SEROXAT SUFFERERS - STAND UP AND BE COUNTED: Panorama (TV series): Facts, Discussion Forum, and...

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Panorama and Seroxat



Since 2002, Panorama has made four programmes about the anti-depressant Seroxat:

"The Secrets of Seroxat" (2002); "Seroxat: Emails from the Edge" (2003); "Taken on Trust" (2004) and "Secrets of the Drug Trials" (2007).



"The Secrets of Seroxat" elicited a record response from the public as 65,000 people called the BBC helpline and 1,300 people emailed Panorama directly.(*)



The leading mental health charity MindMind (charity)



Mind is a mental health charity in England and Wales....

collaborated with Panorama in a survey of those who emailed the programme. Anonymised findings from the 239 responses were sent to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory AgencyMedicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is a statutory body in the United Kingdom that seeks to find and eli...

(MHRA).(*)



The second Panorama programme on Seroxat, "Emails from the Edge", included a report of the survey to which the 239 people responded. It showed widespread experiences of suicidal feelings and other severe reactions, very bad withdrawal symptoms and lack of warnings from doctors. Following the broadcast users/survivors and Mind protested outside the offices of the MHRA.(*)



On January 29 2007, the fourth documentary in the series about the drug Seroxat was broadcast. It focused on three GlaxoSmithKlineGlaxoSmithKline



GlaxoSmithKline plc is a British based pharmaceutical, biologicals, and healthcare company....

paediatric clinical trials on depressed children and adolescents. Data from the trials show that Seroxat could not be proven to work for teenagers. Not only that, one clinical trial indicated that they were six times more likely to become suicidal after taking it. In the programme, Panorama revealed the secret trail of internal emails which show how GlaxoSmithKline manipulated the results of the trials for its own commercial gain. Access to the documents has been gained as GlaxoSmithKline fights a fraud trial in the US.



Some of these previously secret Glaxo documents, featured in the programme were leaked into the internet following the programme's broadcast.