I Could Have Told The FDA A Year Ago

And I'm not the only one. I’m sure many other people could have told them too. Or their families could have if those people happened to die virtually out of the blue by their own hand.

“Oh, Sick Mother, whatever are you talking about now?” I hear you ask.

I’m talking about the “new” report from the FDA and the “new” warning from that same agency that eleven (11) anti-epileptic drugs increase the risk of suicide by 100%. 

I could have told them that a year ago.

“By 100 %!” I hear you say. “That is huge! How could they they have missed that?” Good question. However, the original percentage was small, so a large increase in a small percentage will just give you a slightly less small percentage. An increase of 100% in that particular number means it still effects only 0.43% of the population. However the actual side effect; suicide -for God's sake! is pretty frickin huge and devastating, so asking how the FDA could have missed it for so long is a very valid question. Especially as so many drugs are involved and several of them have been around for many years.

"So what does 0.43% actually boil down to in terms of real people?" I hear you ask. Well, my friend, it is funny that you should ask that, because I happen to have done a little research, crunched a few numbers, and I have some statistics right here. These figures are very rough, but they provide food for a lot of thought (or should that be "a lot of food for thought"?  Oh well...)

The current US population 303,350,107 (give or take). The incidence and prevalence of Epilepsy in the US is approximately 50/100,000. It is higher in less developed countries. -We are only looking at Epilepsy for now, although many of these drugs are prescribed for other conditions in this country both on- and off-label. However, the FDA report stated that the population apparently at greatest risk from this particular problem were those prescribed these drugs for Epilepsy. Let's keep it small for now (I'm not very good with numbers) 

So we have approximately 151,675 people with Epilepsy in the US. If we take 0.43% of these, we have roughly 3,527 people at risk presently. That’s not such a small number. It is more than died in the World Trade Center. If we take into account that many of these drugs have been around for a decade or longer… Hmmm. So how many people might have been effected over the years? Also, when you think that most epileptics are prescribed many drugs and drug combinations before the correct one is found, most of these 3,527 people were exposed to risk several times. I don’t know the exact number, but in my mind it is far too high to be acceptable

Now let’s look at the risk: it’s pretty nasty. If a person actually managed to kill themselves because of an undocumented drug side effect, the person is blamed –not the drug. The family left behind suffers horribly. Life insurance is null and void, so if the Epileptic happened to be the primary earner, the rest of the family will be screwed. And very often there is a shadow cast upon the remaining family as the community speculates if they somehow contributed to the suicide of their loved one. That's assuming they manage to somehow keep their house, of course.

“But come ON!!”. I hear you say. “If a person tops themself the tendency was obviously there already. The drug must have just pushed them over the edge. Maybe it just hastened the inevitable, but you can't blame the drug...”.

I would have thought that too, you know. Had I not experienced this side-effect for myself, I would not have thought it possible that a normally rational and non-depressed person would suddenly become suicidal as a drug side-effect. But they can. I felt it firsthand. It was horrible –as was the aftermath- and I will tell you all about it.

…Tomorrow.

I am tired now so I will continue this tomorrow. But I will tell you this much: It all started last year on the Monday after the Superbowl...

(ain't I a stinker?)

OK. I just edited this to add some practical information for yuou guys,m because I know a lot of my on-line friends have taken these drugs -or theitr children have. (apologies for the bad HTML. I have no patience for this stuff). Here is a list of the drugs involved:

carbamazepine (marketed as Carbatrol, Equetro, Tegretol, Tegretol XR)

felbamate (marketed as Felbatol)

gabapentin (marketed as Neurontin)

lamotrigine (marketed as Lamictal)

levetiracetam (marketed as Keppra)

oxcarbazepine (marketed as Trileptal)

pregabalin (marketed as Lyrica) dec 30^th 2004

tiagabine (marketed as Gabitril)

topiramate (marketed as Topamax)

valproate (marketed as Depakote, Depakote ER, Depakene, Depacon)

zonisamide (marketed as Zonegran)

Here is a link to the report on WebMD: http://www.webmd.com/epilepsy/news/20080131/suicide-risk-from-11-epilepsy-drugs

Comments

[By His Grace]

OSM,

Looking at the list of meds, it occurs to me that your number of those at risk for suicide would be much higher, considering all those patients who take those meds for other reasons! Such as Neurontin, which is a very widely prescribed drug. My husband tried that and he became so confused he resembled someone with Alzheimers. I tried it too and quit b/c of the brain fog it gave to me. All of our CM and SM friends and diabetics and MSers all sure do know about these meds!! So, I dare to venture that the number of at-risk patients might be much, much higher.

Good info and great read!
loveya, galfriend!
BHG