severe effects on my brain.

depakote can cause atrophic brain changes even without elevated ammonia or doses above the therapeutic range. it's a very dangerous drug - just because you haven't heard about it from abbott labs or in the media doesn't make it untrue. it has nothing to do with antipsychiatry...i'm not opposed to meds in general, just ones FDA-approved for use in children which dumb down the population. if you still want to take it, go ahead. but there should be a black box warning about its effects on cognition.

[bananas]

3. Welcome to DU, Suzie

Some people view these issues as very black-and-white, you're either with us or against us, etc.

[fed-up]

4. the choice to take meds is an individual choice-my mom and I decided against Dilantin for her post

stroke seizures as she had already lost most speech and was right hemi-plegic from the stroke

the dilantin made her a zombie and she was unable to do her therapy

it doubled her liver enzymes on just half the normal dose in a mere three weeks

I read everything I could get my hands on about seizures and learned that stress can sometimes induce a seizure (hers were initially caused by damage from the stroke)

we slowly weaned her off the dilantin and worked on reducing her stress levels and she had no more seizures

every person has their own medical issues to deal with, but without proper information as to side effects it is hard to decide which is worse, the meds or the condition

We may have made a different choice if she had to drive or had a different lifestyle

as it was she had care 24 hours round the clock so someone was always around in case she did have another seizure to remove dentures and position her correctly


I have also since learned that hypersensitivity to anti-convulsants is genetic and learned my sister had a bad reaction after I ended up with swollen lymph nodes. Of course I was not asked about any family history of reactions to anti-convulsants before I was given the meds.

[TZ]

5. And what makes you think this drug doesn't help some people?

My goodness people are dumb about risk evaluation with medications. Yes, presecription meds ALL HAVE RISKS. That's why you consult with doctors when on them. Show me a drug that doesn't have side effects and I'll show you a pig that can fly.
By the way, I wouldn't say any source called "pharma truth" is going to be objective in their evalutation of medication. I'm suspicious of any site that has the "truth" in it. They are usually pushing an neo-luddite, conspiracy theory, junk science agenda. Like "cell phones are murderous!"
Try to be more discriminating. For all we know that could be ONE paper agaisnt 90 showing the efficacy of this meds.
When did the science forum become woo central?

[and-justice-for-all]

6. I can agree to that Sue...

Everyone is going to react differently to the same Meds.

But if there is a significant number of people, more than that do not have adverse reactions, then it should be considered that there might in fact be something irregular with the Med.

Say, if 70 to 90% of the people taking a heart med all had the same adverse reaction or a similar adverse reaction, it should be safe to say that the med is in fact lethal to a majority.

This is why Stem Cell research needs to be heavily funded.