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| FEATURES | BY CLAIRE DAVIES |
 David Campbell feels trapped on Seroxat |
When I met him he was feeling “shaky and sick and weird”. In a later email he was feeling a bit calmer. A deep feeling of unease is a constant. David, 33, has suffered from depression all his life. Eighteen months ago, after trying counselling and consulting psychiatrists, his Gower Street GP suggested he give Seroxat a try. Now he says he is addicted. Seroxat is one of the world’s biggest-selling anti-depressants. It contains Serotonin, a chemical which affects mood. GlaxoSmithKline – the drug giant that manufactures Seroxat – denies recent media claims that the drug is addictive, that it can lead to episodes of self-harm and even suicide with little warning. David tells how he started off on 10mg of the drug (half a tablet). “The first three weeks of taking Seroxat were absolute hell. I kept having panic attacks and hyperventilating so I went back to my GP and asked if I could stop. He said to give it more time. “After a while my body settled down and I began to feel great. “When you take a full tablet everything just glosses over. The building could be on fire and you’d be totally calm.” David, who works as a deputy bursar at a University of London hall of residence in Malet Street, Bloomsbury, felt content with his new calmer outlook. “I had never felt so relaxed, and the doctor and the patient information leaflet both categorically stated the tablets were not addictive,” he says. “With this in mind I thought I’d take Seroxat for a bit, until my outlook had improved and then I’d stop.” But it was in trying to stop that David’s problems began. “I just went cold turkey,” he recalls. “I’d been told it was non-addictive and I was feeling a lot better so I stopped.” The results were immediate and catastrophic, he says. “Quite simply, I had never felt so bad. Almost immediately I couldn’t stop crying. I had terrible mood swings and became really aggressive. “I was physically sick with sudden shooting pains and all the feelings of anxiety that the drugs had calmed came back but 100 times worse. After a few weeks I just had to go back onto it, and almost immediately I started feeling better. “Then all the bad publicity about Seroxat really began and I realised it wasn’t just me. The press coverage was terrifying but also reassuring because you realise you’re not the only one, that you’re not going insane.” David does not blame his GP, who explained that all drugs have some side-effects. He just wishes he had been given more information. It helps that his partner, family and friends have been deeply supportive, although for a time he was too embarrassed to admit he was taking the drug. Currently David is down to half a tablet and is seeing a counsellor. “I feel trapped. On half a tablet this feeling of doom engulfs me all the time,” he says. “And then there are the physical effects – the acne, the headaches, putting on two stone, the lack of concentration. “My doctor and my partner have both said, maybe this isn’t the right time to get off it, but can there ever be a right time? A spokesman for GlaxoWellcome said in a statement: “Depression affects one in seven people in the UK and is a potentially deadly disease and Seroxat is an effective treatment that since its launch has helped millions of people worldwide. “The majority of people do not suffer side effects on either taking Seroxat or on stopping. But some do. We acknowledge that patients may experience symptoms on stopping Seroxat. Although we maintain that Seroxat is not addictive, we have proposed that we will take out that specific wording on the patient information leaflet as we realsied on talking to patients that it did not add to their understanding of what to expect when they stop taking the product.” n The Seroxat users group can be found at www.seroxatusergroup. org.uk. |
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