Improper dosage of prozac leads to murderous behaviour

     
      A couple of years ago, Alyssa Bustamante was just another misunderstood teen with a defiant glaze and a goth look. Now recently turned 18, she's serving a life sentence in jail after found guilty for the murder of nine years old   Elizabeth Olten.
But what could have lead to such horrible violent act from this apparently normal teen from Missouri?
       Is Alyssa Bustamante a monster in disguise or could it be that her acts were strongly influenced by the negative effects of the a high dosage of antidepressants?

       A boy in Canada , although experimenting with various drugs at the early age of 15, had reportedly no violent tendencies killed his friend with a kitchen knife. Those who knew him said his personality changed radically after being prescribed Prozac. Even the judge presiding his case stated that drugs such as Prozac and other antidepressants may have extremely negative effects on teen, that often lead to violence towards themselves or others.
       In UK, a boy under 18 beat his father to death after taking high doses of Prozac and  citalopram, a drug that was illegal for patients under the legal age. In Germany  Tim Kretschmer opened fire on his classmates without saying a word, just like it was in a video game. It's clear he couldn't have been lucid at the moment, but could his brain be altered by medication in such a way he was unable to realize what was happening?
     
       The fact that drugs are killing teenagers all over the world may sound almost like a cliché, something wide accepted as a downsize of our modern world, something we don't really want to hear about until it happens in our neighborhood. But these are not the generic illegal drugs sold on on a back alley, these are legal drugs , prescribed by doctors for patients who are trying to overcome their problems.
        Prozac side-effects have created news about suicidal teens and shocking brutal murders, but should we blame the pharmaceutical companies or the doctors for giving wrong prescriptions?
        The theory that pharmaceuticals companies such as  Eli Lilly  purposely hid informations from the public about their products, information that pointed to some test results showing how antidepressants increase suicidal tendency, by causing an imbalance in the brain's biochemicals was regarded as a conspiracy theory, and yet , we are bombarded by the news with more and more tragic stories. 
       We can't help but wondering if these gruesome crimes could have been avoided if companies would have been a little bit more transparent, if doctors would have treated their jobs with a little bit more responsibility and tried to find out what exactly was the problem with these troubled teens before choking them with pills.
Maybe Alyssa Bustamante would have prepared for graduating high school this year, instead of looking at us from behind bars.

Birth defects related to Prozac

  I remember picking up my paper a long time ago and reading this very interesting title:

"Woman sues after receiving free unsolicited box of Prozac in her mail."

 and asking myself why would she be so enraged just for receiving a free antidepressant sample before realizing the implications.
    Prozac also known as the "happy pill" is a very powerful prescription drug, primarily used for treating  depression, bulimia nervosa, panic disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and aparrently was left in  the woman's mailbox like a chocolate or perfume sample. We could easily imagine the consequences if someone else have picked it up and took it like a child for example.
   
    What made me remember that peculiar article was a study proving how Prozac, if taken during pregnancy ,may lead so very serious birth complications and birth defects in infants. Apparently the problem is so serious that the FDA has  asked the companies that make Prozac and other SSRI drugs to change the warnings they issue about possible side effects from the drugs to include the possibility that they can cause possible deadly birth defects in babies.

    While doing some research I discovered that two years previous to the FDA approval, a 1996 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that women taking Prozac during pregnancy were twice as likely to deliver a baby with three or more "minor abnormalities" and poorer than average neonatal adaptation. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
     Among the birth defects that Prozac has been linked to we find:           

• Anal atresia
• Anencephaly (birth without a forebrain)
• Atrial Septal Defects
• Clubfoot
• Craniosynostosis (premature closing of sutures of the skull)
• Diaphragmatic hernia
• Heart defects
• Limb-reduction defects
• Omphalocele (babies born with organs outside the body)
• Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA)
• Persistant pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN)
• Pulmonary Atresia (PA)
• Pulmonary Stenosis
• Tricuspid Atresia (TA)
• Ventricular Septal Defects     

     Even so, it is still being prescribed to pregnant women all over the world. While depression is a serious matter and untreated may cause grave problems for a future mommy what is more alarming is the fact that most of the prescriptions are being handed without a proper psychiatric diagnosis often by doctors doctors who aren't psychiatrists. 
     It is one thing to use such a powerful drug when dealing with depression and it's a whole different story to make use of it just to relieve some stress , or sleep better. Common sense would dictate that one should first  talk to their doctor and inquire about possible side-effects especially when  it is enough to do a simple google search to find the testimony of so many women who reported that after taking Prozac during pregnancy , their newborns suffered from life-threatening birth defects.
      So on the one side we have a very competitive and aggressive pharmaceutical market that shoves free samples of their product in your mailbox and on the other doctors who treat antidepressants as "mood boosters" while more and more pregnant women fell victim to this lack of caring for human life.
   
      If you already fall in the latter category, all I could recommend you is to take a stand and consult a  Prozac birth defect lawyer. The pursuit of a lawsuit may not only lead to some financial compensation that could ease your situation but could also serve as an example to raise awareness and  prevent such tragedies from happening.