As long as drug companies pay doctors to study effects the outcome will be the same. The only way to get ay true results is have them tested by people that have nothing to gain. Once again big corporations win and the little man pays the price for greed. I am glad the FDA was able to get some money to ease their collective minds for not doing the right thing yet again. Too bad nobody wants to be proactive.

Our society is filled with doctors that prescribe some sort of medication at a moments notice, which contributes to the fact that America has become a pill popping society. Thanks to the pharmaceutical companies we have more prescription pills lying around homes more than at any other time in our history. That being said, people have to take responsibilities for thier own actions. I am not saying that this young man deserved to die, however, he should have been more responsible for his drug interactions. This is tragic for his family and I understand thier concern, I am sure I would feel exactly the same if it were my child that this happened to. I do ask myself, who supplied him with the pain killers?

In addition to its dangerous and violent side effects, Seroquel and its maker have been fined in the BILLIONS recently for its failure to disclose data showing a link to obesity, diabetes, and for promoting off label uses. This data was found during clinical approval studies and buried by the drugs maker.

That's a NICE reward for putting their life on the line in battles zones.

#ITSTHETHOUGHTTHATCOUNTS

It's a shame when "semper fi" doesn't go both ways.

Freedom isn't free, and here's on more price tag paid by a Marine!

Let the bashing of drug companies begin. One word of caution: Although I agree that the system needs to change - truly independent drug studies would be a good start - I am reluctant to dub drug companies the big evil of our society. If not for drug companies I would be dead right now, no two ways about it. I lost my thyroid to cancer last year and I am just grateful that there are drug companies that did the research and came up with a thyroid hormone replacement pill and continue to produce them at a reasonable cost. A person cannot live without thyroid hormone and without my daily pill, I'd hav no way to replace what my body is no longer able to make. I'd be dead. So before we start bashing all the drug companies for their greed and demanding lawsuits to bring them to their knees and bankrupt them for some of their less-than-honorable practices -- remember there is still a lot of good that comes from drug companies. There needs to be changes made - better oversight of practices (particularly studies), less involvement between drug companies and doctors, no marketing of prescription drugs directly to consumers, etc - but let's not brand them all as evil, ok? Reform the idustry, just don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

The "standard of care", as instantiated in such services as the VA, which is informed by the biopsychiatric approach to treating PTSD has, at best, met with mixed results. For decades now, there has been considerable debate over whether treatment of combat-related psychiatric conditions be approached as purely medical, or as a psychosocial "condition"(or an admixture of both). To date, the VA seems to maintain its paradigmatic approach in treating soldiers as one would an "organic" disorder.

The VA, as a federal administration, has seen fit to "treat" as it does, not because of the success rates, but more importantly, for that of expediency. The medicalizing of the moral and social, that is the blood letting of battle, the mplications of war, of the toll it takes on the "susceptible" psyche, are just too overwhelming for a system which concerns itself with the status quo. As the liberal psychiatric establishment would have it: Alter the individual and you alter the social. This is exactly what the psychiatrist qua social engineers has effected, certainly the VA system. In effect, psychiatry is our culture's social and political tranquilizer, and, I dare say, medicine does not figure foremost.

seems to me that an important fact is being overlooked. he was taking a drug that was not prescribed. duh!!! maybe that had something to do with his death. needs to be investigated correctly to identify the real cause of death and what was to blame. don't blame the legal prescribed drug until you have all the facts.

Great, I was just put on this medication because I cannot sleep, I have never been able to my whole life. I told them it makes me feel angry, my friends and work partners have dubbed it the "mean pill" and have mentioned I say terrible things that I would never say any other time. I wake up as mad as a wet hornet and I feel worse than having a bad hangover...looks like I need some other drug, been through numerous sleep studies...I have tried them all so far and that is why they put me on this one.

Holy crap! Seroquel is like giving a guy propofol. I can't believe they would give that to soldier under any circumstance! These parents have a right to be enraged.

What a tragedy. I hope that his families of these heroes are able to cope with their losses and not get consumed in the political turmoil and finger pointing that is sure to come from this information going public.

One of the persons in this article said she "trusted the doctors and the drug companies" and now that her son died, she apparently thinks that trust is violated. In some cases this may be accurate; perhaps so in this case, but I don't have the data to judge at this time. However, what people don't realize is that medicine is not a "rocket science". It is still an art in these borders of knowlege like treating PTSD. These doctors and drug companies were probably well meaning. It is just when you're treating massive numbers of people with severe problems in areas where there isn't a lot of research, bad things can and do happen. The only alternative is not treating people.

On the other hand, the government needs to get off their butt and fund some research on PTSD, brain injury, and other research, if it is going to continue to fight massively expensive wars that damage and kill our young people. I'm not against fighting wars, just dumb wars like Iraq that make us take our eye off the Osama Bin Ladin ball. If we could have put all that time and money into Afghanistan initially, we could have come closer to having a successful outcome, but we dithered and now we are paying the price.

Our local VA hires psychologists that also treat PTSD with EMDR. ( www.emdr.com/ ) It is one of a few more psychological methods used to treat PTSD and in conjunction with medications it definitely helps.

I know of one local physician who gave his wife seroquel for her fibromyalgia. This is a painful, but non-fatal muscle pain disease mostly caused by sleeping problems. Thus, for him to give his wife whom he loves this, I would have to presume he thinks this is not something that would kill or harm her. Innocuous, no, helpful yes.

Now the polypharmacy is an issue and is something that makes pharmacists crazy. However, there are now many programs out there that track all the medications a person is on and will alert a doctor if there is a potential problem. However, if not all medications are listed, it is potentially useless, as was possibly the case here.

So, while this makes for good media, it is so typical of the potential medical side effects of practically any medication a person can name - how about tylenol? Very fatal in high doses, but it is over the counter. Thus, while there needs to be responsibility by the doctor, the drug companies, and the patient and their families, we also need to realize that some people will also die from medications.

There is a trade off and we as a society have to come to terms with what this is and if we are willing to accept it. Otherwise, the trial lawyers will just get richer and richer.

Why isn't every veteran given screenings for TBI? I'm not talking about interviews, either, I'm talking about SPECT scans to determine the damage done from concussions they are exposed to.

PTSD is a handy diagnosis to give when the only thing offered is an interview with a psychiatrist and a drug catalogue.

No human is in need of that many chemicals without having an underlying physiologial cause for symptoms.

This young man is, unfortunately, a poster child as it were, for the limits and pervasiveness of drugs, drug marketing and the robotic process of "modern" healthcare.

He is, unfortunately for he and his family, the storm crow of what veteran's families have to look forward to in the days, months and years to come.

So much for "serving" your country.

Ive thought for a couple of years that off label prescribing of Seroquel should be BANNED no matter WHO the psysician is! Psychatrists are very cavalier about prescribing medications!

I've never been in the service but I've had PTSD and I've been on meds for over 12 years. I've been on Seroquel for over 9 years. I take a cocktail of medications to keep myself stable.

There are a number of side effects to all the medications that I take, the psych ones and the ones for other health reasons. Each person has to be aware of the side effects and not take the word of the doctors. You have to do your own research, you have to be aware of what you put in your body.

Yes, I did this when I was at rock bottom because I had adverse reactions to many medications they tried me on when they were trying to get me stable.

The other thing that is important is, each psych needs to listen to the patient, no matter who they are. If you are not feeling right on your meds after a week or so (time for your body to adjust), you shouldn't have to keep taking them. Slurred speech, jerking limbs, joint pain are all indications that there is a problem.

The other thing is: the lowest possible dose should be used in all cases and any increase in dose should be carefully monitored. I called my pdoc many times when things weren't right and told him I was stopping medication because I didn't feel right.

I am sorry that so many have died because of Seroquel or the mixture of medications. This tells me that the pdoc's who are handing out the meds aren't doing their jobs. This means the Federal Government isn't doing their job.

Something needs to be done about this because these young men and woman are fighting for our country and coming home and fighting for their lives. There is no reason for what they are going thru with their medications.

Again, I'm sorry for what all of your are going through and I hope things get better. Stand up for your rights and don't let others dictate what you should and shouldn't put in your body.

"...and decades later he discovered the brain's endocannabinoid system" Now, even the potheads have a theory for ADHD, thanks to the professors work on the endocannabinoid system. As it stands, there is never a clear connection, for example, between the endocannabinoid system, and its link to either PTSD or ADHD. The lacunae between the brain science and the understanding of how drugs work to "treat" mental illness and disorder, is most problematic and, to date, still speculative. It might seem a moot point to ask whether the drugs actually do treat a medical condition, rather than, say, mask or dull affect, but I think that such a distinction needs to be transparently discussed. Obviously, in matters of treatment, the mental health profession has become heavily reliant on some disease model or other. It is this seeming intransigence, in the face of many contradictions and inconsistencies, that the MH profession might be making people truly susceptible. Most "mental illnesses" and emotional trauma do work themselves out, and I cannot find anything to substantiate that drugs are of any long-term benefit, if any at all.

Our military fighting men are not cut out to be cold hearted unremorseful killers. During WW11 our fighting men had a patriotic reason to kill the Japanese, Germans and their allies. The war in Iraq and Afghanistan is not the same as we are fighting within these countries primarily for political reasons and not to protect the U.S. homeland from actual invasion. Its no wonder that our military men come home with emotional problems as they are not cut out to be what they are made and required to be.

I Guess the Drug works no trouble sleeping now money well spent

He's not dead he's sleeping have you checked?after all he was taking a powerful drug to help him sleep This drug works it put them to SLEEP wasn't that the complaint?

A nurse asked the doctor to give Seroquel to my mom on her first day of admission related to respiratory issues. The nurse, who had been caught slapping my mom, thought it would be calming.

We looked it up and told the doctor NOT to give it to her. It is only an ACCIDENT that my brother overheard the conversation and intervened. Otherwise, they woulda had her doped up with it. It can give dementia to people who don't have it, for starters - and she didn't. And the heart and respiratory cautions should get this thing black-boxed.

The nurses had gone to a pizza luncheon where they received pens and notepads (and pizza) from the makers of the drug that week...

The prescribing of multiple HARMaceuticals resulting in serotonin collapse disorder

(as in the case of Heath Ledger) is no mystery!WAKE UP EVERYONE!

This subject really bothers me. Most disturbing is that we medicate soldiers for PTSD and then send them back out on the battlefield. All of these heros should receive a Purple Heart as PTSD is an injury. I can't understand why they don't. The problem with these meds is not just a military problem, but a national problem as well. Doctors perscribe these meds to regularly and always seem to treat symptoms and not the cause. If they can give a person a pill, and they quit complaining they feel like they have done their job.

I always thought that medication was designed to eleviate a condition. These days once perscribed, it is endless. Forever is a long time. My wife takes celexa daily and I asked the doctor how long the medication will be neccessary and his answer was until my wife decides she doesn't need it. I'm sorry, but how is that practicing medicine? She also perscribed herself with colonopin, lorecet, and several other muscle relaxers. Each time the doc said try this and if you feel better keep taking it. This needs to stop.

army doctors are quacks, and someone must be getting kickbacks for prescribing so much of that medication.

My heart goes out to this soldier and his family, tragic accident. Considering the article mentions that he was also taking other meds, some unprescribed, we simply don't know the entire story. I truly empathize with all veterans, after fighting and serving your country, then dealing with substandard medical care and fighting for promised benefits, aside from enduring PTSD and the horrors of combat, I sincerely thank each and every one of you for all that you have given to our country. However, as a mental health worker and someone who also suffers from PTSD, please don't be so quick to hate the meds. I work with 57 mentally ill, substance abusers and formerly homeless folks and these meds often do wonders. I take meds myself, after being attacked twice and left for dead in a ditch, it had taken years for the nightmares and continual falshbacks of absolute horror to subside to a mangable level where I can go to work. I dont claim to know anything about combat or what vets go through, but a good doctor will use small doses of meds in combination with therapy when you are ready for it. This young man being on 1600mg of seroquel, our schitzophrenics arent even on that high of a dose, this doctor is more to blame, if anything. Then there is the gettign strung out on benzo's, klonopin, xanax, valium that works wonders for anxiety but creates addicts out of most of us, myself included. It took a long time to kick Klonopin when you rely on it just to leave your house, add a couple of scotches, paxil and my dishonesty to all my doctors and I set myself up for a lot of problems. Its a vicous cycle and it preys on vulnerable folks. Meds were necessary for me to get my life back, and for many of my clients, many of whom are vets. Talk to each other and get educated about meds, read the interactions and ask your doctor questions! Thats what they get paid for, we are customers with our lives in their hands! Take care, all of you!

I am quite familiar with PTSD and with seroquel. Seroquel AT THE RIGHT DOSES can be very helpful for some people, though the weight gain and related side effects must be considered. Allowing a patient to increase his or her own dose of such a powerful and potentially dangerous med sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. Also, these meds do interact with a number of other meds; and a patient needs to know exactly what they are-not just prescription meds. The patient himself or herself has to stay on top of all that; because not all doctors will. Look it up or ask a pharmacist. One source needs to know all meds you are taking, even non-prescription ones. Even cold meds or anything over the counter. Ask the pharmacist if you can take these with your prescription meds before you start taking them. It's vitally important.

It's impossible for a drug manufacturer to test interactions between a number of drugs taken together. You have to stay informed and ask questions.

I am not trying to lay blame or anything. I am sorry for the losses suffered by these families.

I just got the results of my son's death. ingestion of seroquil. He was a veteran with PTSD. Legalized murder. The VA psychiatrist said he wasn't a candidate for medication (I read it in his medical records) yet prescribed him six different drugs including seroquil. He was 33 and father of 4 children. Who is going to replace my son and ease my grief.