pharmaceutical drugsThe drug company, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) deliberately covered up the link between the use of it’s antidepressant drug Seroxat and an increased risk of suicide in adolescents.

They would have us believe that the drugs they produce for us are risk free, a modern-day panacea to cure all our emotional ills.

Consequently the medical profession hand them out like sweets. But we the public are the ones who take the risk with our health, or in this case our lives. The side effects of pharmaceutical drugs, particularly the SSRI antidepressants are manifold.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying they should never be used – of course they can be very useful and effective in certain circumstances. But all too often they are not matched to individuals sufficiently carefully. And clearly, financial rewards are causing companies to rush unsuitable drugs through into release before they have even been made safe.

The American writer Robert Whitaker suggests that psychiatric drugs peddled by the hugely profitable pharmaceutical industry are indeed causing more ill-health than they are curing.

Where does that leave you? If you’re needing medication to help you deal with depression or anxiety for example, then of course you tend to depend on what the doctor prescribes. Maybe it’s time to start looking at the alternatives to conventional western medicine in that case…