RxISK blog

ADHD and Polypharmacy. American Conditions?
September 27, 2022 | 3 Comments

This post tackles two RxISK themes – ADHD and Polypharmacy. While working through Pfizer’s Serious Adverse Event narrative file, see The Fog of a Special Medical Operation, the term ADHD – attention deficit hyperactive cropped up quite often. There was one predictable feature to this – all cases came from the United States with none […]

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Sensory Receptors, Small Fibres and Neuropathy
September 21, 2022 | 18 Comments

RxISK began in 2012.  One of its main goals was to offer people an opportunity to report problems they had on treatments – any treatment – and generate a report they could take to a doctor in the hope this might get the doctor to take their problem seriously. I had seen my first cases […]

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Marilyn Lemak: Trial or Clemency?
September 14, 2022 | 8 Comments

A few weeks ago, an original set of four posts about Marilyn Lemak – Trial and Punishment, Then and Now, Clemency, When the Music Stops elicited mostly supportive comments from those who comment regularly on RxISK. The three posts last week, Eric Zorn and Marilyn Lemak, People Respond and Janet Lagerloef responds,  drew a very […]

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Janet Lagerloef Responds to Eric Zorn
September 9, 2022 | One Comment

The following was written by Janet Lagerloef, a writer from Sugar Grove who is finishing up a book about her 10-year friendship with Marilyn Lemak, who is serving a sentence of life without parole for killing her three children in their Naperville home in March,1999. In last week’s issue, I covered the details of that crime […]

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People Respond to Eric Zorn and Marilyn Lemak
September 7, 2022 | 8 Comments

Does Marilyn Lemak deserve mercy? Readers weigh in These messages are in reference to items in last week’s issues of the Picayune Sentinel. On my interview with Marilyn Lemak Julie S.  Marilyn Lemak may have been a model citizen before and after her appalling crime. But the idea of “clemency” for her makes me queasy. I […]

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Eric Zorn and Marilyn Lemak
September 6, 2022 | No Comments

Rxisk has featured four posts on Marilyn Lemak, Trial and Punishment, Then and Now, Clemency Hearing and When the Music Stops. Eric Zorn is a former opinion columnist for the Chicago Tribune. His bio and contact information is here.  He now writes the Picayune Sentinel, where Marilyn Lemak speaks out about her bid for clemency first […]

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New Sex and Drugs Research Forum
August 24, 2022 | 4 Comments

RxISK Research Forum for Enduring Sexual Dysfunction RxISK is pleased to announce a new Research Forum.  This was trailed in a recent post  Our Love Life Needs you to be Wi(c)ked. Since this post we have had a lot of input from many folk offering to help out – mostly advising us to keep it […]

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All DRESSed Up With Nowhere To Go
August 9, 2022 | 4 Comments

This post was written by several members of the RxISK Team drawing on the work of Jorge Carrasco – see below.  There is a prior RxISK post on DRESS Syndrome – No Way to Treat a Lady. María Elisa Rangel was 38 and a mother of four children when she signed up for a phase […]

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Our Love Life Needs You to be Wiked
August 3, 2022 | 15 Comments

Our Love Life Needs You © Nina Otulakowski August 2022 RxISK regularly gets enquiries about what can be done to find an answer to the sexual dysfunctions following SSRIs, Finasteride and Isotretinoin –  PSSD, PFS and PRSD. RxISK and Sharks outlined the likely Endgame.  This outcome would be terrible – especially as its highly likely […]

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Marilyn Lemak: When the Music Stops
July 26, 2022 | 34 Comments

Judith and the Head of .. © Nina Otulakowski July 2022 “I’m glad I didn’t know the way it all would end.  The way it all would go.  Our lives are better left to chance.  I could have missed the pain but I’d have had to miss the dance.”  – Garth Brooks This post by […]

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Marilyn Lemak Clemency Hearing
July 19, 2022 | 26 Comments

This post follows Janet Lagerloef’s Marilyn Lemak’s Trial and Punishment and Johanna Ryan’s Marilyn Lemak Then and Now.  Jo was the first person I ever heard talk about this case.  Janet has done more than anyone to get Marilyn’s case to a Clemency Hearing.  She prevailed on several lawyers to pick up the case and […]

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Marilyn Lemak Then and Now
July 12, 2022 | 26 Comments

Haven, House, Horror © Nina Otulakowski July 2022 This post is by Johanna Ryan for whom, like many in Chicago in 1999, the Lemak case was like knowing where you were when Challenger blew up. It is part two of a four part series on Marilyn Lemak and follows Janet Lagerloef’s opening post last week. […]

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Marilyn Lemak’s Trial and Punishment
July 5, 2022 | 23 Comments

In 1999 Marilyn Lemak killed her three children and tried to kill herself.  She has spent over 22 years in jail since.  People in Chicago and beyond can still remember when the news broke.  Janet Lagerloef did more.  She said there but for the grace of God go I and made it her mission to […]

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RxISK Research Fund and Prize
June 27, 2022 | 48 Comments

We need to clarify some things about the RxISK Prize and Research Fund.  The Prize was established RxISK Prize in 2017 – see The Golden Rule, RxISK No-Nos, Relationships, Stigma and Recovery, Campaign and Challenge. Some of us in RxISK have had a difficult few months attempting to set up a Research Fund for PSSD […]

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The Holy Grail: Searching for a Cure for PSSD
June 21, 2022 | 42 Comments

The Holy Grail © Nina Otulakowski June 2022 You need to click on the image to get the full effects. Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD) is a debilitating consequence of taking serotonin reuptake inhibiting drugs (SSRIs, SNRIs, some antihistamines, some antibiotics, some analgesics and other medicines) that can leave people of all ages, and from all countries […]

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Calling All ADHD Influencers
June 13, 2022 | 9 Comments

Obedience Pills has put Patrick Hahn, Bill James and myself in a bit of a spot.  We’ve had feedback that we might be contributing to the stigma against ADHD. Our contact gave us a Video to orient us. At the same time, the Guardian in the UK – Tik-Tok and the Rise of ADHD – […]

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Caught in the Firing Line: Nurse Prescribers
May 30, 2022 | 6 Comments

Back in early Covid times, I was asked by Cecile aan de Stegge to talk at a meeting: Suicide and its Prevention. Contemporary and Historical Perspectives in Nursing, 1880–2020 This finally happened in May 2022.  Cecile asked me to talk on the issues around suicide and antidepressants, which seemed particularly pertinent as an increasing number […]

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The Best Books on Medical Treatments Gone Wrong
May 23, 2022 | 12 Comments

A month ago I had an email from Ben Fox of forauthors@shepherd.com – a new venture looking to promote books in a new way. See Shepherd.com. The idea is to feature a book by an author and then get her or him to list five books that have particularly influenced them – centered on a […]

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Obedience Pills
May 9, 2022 | 9 Comments

Samizdat has just published Patrick Hahn’s Obedience Pills, a book that reviews the ADHD scene from its origins in the US to its current bloated stimulants-in-the-drinking-water state and the extension of the ADHD franchise to other countries. Like Patrick’s Prescription for Sorrow, Obedience Pills makes no excuses for grabbing people by the throat, pinning them […]

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The Caste System in Medicine
May 2, 2022 | 9 Comments

This post is by Spruce who has been a regular contributor to these columns.  It follows from his comments on The Invisible Doctor and it adds to that post which has had a lot of comments since.  Humans seem to have a tendency to caste systems but most people would be surprised to think you […]

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Tsang/Shidlofsky Visual Snow Protocol
April 25, 2022 | 4 Comments

Visual snow describes the appearance of flickering dots or “static” in the field of vision. It’s thought to be a problem with visual processing rather than a structural issue within the eyes. This can cause difficulties for patients when trying to report visual snow to their doctor, as standard eye examinations typically find no abnormalities […]

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Black Robe, White Coat
April 11, 2022 | 3 Comments

Black Robe, White Coat spirals out from Sanctuary Trauma, The Invisible Doctor and Strangers in the Room.  Black Robe, a book by Brian Moore, was published in 1985. It centred on a Jesuit (Black Robe) Mission to convert the People of what is now called Quebec in the 1630s. Movie here. An early scene from […]

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Strangers in the Room: Vaccine Mandates
April 3, 2022 | 8 Comments

When Kate and William went to their doctor to ask about a medical exemption for him following the brain haemorrhage he had had two days after his second vaccination (See Thinking Fast and Slow), Kate was bewildered at a disconnect between her and the doctor in the room with them, a doctor she normally thought […]

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The Invisible Doctor
March 28, 2022 | 23 Comments

From her first email M seemed completely believable. Everything since has added to her believability. So why is she not believed? This post offers another example of repeated Sanctuary Trauma, outlined in last week’s post, in earlier Kidnapped Daughter posts and in all posts tagged Medical Kidnap. In The Beginning Thirteen years ago, this spring […]

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Sanctuary Trauma and Lariam Toxicity
March 21, 2022 | 7 Comments

Illustration: Lost on the Sea of Medicine, © 2014 created by Billiam James This is the first of 4 posts   on the idea of Sanctuary Trauma.  Some weeks ago, Trixie Foster got in touch.  Trixie is an extraordinary campaigner on behalf of those injured by Lariam (mefloquine) – see the Strange History and Lariam Hell. […]

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Brain Fog: What is it? How to Treat it.
March 15, 2022 | 22 Comments

Lots of people complain of cognitive problems on or after taking medications, whether psychotropic drugs, cholesterol lowering statins, asthma drugs like montelukast, or fluoroquinolone antibiotics. They often use the word “Brain Fog” to cover this.  Women get Brain Fog in pregnancy that can linger afterwards. People with Long Covid complain of Brain Fog as do […]

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New Study of Antidepressants and Vision Problems
March 7, 2022 | 19 Comments

The printed version of our new paper “Development and persistence of patient-reported visual problems associated with serotonin reuptake inhibiting antidepressants” has just been published. We couldn’t afford open access, so it would normally only be available to purchase or for subscribers of the journal. However, we’ve paid a fee of $200 USD which allows us […]

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Welcome to Mondor, Frodo
March 1, 2022 | 5 Comments

Quarantined Last October one of the key researchers on PSSD noticed a thread on Reddit about sexual dysfunction post vaccine.  Apparently the thread has been quarantined and you have to join the Reddit group to access it – this is likely true about a lot of vaccine related threads. Here are two testimonies that appear.  […]

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New England Journal of Medicine: Baden et al
February 24, 2022 | 7 Comments

This post, a twin to the New England Journal of Misinformation post, has been created for its hyperlink.  It does however play into the current post about cholecystitis following vaccination – in this case with the Moderna vaccine – which features in Tales of an Unexpected Gallbladder. It also seems to show that NEJM are […]

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Tales of an Unexpected Gallbladder
February 16, 2022 | 10 Comments

This post was written by Shane Cooke’s mother Mary.  There have been developments since – see below.  I used to really enjoy Tales of the Unexpected by Roald Dall when they were first broadcast on television. Each was a complete story with a twist in its tail – usually a most unexpected twist. They seem […]

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