Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)

Hopefully, This Will Work Better Than Zyprexa

Posted by "GrrlScientist" on April 29, 2007
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Did you hear that Eli Lilly, the company that was caught in a big kerfuffle over Zyprexa (Olanzapine), recently released an antidepressant for dogs? The product, called Reconcile (fluoxetine hydrochloride), is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) that is prescribed for dogs that suffer separation anxiety. It is prescribed on a dose-to-weight basis for use in conjunction with behavior modification training to help ease anxiety in dogs that become stressed-out when their owners leave them behind to go to work or for other reasons.

“Lilly research shows that 10.7 million, or up to 17 percent of U.S. dogs(1) suffer from separation anxiety,” said Steve Connell, D.V.M., manager of technical, academic and consumer services for companion animal health at Lilly. “We’re thrilled that our first product for dogs can help restore the human-pet bond, which can be compromised when dogs suffer from separation anxiety.”

Reconcile is a chewable flavored tablet that is proven safe for dogs and puppies 6 months or older.

In field studies of approximately 600 dogs, 73 percent of dogs that were receiving Reconcile showed improvement in separation anxiety-related behavior within eight weeks when compared with dogs receiving behavior modification training alone. Within one week of starting Reconcile(TM) treatment and behavior modification training, 42 percent of dogs showed improvement. During trials, the most common adverse reactions to Reconcile were calm or lethargy, reduced appetite, vomiting, shaking, diarrhea, restlessness, excessive vocalization, aggression and — in infrequent cases — seizures. [story]

Considering that the Chinese tainted pet food intended for American and Canadian pets, I wonder what they think of Americans and their pets now?

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  1. #1 Diane in Ohio
    April 29, 2007

    Years back My Vet. offered medicine to help treat epileptic episodes in a rescued Boston Terrier I aquired. Outlandishly expensive!! nothing I could afford to obtain so leaching with tea and trying different foods to see what the poor lil’thing could handle to eat resulting in foods without red colorings. His episodes got fewer & fewer. Makes me wonder how expensive THIS might be and how rich Eli Lilly will get as many dogs seem to suffer from separation anxiety. I’ve sent this article to my Vet.and ask about the pricing – curious to get his reply……

  2. #2 Moire
    April 29, 2007

    Grr. Woof woof. Lilly has no shame. First they picked on, and still are people with mental illness, then people with dementia, then children with the result that many died or got diabetes. Got diabetes, they said? Do I have a diabetes drug for you!!! A two-fer.

    That will probably be the saga of this little adventure, with results not yet known since Lilly likes to hide its results. But I am sure they are hoping that at least one of the negative outcomes for dogs will be something they can make a drug for.

    Lilly is number one terrible. My advice: Don’t use your dog as a guinea pig…

  3. #3 Virginia
    April 29, 2007

    Oh, my DOG! I mean God!!

    Eli Lilly has NO shame,no ethics, no credibility whatsoever.

    I find it signficant that I am reading this the week after all the stories about the VTech murderer and his profound use of SSRI’s.

    Zyprexa IS a killer drug. I knew that it was prescribed to my son who had drug psychosis. He was labelled paranoid schizophrenic. I tried valiantly to keep him off it. I tried valiantly to GET HIM OFF IT. He is 22 and last July he had a STROKE. I was prepared for the diabetes and pancreatitis (one gets that as the body fights to NOT get the diabetes) .. but a STROKE? At 22. The fight against Eli Lilly has not come to the courts here in Canada YET, but the of counsel lawyer is the man who beat the Red Cross during the tainted blood scandal and the court battle should be a jolter.

    Back to DAWGS .. I have seen seperation anxiety in dogs. I HAD a Ridgeback. The SPCA (where I got here) told me she was a Golden Retriever mix. Yeah, right. They said she was at the facility as the owners had a baby and they couldn’t keep her any more. The dog had never had clicker training (btw, folks, this is what they mean by “behavior modification”) which is essential for a dog that was BREED to be that agressive.

    I could not understand her ways. So her seperation “anxiety” got really bad. She was in FULL SCALE GRIEF, and I surely do not blame her. These are some of the world’s strongest dogs and needs TONS Of exercise and freedom to roam, things I could not give her.

    She began to nip at me AND she took over all the furniture. You cannot fight a Ridgeback. Eventually I took the dog back after I got SCARS from her biting me when I sat down on my own sofa.

    She was put in quarantine and behavior modified for several months before they tried to let her be adopted again. (Poor ole Daisy! I am SO sorry .. but I did have to bring you back)

    Now, the POINT is – what would happen should Daisy be put on SSRI’s?

    Note the side effect you have just sort of SKIPPED over – AGGRESSION. This is far likely to cause more problems than seizures, actually. Really really damaging for the dawg to be punished for what is a natural reaction to an ABNORMAL situation. What we are looking at here is post traumatic stress disorder (the dog lost its best friends and protectors) … it is NOT depression.

    But what do you think Daisy’s chances of being put on Reconcile, had the drug been available back then ..?

    I would say 100%. Why?

    Because Eli Lily is totally unethical about selling drugs to organizations and to care facilities. Several states have sued over this (Mississippi is a case in point) connection between diabetes and zyprexa. THEY have been picking up the tab for treatment of those who developed diabates on zyprexa and WANT THE MONEY TO PAY FOR THE TREATMENTS coming from the corporation that did the damage.

    Who makes the pills for diabetes treatment .. why Eli Lily OF COURSE.

    I refer any one reading this to Newstarget, an excellent anti Big Pharma blog by Mike Adams. It’s an eye opener. My blog has several articles (in the main not written by me but just reposts) about BIG PHARMA.

    I am angry enuf about pharmocorporate acculturation in our society, without now having to worry about the canine population being drug to death and seizure land.

    If you go to http://www.ladybroadoak.blogspot.com — just run a blog search on Big Pharma or zyprexa (teen screen articles are interesting, too) and although I wasn’t using links back then, you will surely see a picture emerge of a corporation that is truly not helpful to living things.

    And, btw, it is interesting to note who is on and/or has been on the Board of Directors of Eli Lilly. Why is that George H. Bush …? And a few others who are still making a financial killing with their stock ..? This corporations profits remain startling stable despite the rapid decline of zyprexa prescriptions .. why? They are just double dosing those who are still unfortunately on it …

    NOTE: The real public awareness about Zyprexa only surfaced when NYT ran a series on diabetes. Everyone they interviewed was on some form of SSRI or atypical antipsychotic. A few of us pointed it out when we read about it. We KNEW the reason they were overweight, bloated, lethargic, etc and talked about in the comments LONG AND LOUD.

  4. #4 Virginia
    April 29, 2007

    BTW, GREAT blog. Very very great blog.

  5. #5 Mary
    April 29, 2007

    Lilly, aka Scummy, will be summoned to hearings in both the House and the Senate over the internal documents that Jim Gottstein, my hero, sailed out into the world via the NY Times and the WEB. The cat is out of the bag that Lilly knew before ever putting it on the market that Zyprexa caused diabetes, hyperglycemia, and death. To this day they don’t admit it even thought it is now down in black and white. And they have “paid off” (i.e. bought the silence of) 26000 people who took Zyprexa and got diabetes or died. They also picked on people for whom they did not have FDA clearance (off label marketing), namely the elderly with dementia(lots of deaths) and CHILDREN.

    Would you subject your beloved Fifi to something this company made? Will they have advertising on TV? ” Is Fido unhappy and anxious? Take him to your vet for some poison and all will be well.”

    Glad to see there is a spirit of anti drug anarchy developing in Canada. It’s a David and Goliath battle.

  6. #6 Diane in Ohio
    April 29, 2007

    Geeeesh,I knew about this:http://www.alexanderlaw.com/zyprexa/index.html but these posts have really opened my eyes to this company now!

  7. #7 Aaron Boyden
    May 1, 2007

    Interesting. Of course, olanzipine is widely known to have severe side effects (though it’s disturbing that Eli Lilly has apparently been trying so hard to downplay those effects), while it is quite clear that severe side effects from fluoxetine in humans are extremely rare. However, dogs aren’t people, and considering the company’s rep, I guess I would be skeptical as to whether they’ve adequately evaluated the side effects for dogs, or whether they’d admit it if any significant problems were detected in their tests.