Zyprexa Injury Lawyers - Zyprexa Injury Death




		Injuries and Deaths Attributed to Zyprexa Zyprexa, an anti-psychotic drug manufactured and marketed by the Eli Lilly Company, is being sued by thousands of patients who claim that their use of the medication has adversely affected their health. Zyprexa has allegedly made them leading risks for heart attacks and other ailments. Mental Disorders and Medications Millions of Americans suffer from bipolar disorder, a mental illness marked by alternating periods of mania and depressions which usually end with psychotic delusions or hallucinations. Others suffer from schizophrenia, inaccurately described as ‘split-personality disorder’ which manifests in the same symptoms as bipolar disorder. Treatment for these illnesses took a progressive leap in the 1980s when various medications (such as lithium) were found to have had a positive effect on the patients – usually balancing out their mood swings and allowing them to function without manifesting their illnesses. The discovery led pharmaceutical companies (including Eli Lilly) to focus research on these medications, resulting in various drugs for treating mental disorders. Zyprexa is one of these medications and it was approved by the Food and Drug Administration for clinical (or doctor’s) prescription in 1998. Zyprexa Side Effects While there is no question about the beneficial effects of Zyprexa, concerns focused on the side effects of the drug which include upset stomachs, dizziness, weight gain, increased appetite, constipation, sleepiness, body weakness, tremors or shakes, and problems in keeping body temperature regulated. The most common – and worrisome – side effects were weight gain and increased blood sugar and cholesterol, both of which are risk factors for developing diabetes and heart conditions. The problem is that mentally-ill people tend to develop heart diseases and diabetes more frequently than others. As such, connecting Zyprexa to specific deaths has proven difficult. However, a 2002 clinical study and statistical analysis comparing the effects of Zyprexa and Haldol, an older anti-psychotic drug, showed that people taking Zyprexa stood a higher chance of developing heart disease as compared to those taking Haldol. Other documents disclose that the company’s own clinical trials showed that 16 percent of patients taking the medication gained more than 66 pounds within a year of starting the drug. The Eli Lilly Company, manufacturers of Zyprexa, has taken the position that the side effects of taking the medication should be weighed against the potentially damaging consequences of uncontrolled or untreated mental illness. Rebuttals to the Zyprexa Manufacturers’ Position Many psychiatrists have taken issue with Eli Lilly’s position, pointing out that the company has tended to downplay the side effects and pushed the positive effects of Zyprexa as a long-term cure for bipolar disorders. One prominent psychiatrist pointed out that Eli Lilly had admitted to weight gain as a side effect but that it had, in various ways, minimized or diminished the significance of this side effect particularly in developing heart disease. Various lawsuits filed against the Eli Lilly company have pointed this out – the drug’s literature does mention weight gain, increased appetite, high blood sugar and cholesterol buildup as side effects but it does not go ‘far enough’ in emphasizing that these are major risk factors for heart disease or diabetes. While the lawsuits seldom dispute the company’s stance that Zyprexa is an effective medication for mental illness, they do question the position taken by Eli Lilly that this should be considered more important than the overall health of a patient – especially if there are other medications available which are just as effective but do not have similar side effects. For example, a mother of a mentally-ill patient who died of heart failure while under Zyprexa points out that her son had been taking lithium and Trilafon – an older drug that is no longer widely used – for eight years and it had proven effective but his son did not gain surplus weight. Her son was switched to Zyprexa after his last mental breakdown in 2000 – and immediately started gaining weight, gaining an additional 80 pounds in the five years he’d been taking Zyprexa. This, the mother believes, was a contributory factor to her son’s demise. It is on this point that many others have disputed Eli Lilly’s claims, pointing out that the company has been marketing Zyprexa as being more effective and safer than older drugs, in spite of little evidence to prove this. A federally-financed clinical trial, for example, has shown that Trilafon (perphenazine) is just as effective as Zyprexa in treating bipolar disorder but it doesn’t have Zyprexa’s side effects. They have taken the position that Zyprexa should be prescribed only for the most acutely psychotic and not as medication for long-term treatment especially when other drugs are available and are just as effective.