http://www.nwemail.co.uk/news/viewarticle.aspx?id=805695
WORRIES: Coroner Ian Smith
SOUTH Cumbria coroner Ian Smith will contact drug authorities because
he fears people are killing themselves after taking antidepressants.
Mr Smith is to write to the Committee on the Safety of Medicines – an
independent advisory body on the quality and safety of medicines –
following the inquest into the death of Nigel Woodburn.
Mr Woodburn drove into a tree just four days after being prescribed
controversial antidepressants.
The retired bank manager, of Bardsea Green, was killed at the wheel
of his car on June 16, minutes after confessing to his wife he'd had
suicidal thoughts. He had been prescribed Citalopram after becoming
depressed through ill health.
His heart-broken family said they were not aware of the suicide risks
associated with antidepressants until the issue was highlighted at Mr
Woodburn's inquest this week.
Mr Smith told Tuesday's inquest he knew of several other suspected
suicides involving the same group of antidepressants, known as
selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs).
He said: "I have to say this is probably the fifth, if not sixth
inquest I've heard within a period of three years when somebody
either just going on to Citalopram or Seroxat, or coming off it, have
killed themselves one way or another, totally out of the blue,
totally without expectation, without a history of suicidal thoughts
in the past.";
Mr Woodburn's stepson, Gareth Salton, said: "I want people to
understand the effects these drugs have.
"I want people to know it isn't just something you read about in the
national media."
On the morning of his death, Mr Woodburn, 68, told his wife Rita he'd
been thinking of killing himself.
"Even at that time I wasn't unduly concerned," she said.
"I didn't think for a minute he was going to do anything silly."
Mrs Woodburn went to ring her son, Gareth, and when she returned to
the sitting room her husband had gone and the car was missing.
He travelled a short distance, in his pyjamas and dressing gown,
along the A5087 coast road before crashing into a tree.
Collision investigator PC Philip Murray confirmed tyre tracks on the
grass verge were consistent with rolling wheels, which indicates
brakes weren't applied.
Consultant histopathologist at Furness General Hospital, Dr Marek
Witkowski, said the cause of death was a head injury.
Mr Woodburn had also suffered a ruptured aorta, which Dr Witkowski
said raised questions about whether this caused the accident or
happened upon impact.
Mr Smith said: "I think it is highly unlikely this man, who had just
expressed for the first time in his life thoughts about suicide,
should just by chance have had the ruptured aorta which caused the
accident."
Mr Smith returned a narrative verdict that Mr Woodburn died in a road
vehicle collision.
He added: "I think what happened to Mr Woodburn was in part as a
result of the drugs he was taking. There has been publicity about
these drugs recently, particularly relating to younger adults, and it
does seem to me it's something that needs to highlighted."
After the inquest, Mr Salton, 40, added: "I want people to know how
awful these drugs are, and that when friends and family are put on
these drugs to recognise what might happen, so they don't go through
the nine months of self-recrimination that this family has."
Coroner's officer Liz Gaskell stressed that anybody concerned about
these antidepressants must consult their GP.
.
