In 2003, Tim, known to most as Woody, died of a sertraline-induced suicide at age 37. He was not depressed, nor did he have any history of mental illness. He died after taking the drug for five weeks with the dosage being doubled shortly before his death. He was given the antidepressant by his general physician for “insomnia.”
Woody loved life and all that this world has to offer. He had endless energy, a constant smile and truly cared for others. He had a successful career in sales and was active in the community, socially and politically, always willing to fight against injustice. Woody truly inspired others to be the best they could be.
Woody went to his regular internist because he was having trouble sleeping, in part because he had just started a new position as vice president of sales with a start-up company about two months earlier. He was excited about this dream opportunity to make his mark on the business world. Along with this excitement came some stress and difficulty sleeping.
This was the first time he’d ever gone to a doctor for this sort of issue. Woody’s doctor gave him three weeks’ worth of sertraline samples and told him to come back for a follow-up appointment after the samples were finished. There was no discussion about the risks or the need to be closely monitored because of this mind-altering drug. The first three weeks Woody was taking sertraline his wife was out of the country on business and no one was monitoring him. Within a couple of days, he experienced many of the known side effects of sertraline, e.g. night sweats, diarrhoea, trembling hands, and worsened anxiety.
One of the most significant side effects Woody had was akathisia. He was very restless, which caused him not to sleep, and irritable and felt he always needed to keep moving.
Shortly before his death, Woody came home crying after driving around all day. He sat in a foetal position on the kitchen floor profusely sweating with his hands pressing around his head saying, “Help me. Help me. I don’t know what’s happening to me. I am losing my mind. It’s like my head is outside my body looking in.” The next day, Woody called his doctor to tell him what happened and was told to be patient because it could take four to six weeks before the drug worked.
Over the course of the next week, in typical Woody fashion, he was looking for ways to “beat this feeling in my head all while still running three to four miles a day. Two weeks later, when sertraline should have worked according to his doctor, Woody was found hanging from the rafters in the garage. Woody’s family and friends only wish they knew then what they know now. It wasn’t Woody’s head. It was the drug.
Never once did Kim, Woody’s wife, or Woody question the drug. Why would they? It was FDA approved, heavily promoted as safe and effective, and it was given by his doctor. People trust their doctors, who assume the FDA and the drug companies did their job to ensure that the drugs they prescribe are safe and effective.
The day Woody died, the front page of the local newspaper had an article that people in the UK had found a link between antidepressants and suicide in teens. Kim’s quest for the truth has led her to testify about the dangers of SSRIs at hearings in the US Senate, at the FDA, the Health Department, Congress and the courts. Together with other campaigners, she was active in getting black box warnings added to antidepressants.
(First published in my book, Deadly Psychiatry and Organised Denial)