Depression Talk

If the US government could be eager to spend over $700 billion for the recent economic bailout, they probably won’t blink at the mere $2 million that a soldier’s widow wants for her soldier husband’s 2006 suicide. The suit charges that the Veteran’s Administration branch overseeing the soldier’s treatment had been negligent, ignoring the soldier and leaving him to his own devices.

This is precisely the wrong thing to do with someone showing signs of major depression, since they are prone to harming themselves. Personally, I’ve survived more botched suicide attempts than I care to admit.

RIP Donald Woodward

Donald Woodward was born in Indiana and later moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania (yes, that Lancaster). His story is becoming all-too-familiar among veterans. He went to Iraq, admitted to having to kill three people in combat, was discharged, came back home, was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (shell shock) and major depression, given Zoloft, refused to go back to the VA and then soon he shot himself. He was 23.

The suit alleges that Woodward’s wife repeatedly called the VA to let them know that he was becoming more and more depressed. She also said that her husband was refusing to get any kind of treatment whatsoever and she thinks he stopped taking the Zoloft. The VA basically said, “Gee, that’s tough, but if he won’t come here voluntarily, there’s nothing we can do.” (Keep in mind that we don’t know the VA’s side of the story.)

Zoloft and Suicide

Any antidepressant can backfire and make you even more miserable than you were before. This writer counts herself lucky that fluoxetine (Prozac) works really well with my body and I haven’t tried to kill myself since first taking it.

Zoloft seems to have bad luck in being prescribed to people who can’t tolerate it, but nowhere near as bad as Paxil, which made a lot of headlines over lawsuits from bereaved families of those who took it and then committed suicide. Zoloft is no longer prescribed to people under 18 and some doctors think it shouldn’t be given to anyone under 25. Some other doctors think that’s a load of hooey and that if a milder anitdepressant doesn’t help, the next logical step is a more powerful one.

Anyone taking a new antidepressant has to be closely supervised for worsening behavior. It will be interesting to see what the results of this lawsuit will be.