Seroxat - BBC Panorama analysis of e-mails by Charles Medawar

Paroxetine, Panorama and user reporting of
ADRs: Consumer intelligence matters in
clinical practice and post-marketing drug surveillance

http://www.socialaudit.org.uk/IJRSM-161-169.pdf

Charles Medawar a,∗, Andrew Herxheimer b, Andrew Bell c and Shelley Jofre c

a Social Audit Ltd., London, UK bDIPEx Project, Department of Primary Health Care, University of Oxford, Oxford, UKc British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), London, UK


1. Introduction
An estimated 4.4m people recently watched “Secrets of Seroxat” (Panorama, BBC-TV), a 50-minute
programme about paroxetine, an SSRI antidepressant for which UK general practitioners wrote an estimated 4.7m prescriptions in 2001.


2. Methods
Printouts of the 1,374 Panorama emails (less duplicates) were closely read, and categorized as positive
(234 reports [17%] rated from very positive to “worth taking – just”), negative (647 [48%], rated from
not worth taking to severely disabling), and uncertain (469 [35%], giving no or insufficient evidence
of paroxetine use).