RxISK blog

Michael Phelps
ADHD Nation
September 12, 2016 | 11 Comments

Editorial Note: This post is a review by Johanna Ryan of Alan Schwarz’s just released ADHD NATION: Children, Doctors, Big Pharma, and the Making of an American Epidemic. Watching the triumphant final chapter of Michael Phelps’ Olympic swimming career last month, you couldn’t help admiring certain strengths that went beyond the merely muscular. The rigorous […]

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Homicides
The Pill that Causes you to Steal Someone Else’s Life
September 4, 2016 | 38 Comments

Katinka Newman’s The Pill that Steals Lives brings out the hazards of being put on a treatment that then becomes the problem that other treatments are used to treat. In her case she could have easily killed herself – or her children. The website 100Families.org lists 1250+ cases where mental health is linked to homicides. […]

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Chinese symbol for resilience
Stopping Antidepressants: Kenny’s Dilemma
August 29, 2016 | 21 Comments

Editorial Note: This request came to RxISK through Contact Us, last week. It went out to several of the panel who contribute to our responses, some of whom have qualified in medicine and some who have qualified by going through the medical system. There was no consensus among us about how to respond. Beneath the […]

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Treatment for amnesia
SSRIs & Loss of Identity
August 22, 2016 | 27 Comments

Editorial Note: This post reflects a probably not uncommon reality. There is no doubt people can be left with permanent dysfunction after a short course of SSRIs, or permanent depersonalization, so a permanent change of identity is possible and even likely for some – but features nowhere in the books. The author initially figured his […]

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Neurological problem
Sarah’s Tourette Syndrome Story
August 15, 2016 | 8 Comments

Editorial Note: This post by DG follows up on last week’s Robbie’s Tourette Syndrome Story and continues a series begun a year ago looking at the effects of aripiprazole on Tourette Syndrome Abilify, Tourette Syndrome and Me. As mentioned last week, the key point is not just drug induced adverse effects but the ability of […]

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Tardive dyskinesia
Robbie’s Tourette Syndrome Story
August 8, 2016 | 4 Comments

Editorial Note: This post by DG continues a series begun a year ago looking at the effects of aripiprazole on Tourette Syndrome Abilify, Tourette Syndrome and Me. The key point here is not just the effect of a drug to trigger effects but the ability of someone who has the disorder and takes the treatment […]

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Zyprexa
Olanzapine: Still Treading Water
July 31, 2016 | 15 Comments

Editorial Note: Ages back, Sally MacGregor wrote this piece to follow up to her Olanzapine experience – Olanzapine Withdrawal: Sally’s Story. The original piece has routinely been among the top ten RxISK blog posts visited. This update slipped between the cracks. But here it is. Time for a progress report. I was in feisty mode […]

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Natalie 2012 Graduation
Kidnapped: Natalie’s Story 2
July 21, 2016 | 24 Comments

Editorial Note: This is part 2 of Natalie’s story written by her mother Kristina. The photo shows Natalie aged 18 at her graduation. Abductor number three: 2010 Natalie’s tardive dysphoria remained undiagnosed, and the counselor recommended that Natalie see her colleague, a psychiatrist. The counselor’s records reflected Natalie’s fears about taking drugs. Natalie shared, “I’m […]

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Natalie at Rain Forest Cafe 10th Birthday
Kidnapped: Natalie’s Story
July 6, 2016 | 24 Comments

Editorial Note: Natalie’s story parts 1 and 2 are by her mother Kristina. Natalie, celebrating her tenth birthday in 2003, shortly after being prescribed Prozac. Her left eye was starting to show signs of amblyopia, more commonly called “lazy eye.” This adverse drug reaction worsened and was one of many Natalie suffered from unnecessary prescribing. We […]

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Magnifying glass and a group of people
How Common is Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD)?
June 27, 2016 | 11 Comments

The level of risk of developing Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD) from using an SSRI or SNRI antidepressant is currently unknown. Patients are never warned about persisting sexual side effects when these drugs are prescribed. Calls for informed consent are often met with the response that PSSD appears to be quite rare. Given the huge number of antidepressants […]

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15 Tips for Quitting Antidepressants
Medical Kidnap: Withdrawal & Non-Compliance
June 20, 2016 | 22 Comments

Editorial Note: This post is by Wendy Murray. It comes from a chapter in her new book that deals with the problems many of us have with prescribers of all kinds for medications of all kinds when we question their judgment. Their attitudes can kidnap us just as much as a detention can. I had reached […]

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Hands tied with rope
A Kidnapped Daughter 2
June 13, 2016 | 11 Comments

Part 1 of this post is Here. Put on mirtazepine my daughter deteriorated rapidly. The crisis intervention team descended. They started by counting pills. When they found the number correct, they assumed I had destroyed the pills. They seemed perplexed. One of the team would take her out for some one–to-one. They would visit the local […]

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Hands tied with rope
A Kidnapped Daughter
June 7, 2016 | 7 Comments

Editorial Note: This is the first of a two-part post by a father and daughter who want to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals – a very real and realistic fear. This is about how my daughter was “led away” (the literal meaning of abduction), in a cruel and calculated act undertaken by people to whom […]

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image (4)
Three Weeks To Prescripticide
May 12, 2016 | 33 Comments

Editorial Note: The post is by David Carmichael, who has coined the terms “Prescripticide” for a death that is caused by an adverse reaction to a prescription drug. In October and November 2015, Julie Wood published a 5-part RxISK.org series of blog posts about SSRI antidepressants and violence. It was based on the biomedical model developed […]

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Free_RxISK-Report
Medical Kidnap: Get Out of Jail Free Report
May 3, 2016 | 29 Comments

The examples given in the Kidnapped series of posts are dramatic. They point to growing abuses in healthcare systems. The idea that in every way we are making more and more progress leads people to cut corners to bring the benefits of treatments they know will work to others. Those whose lives have been affected […]

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Mandela solitary
The Right Not to be Kidnapped
April 29, 2016 | 4 Comments

Declaration In the last decade, a new problem has come into focus, illustrated by the posts over the last 4 weeks. Families and communities have traditionally provided the overwhelming bulk of care for relatives whether they were mentally infirm, elderly and dementing, younger with learning disabilities or suffering from physical illness. The impetus to care […]

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Gloved hand
Medical Kidnapping: The Dilemmas of Therapeutic Optimism
April 25, 2016 | 6 Comments

Editorial Note: This is the fifth post in a medical kidnapping series. There will be at least one more, perhaps two. Lost rights The county asylum system that came into being in 1845 initiated a period of therapeutic optimism, that was extinguished by 1900. Therapeutic optimism re-emerged in the 1950s with the advent of the […]

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Needle
The History of Medical Kidnapping
April 20, 2016 | 10 Comments

Editorial Note: The last three posts give examples of medical kidnapping happening now. The Doctor Munchausen series of posts on David Healy in July and August 2014 give some more examples. This post and two to follow outline how we ended up in a position where people can be kidnapped. Medical Kidnapping goes back a […]

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Connor Sparrowhawk
Kidnapped: In England
April 12, 2016 | 13 Comments

Editorial Note: The post below is by Simon Hattenstone and appeared in the Guardian on April 2nd. It fits into the Kidnapped sequence and allows us to draw attention to the #JusticeforLB campaign (Laughing Boy). Once again the point is this could be you or me, could be cardiac or orthopedic or any branch of […]

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I Don't Belong In An Institution
Kidnapped: Human Rights Should Never be Disabled
April 5, 2016 | 11 Comments

Editorial Note: This post is by Franke James, Teresa’s sister. The reaction in the US or UK is that things like this couldn’t happen here. Part of the reason no one can believe that treatment is being forced on people who don’t need it is that many of us have the experience of not being […]

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Kidnapped
Kidnapped: Arthur Hippe
March 28, 2016 | 4 Comments

  Editorial Note: This post by Lois Sampson, an Elders’ Rights Advocate with the Seniors At Risk Coalition, is the first of several on this theme. The message for readers who think that neither they nor their relatives have been or are likely to be in the position that Arthur Hippe was in is that […]

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WD
Medication and Withdrawal
March 16, 2016 | 42 Comments

The RxISK website has been undergoing major renovation. There is still a great deal of work going on behind the scenes to look at new ideas and better ways to make available the best tools and information about prescription drug side effects. The old site had a Symptoms on Stopping Zone – a Withdrawal Zone. […]

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Matt P #2
Life Unarmed
March 2, 2016 | 3 Comments

Editorial Note from Johanna Ryan: Matthew Purinton has been a patient all his life – but if that word suggests to you a passive person awaiting rescue, think again. As a child born with a rare and seemingly overwhelming set of disabilities, he and his parents signed up for some of the most radical interventions […]

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Froot Loops
It’s alright Ma, I’m only Punding: Stimulants and Compulsions
February 22, 2016 | 14 Comments

This post by Johanna Ryan touches on the problems of compulsive gambling and other compulsive behaviors that are linked to Abilify, SSRIs and Dopamine Agonists and also to Dopamine Agonist Withdrawal Syndrome (DAWS). It was Lester Grinspoon’s 1975 book The Speed Culture that introduced me to the concept of “punding”: a drug-induced compulsion for repetitive, […]

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Adderall depressed
United States of Adderall
February 15, 2016 | 12 Comments

Ed Note: This post is by Johanna Ryan who covers most of our stimulant related topics. Dr. Larry Diller is a pediatrician who specializes in children’s behavioral problems, especially Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). He’s by no means anti-medication; he has prescribed stimulants to kids for decades. But twenty years ago he was already concerned […]

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Bitter Pills
Flox-Tox; Guerilla Guide
February 8, 2016 | 23 Comments

Editorial Note: Twenty-five years ago, Diane Fried took Floxin, a fluoroquinolone antibiotic and a predecessor of Levaquin and Cipro, and was severely damaged as a consequence, leading her husband to write Bitter Pills. Three years ago we featured two posts on fluoroquinolone antibiotic problems. We have also featured posts on the closely related Lariam – mefloquine […]

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This Present Madness
This Present Madness
February 1, 2016 | 3 Comments

This Present Madness was published in November. During the rehearsal of an all-star high school band near Dallas, Texas, a gunman enters the practice hall and starts firing with a semi-automatic shotgun. His attack is deadly. It is the worst mass shooting in US history. The blame for it, as usual, is attributed to the […]

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Mikey Argy
The Devil Doesn’t Have All The Best Tunes
January 25, 2016 | 2 Comments

This weeks Observer Review contains an interview (below) with Mikey Argy (above) to link up with the release of Attacking the Devil, a movie about the thalidomide story. The photo of Mikey here doesn’t show what the photo in the print edition shows. Almost two years ago RxISK featured the thalidomiders behind this movie in From […]

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Frequency Specific Microcurrent
Is FSM a treatment for Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD)?
January 18, 2016 | 68 Comments

Editorial note: Towards the end of 2015, we launched a new Complex Withdrawal section dedicated to exploring protracted withdrawal and Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD). We presented a new hypothesis about the underlying physiology of withdrawal and persisting side effects, and we asked for others to help explore and research the issues. Someone who has been […]

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Antidepressant site specific action
Greg’s Dilemma: Feeling Blue
December 31, 2015 | 27 Comments

Magic bullet In Greg’s Dilemma 1 and Dilemma 2, Greg outlined more than one dilemma linked to getting hooked to antidepressants and benzodiazepines. The responses to these posts were all over the shop – from pull yourself together, to entrust your life to God, to support for descriptions of positions others find themselves in. The […]

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Backwards bike
Greg’s Dilemma: Riding a Backwards Bike
December 21, 2015 | 22 Comments

Greg’s dilemma is one we all share – even John Junig. The easy bit of the dilemma has to do with dependence and withdrawal. Dr Junig’s line that he’s trained in neuroscience and behavior and can confidently say that Greg’s – or anyone else’s – difficulties on treatment with benzodiazepines, antidepressants or mood stabilizers, are […]

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bike-backwards
Greg’s Dilemma: Riding a Bike Backwards
December 14, 2015 | 8 Comments

Editorial Note: Last week in Greg’s Dilemma, Greg outlined the difficulties he had with dependence on and withdrawal from serotonin reuptake inhibitors and benzodiazepines. The first comment was from a therapist who seemed to say “pull yourself together”. This eerily echoed the next part of Greg’s dilemma – that could have been posted last week […]

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maxresdefault
Greg’s Dilemma
December 7, 2015 | 24 Comments

Editorial Note: This post on the difficulties of withdrawal comes from Greg. There will be 3 parts to it. In Part 2 Greg gets some standard psychiatric advice and in Part 3, we offer a response to the advice. Way, way down in a hole, there is no feeling Because when you’re so far below […]

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bigs
Down These Mean Streets
November 30, 2015 | 7 Comments

Editorial Note: This post that neatly ties together drug induced violence and dependence and withdrawal, the theme of the next few posts, is by Mickey Nardo. It featured on OneBoringOldMan a few weeks ago. It has a ring of a Raymond Chandler novel. Hence the image and the postscript. It was towards the end of […]

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Research
Lessons from SSRIStories #5: What Does Research Tell Us About the Connection between SSRIs and Violence?
November 12, 2015 | 13 Comments

by Julie Wood Summary of Post #4: Medication-induced violence is different from regular violence. It can manifest as bizarre and random actions without apparent motive. Sometimes, it is based on a sudden impulse without any warning. Other times, thought distortion leads to elaborate plans, but the violence still makes no rational sense. In many cases, […]

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Gun and prescription drugs
Lessons from SSRIStories #4: How is SSRI-Related Violence Different?
November 10, 2015 | 4 Comments

by Julie Wood Summary of Post #3: The same mechanisms that induce violence in users of SSRIs can induce suicide. These mechanisms are akathisia, emotional blunting and delirium-psychosis. These are not uncommon effects, although the degree to which individuals experience them varies, and people may experience more than one of these side effects at once. […]

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Antidepressants
Lessons from SSRIStories #3: How do SSRIs cause violence and suicide?
November 5, 2015 | 7 Comments

by Julie Wood It is one thing to see that taking SSRI medications can cause violence in some people, but quite another to make sense of it. In his blog, “Prescription-Only Violence”, Feb 18, 2013, David Healy identifies the three mechanisms through which these drugs can cause a person to do violent things: “The antidepressants […]

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Skull & crossbones on drugs
Lessons from SSRIStories #2: Anecdotal Evidence of the SSRI-Violence Connection
November 2, 2015 | 5 Comments

by Julie Wood Summary of Post #1: Hard as it may be to accept, there is evidence that SSRIs, along with some other drugs, legal and illegal, can cause people to become violent. The connection between psychoactive medications and violence is not understood. News reports that mention psychoactive medications in a story about a violent […]

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Man with gun
How Do SSRIs (and other medications) Cause Violence and why don’t people spot the connection?
October 28, 2015 | 15 Comments

by Julie Wood The connection between SSRIs, violence and suicide For many years, a few medical experts have been trying to raise awareness of the link between selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants (and some other medications) and violence. The RxISK.org website Violence Zone flags the issue for people interested in researching the side effects […]

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TRP Channels
Tracking Down the Cause of Withdrawal and PSSD
October 13, 2015 | 27 Comments

Editorial Note: Between now and the end of the year, RxISK will have a major revamp. Among the first new features will be a Complex Withdrawal and PSSD research section. The philosophy behind this is that no-one knows what Protracted Withdrawal Syndromes and PSSD actually are and it’s more difficult to find an answer if we […]

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What's standing between you and your life?
Withdrawal Research Forum: Relief at Last?
October 7, 2015 | 32 Comments

Editorial Note: There are tens of thousands of people affected by dependence on and protracted withdrawal from antidepressants, antipsychotics, benzodiazepines, dopamine agonists and other drugs. We will be opening up a Complex Withdrawal and PSSD research section in the very near future aimed at solving what is going on. This post by DA who has a […]

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Beware of everything
The Wise List?
October 4, 2015 | 4 Comments

Editorial: There is a wonderful listserve Essential Drugs on E-Drugs@healthnet.org. It’s an information service rather than a discussion forum. Recent mail E-DRUG: Swedish essential medicines list now in English ————————————————————– This is an interesting development having a Swedish document translated to English! The list “Kloka listan” is a list of essential medicines for common diseases. […]

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Whose fault is it?
Study 329 Stories
September 24, 2015 | 6 Comments

Kristina Gehrki It is refreshing to see the BMJ publish an article highlighting the corruption, collusion and dangerously unethical behaviors among the pharmaceutical and psychiatric industries, university medical departments and government “regulators.” I’d like to tell my teen-aged daughter all about the “retraction.” Unfortunately, she died from SSRI-induced akathisia, Serotonin Toxicity and prescribed suicidality. When […]

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Efficacy
Study 329
September 16, 2015 | 3 Comments

RxISK’s last story A 329 Story, featured a young woman who went on Paxil soon after the Keller et al version of 329 was published. We would love to hear more from anyone who was put on an SSRI during this period or who was recruited into an SSRI trial. What were you told about […]

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GSK - Science with a conscience
A 329 Story
September 14, 2015 | 10 Comments

Editorial: This is an account from someone who went on paroxetine – Paxil – Seroxat – soon after Study 329 came out. She didn’t commit suicide. But it would be difficult to describe these effects of the drug as good. And it is also difficult to view the culture in which the drug was given […]

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Ativan
Benzodiazepine and Antidepressant Dependence
August 31, 2015 | 12 Comments

Sally MacGregor has written about the horrors of dependence on olanzapine – see Olanzapine Withdrawal and Back In Olanzapine Waters. Here she picks up a conundrum – Primary Care Doctors react to the idea of Benzodiazepines as though they have been the greatest threat to the stability of society since World War II, while at the […]

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Burning feet
Kicking Lyrica
August 24, 2015 | 66 Comments

Editorial Note: This post was put together by Johanna Ryan from reports to RxISK on Lyrica – Pregabalin. Lyrica is closely related to Neurontin. Many anticonvulsants such as carbamazepine have been used for forty years for pain syndromes such as trigeminal neuralgia. Neurontin but especially Lyrica have been promoted heavily for this. Both cause dependence […]

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lewisbush-montage-4
Antidepressants and Violence: The Numbers
August 17, 2015 | 17 Comments

How on earth could an antidepressant drug drive someone to murder? In the past two columns RxISK has heard from two people who know they can. In The Man Who Thought He Was A Monster, Steindor Erlingsson shared his own story of being tormented with urges to stab his wife and young children while on […]

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Gun
The Man who thinks he is a Monster: Sertraline and Violence
August 12, 2015 | 14 Comments

Editorial Note: See The Man who thought he was a Monster Sunday’s child is full of grace He was born on a Sunday. He had an average background with few health, physical or mental problems. His main difficulty was a certain social anxiety. He went to University to study Neuroscience – probably to try and understand […]

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If you see something, say something
The Man Who Thought he was a Monster: Antidepressants and Violence
August 3, 2015 | 29 Comments

This post by Steindór Erlingsson asks awkward questions in the week when the jury is likely to deliver a verdict in the sentencing part of James Holmes’ trial for the shooting dead of twelve people in Aurora Colorado at the premiere of the Batman movie, Dark Knight Rises, Holmes had no intentions of harming anyone before […]

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