Zyprexa Side Effects

The introduction of Zyprexa and other atypical antipsychotic drugs were seen as a breakthrough in schizophrenia treatment. Patients used to have to endure many side effects to treat their psychosis, but Zyprexa’s approval in 1996 gave many people new hope. For a while, Zyprexa appeared to be the solution for many schizophrenic patients who were suffering a large amount of drug related side effects.

Doctors became so encouraged by the effectiveness of Zyprexa that they began to give prescriptions of it to treat illnesses other than schizophrenia and related psychoses.

Soon other psychotic disorder patients, Alzheimer’s patients, personality disorder sufferers, conduct disorders and severe aggression in children, and non-psychotic depression were being treated with Zyprexa.

Soon Zyprexa’s popularity allowed the drug to become the world’s best selling schizophrenia drug, bringing in 40% of the overall $11.08 billion company sales for maker Eli Lilly. Zyprexa is expected to top at $4 billion in sales for 2003. After all the momentum and growing popularity of Zyprexa, now there are studies indicating Zyprexa may not be the wonder drug everyone thought it was.

With safety concerns rising, many critics of Zyprexa wonder why patients with mild symptoms of conditions not meant to be treated with Zyprexa are being exposed to the risks of the drug. In 2002 alone, 7.4-milllion prescriptions were written for Zyprexa. In the Journal of the American Medical Association November 28, 2001 issue, medical officers from the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research and a Duke University Medical Center physician reported on a possible Zyprexa link in adolescents to hyperglycemia.

Since Zyprexa has been prescribed to children and adolescents at an increasing rate, this Zyprexa side effects finding was alarming to many people. In The American Journal of Medicine December 15, 2001 issue, FDA staff members published another report linking Zyprexa to diabetes. There have been 384 FDA reported cases of Zyprexa and diabetes, not taking into account the vast underreporting that is estimated to occur.

The Zyprexa side effects were considered such a risk that the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare issued emergency Zyprexa safety information. The Japanese Zyprexa warning was to alert physicians and patients of hyperglycemia and diabetes that had been reported. The Zyprexa side effects resulted in diabetic ketoacidosis and coma in some instances. British regulators warned of the risks of Zyprexa side effects like diabetes in Zyprexa patients occurring in the April 2002 issue of their newsletter Current Problems in Pharmacovigilance.

In the U.S., measures to warn physicians and patients of the Zyprexa side effects were not as extensive. Public Citizen criticized the FDA for doing too little and thinks that the March 5, 2002 revision was an inadequate action. The FDA included risks of suffering the Zyprexa side effects diabetes and hyperglycemia but only made brief reference to it and put it in the middle of the adverse reactions section.

If you have suffered serious Zyprexa side effects and would like more information contact us to confer with a Zyprexa lawyer.