jwissmille

STRATERRA, THE NEW DRUG FOR ADHD

JANUARY 10, 2004. I have received several queries about the new medication for
ADHD (in children and adults), STRATERRA. It has been heavily touted as "a
non-stimulant alternative to Ritalin."

Here are my initial observations. The drug was approved by the FDA on November
26, 2002, and began selling in January of 2003. ALL NEW DRUGS carry the risk of
the unknown. What was found during pre-marketing studies---even the adverse
effects---may not full describe what patients experience later on when the drug
hits the market.

For example, I have heard of one case of an autistic child who had seizures or
something resembling seizures after starting on Straterra. Of course, I have no
idea why the kid was on the drug to begin with, since it was okayed for ADHD.
Some doctor prescribed it.

Straterra is supposed to regulate, in a good way, the norepinephrine
neurotransmitter in the body. Well, the whole premise of many psychiatric drugs
is that they can narrowly target a specific neurotransmitter system---but in
fact, that is a completely unwarranted assumption. These systems naturally
interact in the body, and therefore the drugs can have an unpredictable
slop-over effect on more than one system. It's called brain roulette.

Some commonly observed effects of Straterra in adults (I would suspect these
effects are more pronounced in children): decreased appetite, constipation,
decreased libido, dizziness, erectile dysfunction, sweating, dry mouth,
insomnia.

Eli Lilly is the manufacturer. I have exposed, in these pages, some of the
manipulations of this giant drug firm before, and if it were my child, I would
not let him within rifle distance of Straterra on that basis alone.

Some depictions of this drug admit that the mechanism of action is unknown. In
other words, although researchers claim it targets, in a very specific and
beneficial fashion, the norepinephrine system, other doctors have grave doubts
that the action of Straterra is understood---which would make it an EXPERIMENT.


Also observed from studies: a significant increase in heart rate and a decrease
in body weight. The latter effect has alerted even the FDA to the possibility
that Straterra stunts growth in children, AND THE FDA HAS ASKED ELI LILLY FOR
MORE INFORMATION ON THIS SUBJECT, despite the fact that the horse is out of the
barn, the drug is already on the market.

Straterra was originally developed as an antidepressant, and it failed to
impress even the FDA and it was rejected. I can just hear the meetings in which
people then said, "Well, that's that. What else can we use this drug for? We
don't want to let all that research time and money go down the drain. How
about, oh, ADHD?"

Norepinephrine is the neurotransmitter that facilitates communication in the
sympathetic nervous system, which is the system that regulates response to
short-term stress. Therefore, Straterra, targeting norepinephrine, aims, in a


with.

Researchers warn that the dosage level of the drug may have to be cut by as
much as 50 percent if the patient already has "moderate hepatic
insufficiency"--- liver problems. This is a tacit admission that Straterra,
like MANY other medical drugs, can have a toxic effect on the liver.

Other effects observed in studies: dyspepsia, fatigue, vomiting, and mood
swings.

Unless one wants to risk seriously injuring his child, one should avoid a
doctor who prescribes this drug along with one of the SSRI antidepressants like
Prozac or Paxil.

And finally, as far as I can tell, the pre-marketing clinical trials of
Straterra in children NEVER WENT LONGER THAN NINE WEEKS. This is a huge red
flag. This is fraudulent science. This is putting people at risk. Because once
the drug went into doctors' hands, they forgot all about the nine-week limit.
They usually do.

You see, for physicians, nine weeks is not normally a signal that this is as
much as anyone knows about the effects of the drug. Nine weeks is interpreted
to mean: NOW WE KNOW EVERYTHING WE NEED TO KNOW TO PRESCRIBE THE DRUG ON A
LONG-TERM BASIS.

So..my personal report card on Straterra is an F.

Now, can I force you to rate it that way, to think of the future of your child
or yourself in that way? Can I make you agree with me? Of course not. Am I
giving you advice as a doctor? No, I'm not a doctor. I just look at doctors and
researchers. I report what I see.

But you see, in this piece I haven't even bothered to mention that ADHD has
never been proved to be a real "disorder." I haven't even gone into that in
this article.

JON RAPPOPORT http://www.nomorefaknews.com