A Perfect Wife and Mother:

The Truth Behind the Suicide on Pleasant Street 

 

By Alison Cintorrino

 

 

   “A perfect wife and mother”.  We hear that phrase used so often to describe the victim of some unthinkable tragedy that, over time, it has become almost cliché.  When that phrase is used to describe Diane Routhier it means simply this: that her husband considered her his soulmate and anchor in what is always a turbulent world and whose physical beauty was matched only by her kind and radiant spirit.  It means that her 2 young sons were in the unique position of being without complaint.  It means that in the eyes of those who looked at her daily, she was perfect.

     So the question remains: why was Diane found over a year and a half ago with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head? “Suicide on Pleasant Street” was the entry made in the police log section of the paper. Those of us who go through life unfettered by a need to examine complex issues can simply take out our grab bags of rubber stamps, along with a sizable dose of cynicism, and stamp an easy label on confusing events: DEPRESSION, INSANITY, DARK SECRETS….  Use your imagination here.  That’s what the “experts” did.

     The fact is Diane took a drug.  A drug prescribed by her family doctor.  Because she complained of stomach pains and it never occurred to her doctor that pain in the body indicates a problem of a physical nature that needs to be diagnosed and then addressed.  Because handing out pills is simple, cost effective, time efficient and makes you appear to know what you’re doing.  He handed her a sample package of Wellbutrin and 6 days later she was dead.

     Many of us are aware by now that the FDA has required a “black box warning” be placed on many of the newer antidepressants, including Wellbutrin.  For those who are completely confused now: “Wellbutrin is an antidepressant?  I thought you said she had stomach pains?”. Yes, Wellbutrin is an antidepressant but it’s also a magic pill that can and is prescribed for a diverse collection of complaints, from obesity to nicotine addiction.  And apparently gastro-intestinal disorders as well.  It must be magic because it’s own manufacturer, Glaxo-Smithkline, admits that even they aren’t sure exactly how it works.  And no, Diane was not depressed and never suffered from a mental illness, diagnosed or otherwise.

     A “black box warning” is the strongest warning used on a prescription product and usually indicates a drug that should not be used except under the most desperate circumstances.  These new warnings on antidepressants address the high rates of suicide and violent behaviors that occurred during clinical trials on pediatric patients. A big problem here is that no one (the “experts”, the pharmaceutical regulatory departments of various countries, etc.) can seem to agree on a cut-off date for the term pediatric.  18?  20-something?  30?

      Another big problem is that lots of adults have killed themselves during clinical trials of Wellbutrin but for some reason the company doesn’t talk about that.  It’s not in the PDR (Physician’s Desk Reference), it’s not in the package insert.  It’s certainly not in the newspaper.  But if you make a Freedom of Information Act request to the FDA for Wellbutrin’s drug approval information and wait months and months to get it and then go through several hundred pages where they removed information with whiteout or black marker or the word “redacted”, then your patience and fortitude will be rewarded.  Then you will find that in the initial clinical trials 14 subjects (also known as people) attempted suicide and 9 more “completed” suicides.  The manufacturer simply stated that these “events”, suicide attempts and deaths, were “not attributable” to Wellbutrin .  No one at the FDA bothered to ask what the manufacturer DID attribute all these “events” to and Glaxo never volunteered that information.  Don’t ask, don’t tell.  And by the way, it not unusual for clinical trials with less than positive outcomes to get buried before the FDA can see them. These were trials that actually saw the light of day.

     Then there’s MedWatch, the FDA’s VOLUNTARY adverse event reporting system.  Most of us are not aware of it’s existence and so do not report adverse drug events to MedWatch with great frequency.  Doctors are, at least, aware that it exists but unfortunately are responsible for making fewer reports than the uninformed general public.  It’s VOLUNTARY you know.  The GOA (Government Office of Accountability) estimates that reports to MedWatch represent anywhere from 10% to as little as 1% of the actual number of events.  As of 2003, 202 reports were made to MedWatch implicating Wellbutrin in a death by suicide.  I won’t force anyone to do math.  Here it is: going by the GOA estimates, that means that up to 20,200 people may have committed suicide on Wellbutrin between 1997 (when MedWatch went into effect) and 2003.

     We now know that these drugs can cause “akathisia” which is a condition best described by those who have experienced it: jumping out of your skin, speeding, going nuts.  Psychosis has always been on the list of known side effects.

     In a perfect world, when this drug was removed from the market in 1986, the manufacturer would not have been given the chance to use statistical sleights of hand to once again profit from this dangerous product.  In that world Diane’s family would not have had to initiate a lawsuit against the manufacturer for hiding the truth or the doctor whose incompetence puts all his patients at risk.

          Diane ultimately received an accurate diagnosis.  She had gallbladder disease.  She was diagnosed by the doctor who performed her autopsy. 

    

Author’s note: More information on the pending litigation between the estate of Diane Routhier and Smithkline-Beecham  Corp. can be found at WWW.SSKRPLAW.COM.    

 

The author of this article is a plaintiff in a separate lawsuit against the manufacturer of Wellbutrin. 

   

 

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