Wednesday, June 18, 2008

'Disposable Heroes': Veterans Used To Test Suicide-Linked Drugs

Can we say we're surprised?
---------------------------------------------

An ABC News and Washington Times Investigation Reveals Vets Are Being Recruited for Government Tests on Drugs with Violent Side Effects

Mentally distressed veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are being recruited for government tests on pharmaceutical drugs linked to suicide and other violent side effects, an investigation by ABC News and The Washington Times has found.

The report will air on Good Morning America and will also appear in The Washington Times on Tuesday. (click here to read the Washington Times coverage of "Disposable Heroes")

In one of the human experiments, involving the anti-smoking drug Chantix, Veterans Administration doctors waited more than three months before warning veterans about the possible serious side effects, including suicide and neuropsychiatric behavior.

"Lab rat, guinea pig, disposable hero," said former US Army sniper James Elliott in describing how he felt he was betrayed by the Veterans Administration.

Elliott, 38, of suburban Washington, D.C., was recruited, at $30 a month, for the Chantix anti-smoking study three years after being diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He served a 15-month tour of duty in Iraq from 2003-2004.

Months after he began taking the drug, Elliott suffered a mental breakdown, experiencing a relapse of Iraq combat nightmares he blames on Chantix.

"They never told me that I was going to be suicidal, that I would cease sleeping. They never told me anything except this will help me quit smoking," Elliott told ABC News and The Washington Times.

read more here

-------------------------------

It's not like they didn't know this drug had problems. Click on these for more stories:

FDA Issues Public Health Advisory on Chantix

FAA bans anti-smoking drug Chantix for pilots, air controllers

plenty more where this came from...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It’s interesting to see that even a boring topic like medicine can capture such media space and have so many words devoted to it. To quote an instance we can mention chantix. Its one of those drugs that almost represents the whole concept of the quit smoking drugs, or rather publicity has made it that. Irrespective of the fact how chantix works or how effective it is it has managed to gain a fair amount of attention and make way to the people’s homes. Thanks to publicity or rather publicity agenda superstardom for a drug was an unthought of concept a few years back. http://www.chantixhome.com/

Anonymous said...

It’s interesting to see that even a boring topic like medicine can capture such media space and have so many words devoted to it. To quote an instance we can mention chantix. Its one of those drugs that almost represents the whole concept of the quit smoking drugs, or rather publicity has made it that. Irrespective of the fact how chantix works or how effective it is it has managed to gain a fair amount of attention and make way to the people’s homes. Thanks to publicity or rather publicity agenda superstardom for a drug was an unthought of concept a few years back. http://www.chantixhome.com/