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Effexor kills more than just people using it

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jamesfriends
Starting Member

3 Posts

Posted - 06/24/2008 : 11:53:07

We have joined this forum seeking help. Not for our or others symptoms, conditions, or withdrawals but for help in creating a defense for a young man currently awaiting trial, charged with first degree murder. The State is seeking the death penalty.
Let me explain briefly the situation. We am limited on the details that we can share because this case is still open and because of the possibility of damaging the case. Real names are not give, real dates are not given. The information that is given is true to the best of our knowledge and most of it verifiable by autopsy results.
On June 5, 2007 James woke up to find his girlfriend Sarah, dead lying beside him.
James claims that he and her had been drinking the day before. He was drinking beer and Sarah was drinking wine. Sarah has a history of excessive wine consumption. James states that when Sarah was drinking, she would never just stop drinking. Instead she would drink until she passed out or went to bed. Sarah, not James, also smoked marijuana as regularly as her budget would allow.
When James lay down to go to sleep on the night of June 4, Sarah was still awake, smoking marijuana and drinking wine to excess. The known prescription drugs that Sarah would take for depression, anxiety, and a thyroid condition were Effexor (Venlafaxine), Levothyroine Synthroid, and Xanax. The autopsy showed ethanol in her blood and Venlafaxine. No other drugs were shown to be present including marijuana.
Five months earlier, mid February, Sarah was taken to a hospital ER for an Effexor overdose in a suicide attempt. She had consumed over 60 Effexor tablets and had been drinking alcohol. She was revived and released within 32 hours. Sarah had at least one other suicide attempt several years prior by leaping from a moving vehicle.
On September 2, 2007, James was arrested for first degree murder. The method he is accused of is strangulation. Based on the autopsy, Sarahs left side of her neck, in an area of 2x1 there were 10-15 tardieu-like spots with no pattern and scattered petichiae. No trauma to the right side of her neck.
As with any criminal case, there are many stories, reports and theorys. Too many to print in this forum. The information shared above will hopefully be enough to help us in our mission. That is, to attempt to find similar cases or stories on sudden death involving Effexor, (Venlafaxine) mixed with alcohol. Documentation would of course be the most helpful, however, we have had little success in finding documented cases hence the need for help.
If any forum members have any information regarding death in this manner or any link ideas that may lead us to additional information, it would be very helpful in assisting us in saving the life of yet another Venlafaxine victim.
Thanks to all in advance.

Jame's Friends

HennyPenny
Starting Member

1 Posts

Posted - 06/29/2008 : 14:43:46

I am so sorry for all the troubles you are facing. I took effexor and it helped me very much. The only side effect was I got tired a lot. I hope things work out for you. I often wonder if the anti-depressants even work at all if someone drinks while taking them as isn't alcohol a depressant? Good luck.

mabeth
Starting Member

4 Posts

Posted - 07/08/2008 : 07:51:44

Hi Jamesfriends. I can see you posted twice so I'm now repeating the reply I gave to your other post, to try to ensure you get this information.

Hi Jamesfriends. Venlafaxine alone can cause heart failure.

For instance, see: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4085/is_200304/ai_n9196436/pg_3

Titled:

"Drug-induced pneumonitis and heart failure simultaneously associated with venlafaxineAmerican Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Apr 1, 2003 by Drent, Marjolein, Singh, Suveer, Gorgels, Anton P M, Hansell, David M, Et al."

I'd suggest you contact a lawyer that has experience dealing with pharmaceutical drug injury. You would need a very good lawyer as drug makers will go to great lengths to protect the reputation of a profitable drug, particularly in a court case.

As Vickery & Walder (lawyers with experience) has said:

http://www.socialaudit.org.uk/5016-112.htm

"Our responsibility - which we take very seriously - is to discourage litigation in all but the most egregious cases. Involving yourself in a lawsuit with defendants with unlimited resources is a mammoth undertaking, sapping most of your emotional, spiritual and economic resources. In the face of tragedy, these resources are already seriously depleted. Our experience is that the pharmaceutical companies will do virtually anything to protect their multibillion dollar drugs. When you sue them, their lawyers will open virtually every closet door in your life and microscopically examine every skeleton. Every aspect of your life - a spouse's drinking problem, a daughters abortion, problems at work - will be blamed for what their drug might have caused. It's not a bit overstating the rigors of litigation to tell you that the process itself might just be worse than the tragedy that caused the filing of the claim."

In this case, it would perhaps be safest for you to assume that the drug maker Wyeth and their lawyers would rather James takes the blame for murder than their drug getting a court record of causing death, as this would pave the way for class actions against them for similar reasons.

Vickery & Waldner (as mentioned above) have a great deal of experience in drug injury or death cases.
Baum Hedlund are I believe equally experienced.

I'd STRONGLY suggest that you contact either of those firms and explain the situation to them. Both firms should have ample information re drug ADRs at their disposal.

Vickery & Waldner's website is here:
http://justiceseekers.com/index.cfm/MenuItemID/76.htm

Baum Hedlund's website is here:
http://www.baumhedlundlaw.com/bhl2/baumhedlund.php

All the very best to 'James' and yourselves.

mabeth
Starting Member

4 Posts

Posted - 07/08/2008 : 08:36:21

Trying to find more information that might help. There's this:

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/546633

"...In postmarketing reports, overdose with venlafaxine occurred predominantly in combination with alcohol and/or other drugs and most commonly presented as tachycardia, changes in level of consciousness that range from somnolence to coma, mydriasis, seizures, and vomiting.

Other adverse events have included electrocardiogram changes (eg, QT interval prolongation, bundle-branch block, and QRS prolongation), ventricular tachycardia, bradycardia, hypotension, rhabdomyolysis, vertigo, liver necrosis, serotonin syndrome, and death..."

Serotonin Syndrome itself can sometimes be fatal. While the first of the paragraphs shows alcohol influence and drugs, the second paragraph is referring to adverse effects of venlafaxine without the involvement of alcohol.

There is also the question of a whether 'Sarah' was one of the percentage of the population (some estimates are about 20%) who cannot metabolize antidepressants due to genetic polymorphism re enzymes in the liver. For some lead on that see the abstract here:

http://www.nature.com/tpj/journal/v8/n1/full/6500462a.html jsessionid=BD38774BE58804EB278618E00EC221E6
Titled:

"The Pharmacogenomics Journal (2008) 8, 415; doi:10.1038/sj.tpj.6500462; published online 5 June 2007

The clinical role of genetic polymorphisms in drug-metabolizing enzymes..."

It may be CYP2D6 that metabolizes antidepressants that the drug makers call SSRI and SNRI, but I'm not sure. Although the role of enzymes has been known for some years by drug makers and in pharmacology, publications are sometimes still announced as 'new findings' on the topic, such as this recent one:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/114040.php
titled:
"Prozac Gene Test Good For Patients, Royal College Of Psychiatrists".

While the title states 'Prozac', all antidepressants and many other medical drugs rely on enzymes for metabolizing, and although the article states that some 'depressed people' have a genetic flaw (genetic polymorphism), the genetic flaw has nothing to do with depression, its a proportion of the population generally that have genetic polymorphism. If 'Sarah' was a part of that population, then she would be more likely to suffer a build up of toxic drug effects of antidepressants and those drug effects include 'death'.

Did the autopsy include genetic testing? It may be crucial for the sake of 'James' that this is done.

The lawyers that have experience in drug injury would have all that information.

Apologies if you have already researched those issues but, as I don't know whether you have or not, I've brought them up in the hope that they might help.

Will copy this over to the other thread you started in the hope you see the information.

All the best.

jamesfriends
Starting Member

3 Posts

Posted - 07/17/2008 : 08:22:57

Thanks to all for your response. The information and links that you have shared have been and continue to be extreamly helpful.

Friends of James

Jame's Friends

warblaster
Super Incredible Member (10000+ posts)