Symptoms: Akathisia, insomnia, suicidal ideation, severe anxiety/panic
My name is Louise Carter. My daughter Madisyn Solomon died of a paradoxical suicide at the age of 27 in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada on April 13, 2021. The pharmaceutical drugs the doctors gave to help her caused the suicidal ideation that led to her death by suicide.
She sought help from the family doctor. Her best friend had died a year and a half earlier, and she was coping with alcohol. She wanted help for her alcohol addiction. In a ten-minute telephone appointment she took at work, he prescribed 30 Lorazepam and Lexapro. She ran across the street and had the prescription filled on her work break—no problem.
She was hospitalised two weeks later for an adverse reaction to the Lexapro and Lorazepam. These drugs caused suicidal ideation. Despite this, there was no family meeting, and the doctors continued with the drugs that led to her death by suicide. We were never told of the suicidal ideation.
Had we—the family or a caregiver—been alerted that she was starting new pharmaceutical drugs, we could have gotten her back to the hospital and saved her life. We needed to be told to watch her for suicidal ideation. The drug she was prescribed in the hospital was pregabalin, the generic version of Lyrica.
There are accounts from other users of Lyrica stating they could hear voices telling them to do things like jump in front of a bus. I believe my daughter’s brain was hijacked by the drugs and made to betray her in a compulsive moment.
Madisyn wrote in a text she sent me that the family doctor “brushes me off and gives me Lexapro and Ativan.” Why are antidepressants offered as the first and often only option?
Madisyn was a successful hairstylist. She had a boyfriend, a dog, a large family that loves her, and lots of friends. She had a bright future ahead of her. She was robbed of her life, and we were robbed of her. Losing her is unspeakably painful. Why did she have to die for such a preventable reason? Psychotropic drugs can kill—they killed Madisyn.
I started a petition for a psychotropic drugs safety waiver in Canada. My hope is that the Canadian government acknowledges the dangers of these drugs and does something about them.