RxISK blog

Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction: Getting a Diagnosis
November 21, 2017 | 30 Comments

When reading about the experiences of people with Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD), one of the common themes is the difficulty that some sufferers have faced in trying to obtain a formal diagnosis. However, this isn’t always the case. There seems to be a disparity between the experiences of different PSSD sufferers when engaging with the […]

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RxISK Map: Relationship Based Medicine
November 14, 2017 | 15 Comments

Editorial Note: This is the third in a RxISK Map series of posts – See Reformation Day and Here We Stand. These link closely to the RxISK Prize. There are two aspects to finding a cure for an adverse event. One is understanding the biology. The other is getting it established that the effect happens. […]

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Here We Stand, We Can Do No Other
November 7, 2017 | 28 Comments

Editorial Note.  This post runs hand in hand with Vampire Medicine and Cisparency on David Healy.org.  It is the second of three posts, following on from Reformation Day laying the basis for a RxISK Map which is linked to the RxISK Prize. When you are facing down the barrel of a tank… Pharmaceutical companies, medical […]

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RxISK Reformation Day
October 31, 2017 | 31 Comments

Five hundred years ago, Martin Luther nailed a set of theses to a Church door calling time on a scam. A scam that had the backing of the political and religious authorities of the day. When challenged his response was “Here I stand, I can do no other”. Today is Reformation Day. The drama in […]

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RxISK Prize: Stigma and Recovery
October 25, 2017 | 26 Comments

This continues the series of posts about the RxISK Prize.  It lays the way for the RxISK Prize and Map which will feature next week Stigma PSSD, PFS, PRSD and PGAD come with a heavy burden of stigma.  This is a problem AIDS activists met head-on and conquered in an extraordinary fashion.  It had never […]

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Map of 300 cases
RxISK Prize: Global Impact
October 16, 2017 | 44 Comments

Globalization is not a word that’s in favor at the moment. In the face of this very recent economic development that seemed to be sweeping the board in the 1980s and 1990s, we now want to reassert national boundaries, hang onto “our” jobs, and keep out others – sometimes those who have done a great […]

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RxISK Prize: Relationships
October 9, 2017 | 37 Comments

The RxISK Prize campaign has now had over $10,000 from 51 donations coming from 48 donors in 12 different countries. People from Korea to Argentina are engaging with the issue. We will give more details later in the week. It seems clear that Adverse Events – Drug Wrecks – are a Global Disorder, the greatest single source […]

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RxISK Prize: No Nos
October 4, 2017 | 16 Comments

The RxISK Prize throws up one surprise after another. I would have thought as organizations that save lives and pillars of the economy, it should be relatively easy to contact a pharmaceutical company. It isn’t. I have lots of contacts in organizations that liaise with pharma and used to have many contacts in pharma but […]

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RxISK Prize: The Golden Rule
September 26, 2017 | 15 Comments

This post follows Launching and How You Can Help which are also now on our Prize page on the Main Menu. Launching the RxISK Prize has been eye opening. Everyone who has donated or will donate will hopefully get some sense of this. If you’re not getting it, you need to remember this Prize is yours […]

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RxISK Prize: How you can help
September 18, 2017 | 84 Comments

As will be clear from some of the helpful comments on the first post about a RxISK Prize, you are going to have to work with us to make this work. Your input can take several forms. The greatest need The biggest block to making the Prize work is the same block everyone suffering from […]

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Launching the RxISK Prize
September 12, 2017 | 78 Comments

This Prize is part of a two-pronged attack on the unwillingness of the medical and regulatory establishments to listen to people with adverse events in general – not just the sexual dysfunctions mentioned here. The second front in the attack will be unveiled in a few weeks’ time. The problem The idea for a RxISK […]

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After the Rot Sets In: Teeth on Treatment
August 28, 2017 | 32 Comments

  Editorial Note:  In the midst of recent posts about SSRIs and homicide and other events, there has been a continuing input of reports of changes in hair on drugs or skin and this one on teeth.  All of these can have an impact on confidence but there is another worry – the treatment is […]

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Prescription for Murder ABCD
August 8, 2017 | 42 Comments

  If you look at the adverse events section of the sertraline – Zoloft – label you will see in small print that sertraline has been linked to psychosis, hallucinations and aggressive reactions. Its there in small print.  These links have been there since the mid-1990s. Vanishingly few doctors understand what is going on here.  […]

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Gun
Prescription for Murder
July 26, 2017 | 49 Comments

Editorial: This evening a Panorama program aired on the issue of antidepressants and violence.  The driving forces behind this were Andy Bell and Shelley Jofre, prompted in the first instance by Katinka Newman. The story is to my mind compelling.  There have been considerable efforts to cloud the picture – see Honey I Shrunk the […]

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Withdrawal & PSSD: Terminal Diagnoses?
July 17, 2017 | 96 Comments

There has been something of a hiatus on posts on DH and RxISK in recent weeks.  There are a few reasons – one of them outlined here and one to come next week. Part of the problem has been knowing what to say to people with PSSD and severe withdrawal.  I have been swamped with […]

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Malignant Alienation
June 26, 2017 | 21 Comments

Gaming is becoming one of the biggest areas of human activity on the planet – bigger than movie-making, newspapers and most other media. Its power to shape the way we view things is clearly huge and likely to increase with Virtual Reality. Some weeks ago, a group released a new Escape from the Asylum game. […]

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I Took Antidepressants and I Still Feel Medicated
June 18, 2017 | 38 Comments

I suffered from a pretty bad biological anxiety that runs in my family and was very difficult to control without medication. Prior to the timeline of events below, I have taken other medications (Paxil, Effexor, Cymbalta) each causing sexual dysfunction at the lowest possible dose and genital numbness almost immediately upon taking them. I stopped them […]

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What a Surprise: RxISK taking entrepreneurs
June 12, 2017 | 7 Comments

It is worth wading through some slow moving stuff at the start of this post to get to the juicy bits. The Things Drugs Do Drugs do things.  Company marketing divides these things into the one good thing the company wants you to focus on – good for a company bottom-line and the ninety-nine other […]

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Shipwrecked by the Cure
Drug Wrecked: Where Does Change Come From?
April 24, 2017 | 51 Comments

Editorial Note:  There are two elements to RxISK.  One is identifying adverse events in order to keep people safe and to widen our knowledge about what drugs do. But just as important is taking on a power structure that some of us get a glimpse of when we raise the possibility of an adverse event […]

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The Sheriff of Nottingham
April 6, 2017 | 13 Comments

On Friday March 31st, British airwaves were full of news about a significant change in Britain’s National Health Service. Bleeding Obvious? After its 8 AM news headlines, Radio 4’s flagship news program, Today, featured the boss of the National Health Service, Simon Stevens, explaining how the new system would be better even though long-established targets […]

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The Pills That Steal Sex
March 23, 2017 | 48 Comments

This post is the original piece written by Katinka Newman, author of The Pill That Steals Lives: One Woman’s Terrifying Journey to Discover the Truth about Antidepressants, by Katinka Blackford Newman (John Blake £8.99), thepillthatsteals.com. A slimmed down version appeared in the Daily Mail.  Its unusual for a day to go past when I don’t utter […]

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You’ll Come a Taltzing Matilda with Me
March 6, 2017 | 21 Comments

Editorial Note: This post links to Are you Aware that Siliq causes Suicide and Otezla: Birth Defects and Suicide.  Pharma companies have a great deal of skin in the dermatology game at the moment – perhaps more than in any other area of medicine. Taltz, aka ixekizumab, is yet another new drug for psoriasis. Others […]

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Otezla: Birth Defects and Suicide
February 27, 2017 | 14 Comments

We’ve been here before – a woman in come hither mode or able to plunge into come hither mode at a moment’s notice without the worry of being compromised by a minor skin blemish just below her hairline.  See Stacy London and Welcome to Troy. AbbVie pioneered advertising like this for Humira, a hugely costly […]

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Injectable Psoriasis Drug
Are You Aware Siliq Can Cause Suicide?
February 20, 2017 | 12 Comments

There are a host of new drugs coming to market for respiratory and skin problems. These include Brodalumab, aka Siliq, Apremilast, aka Otezla, and Daliresp. Prepare to hear a lot more about Phosphodiesterase antagonists and drugs acting on Interleukin 17 or 23. These drugs can cause suicide. The companies have made strenuous efforts to hide […]

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Drug wreck
Illnesses Worse than Side Effects?
February 13, 2017 | 21 Comments

This extraordinary image is from an advert for Clozapine. Mental illness can unquestionably bring distress – it can be haunting, dislocating and deeply disturbing. But the side effects are often more severe. Drugs like Clozapine are used by the military for torture purposes. Healthy volunteers commit suicide after a few days exposure to them. Treatment […]

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Come Back When You Have a Medical Degree
January 30, 2017 | 46 Comments

From Johanna Ryan: Who among us has not heard that at least once during a doctor’s appointment? Say you report a problem with the prescription drug the doctor put you on. Or, perhaps, that the drug is just not working. Maybe you even give him a RxISK Report, created on this website, or an article […]

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Sherlock Holmes concept
The Early History of PSSD
January 12, 2017 | 10 Comments

When did it begin? Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD) officially made its debut in the peer-reviewed medical literature in 2006. Case reports were published that identified treatment-emergent sexual dysfunction that persisted after the antidepressant was stopped. The condition was given a name and its features were defined. This new literature also noted the significance of a […]

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Olly
Roche and The Perfect Circle
December 19, 2016 | 83 Comments

Editorial Note: This is part 2 of the post by Heather and David Roberts – See RoAccutane and The Perfect Circle. Ever since in 2012 our son Olly died after using it, we have tried to learn what it does to the body and the mind. For the most terrifying thing about it, apart from […]

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Olly
RoAccutane and the Perfect Circle
December 12, 2016 | 29 Comments

Editorial Note: This post by Heather and David Roberts is about their son Olly and the struggles he and they had with the health system, acne and its treatments. Our son Olly had RoAccutane prescribed for him aged 21, getting ready to celebrate his birthday at Bristol University and wanting to look his best. He […]

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Heartattack and Vine – and Plavix
December 5, 2016 | 8 Comments

Editorial Note: The first RxISK story was about Plavix – Fiona’s Story. This anonymous account has striking overlaps with that. Plavix is clopidogrel. The grel group of drugs include 1tazigrel, dimetagrel and others. They function like expensive aspirins. They cause problems on withdrawal and can be lethal. But medics and nurses will bat the problems […]

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