Questions over medical treatment for Charmaine
The mother of Charmaine Dragun has criticised the medical profession’s use of antidepressants after the TEN newsreader her own life almost three weeks into a course of medication she believed was “the answer”.
In interviews aired on last night’s Australian Story on the ABC, Dragun’s family and friends tried to explain the life and death of a young woman who seemed a success story but suffered great personal torment and was brutally critical of herself.
In the weeks after the TEN newsreader took her life at The Gap at Watson’s Bay in Sydney’s east on November 2 last year, Mrs Dragun expressed anger that her daughter’s psychiatrist had not seen her when she complained that her new medication was not working.
Instead, he told her over the phone to give the new medication time to work.
At home in Perth, Mrs Dragun told The Australian: “These medications are not working, they’re doing exactly the opposite.”
Dragun was living in Sydney but homesick for Perth in the months before her death.
“I think if anything good can come out of Charmaine’s tragedy, it is that we need not just to be aware of depression, but we need to lobby the medical profession to find ways to deal with this, to give more information to families so they can be more supportive of the person going through the condition,” Mrs Dragun tells the ABC. More than 12.3 million prescriptions were written for antidepressants in Australia in 2005-06, considered a staggering amount for a country with a population of 20 million.
Dragun’s father, Michael, told The Australian he wanted people to know his daughter had many happy times in her life. She radiated warmth and love, he said. “I think the main point I want to get across is Charmaine herself was not a depressed person.”
Australian Story is repeated on ABC2 tonight at 8:00pm and 12:30pm Saturday on ABC1.
Source: The Australian
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This show was tastefully done by Australian Story, as always, and I dont mind saying I had a little cry while watching.. a couple of comments by the involved parties didnt sit comfortably with me, but hey, pouring over peoples every word wont bring the girl back so I wont..may she rest in peace