MIRTAZAPINE-THE RISKS OF SUICIDE HOW CAN THIS BE ALLOWED TO CONTINUE?

https://www.ehealthme.com/ds/mirtazapine/completed-suicide/

This excerpt below was taken from yet another letter to the DHSC for the attention of the MHRA who govern medication, again in February 2023, to re-iterate the dangers of Mirtazapine, particularly when combined with other psychotropic medications like Zoplicone. The government continues to ignore the entire Everglow committee.  See Bulletins 10 to 14E AND 86.

Create Rebecca’s Law : 

To have the MHRA review safety and risks of Mirtazapine, and to put into place mandatory and adequate prescribing and safeguarding measures where psychotropic medications such as Mirtazapine are prescribed during the perinatal period. Evidence shows this is not currently the case.

The Black Box restrictions for Mirtazapine are detailed in the bulletins on our website ( 10 to 14E ), which provide evidence that in the U.K. as a rule, these guidelines are not practical or being followed and why they are not. There is a staggering increase in maternal suicides, now in 2022,  being 3 times more likely to happen( see bulletin 86), and which Mirtazapine is shown to continue to contribute to in many cases. I am only too aware of this having lost Rebecca to this notoriously dangerous medication.  Mirtazapine is a Black Box medication. From those side effects which do get through the reporting systems (shown to under-report), it has a highly significant average suicide rate of 3.34% . In the first month of prescribing, this increases to an alarming 81%, with female suicides being 8% higher than men, therefore having a direct relation to its use and unacceptable risks for perinatal mothers. Why is this being allowed to happen? This is staggering and an unacceptable risk which is not being safely monitored or administered, any more than it was in 2017 when it took Rebecca’s life after having suffered multiple failings throughout the entire perinatal system. Perinatal mental illness, particularly where psychosis has developed, not only devastates mothers and damages their bond with their baby, but where suicide occurs, devastates the fathers, families, and friends, and traumatises the children who are left behind, leaving them scarred for life. Perinatal mental illness and suicide costs £8.1 billion in each yearly cohort of births. Everglow the Rebecca Kruza Foundation would like you to help us prevent this, please. 

Please will you read the data on this link and advise the MHRA to review Mirtazapine.