Assisted dying has become a hot topic. For large parts of human history when people came toward an end, they might have been left in an outhouse by relatives or consigned themselves to a hut in the woods. Children too. When born, Spartan children were taken outside and their hands placed on the eaves of the house - if they didn't cling on, the bodies were … [Read more...] about Assisted Dying: Going Gentle or Not so Gentle
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Welsh and Scottish Petitions on Antidepressant Dependence
Scottish and Welsh Parliaments Debate Psychiatric Drug Dependence and Withdrawal Over the last decade, the UK has seen dramatic increases in the number of people prescribed psychiatric drugs. In the British National Formulary, the prescribers bible, Chapter 4 represents Central Nervous System drugs including antidepressants, antipsychotics, anxiolytics, antiepileptics and … [Read more...] about Welsh and Scottish Petitions on Antidepressant Dependence
Encountering Doctors
Editorial Note: The image goes with a study headlined Doctors stop listening to patients several seconds into a conversation. This post is from one of the many PSSD sufferers who behind the scenes has been helping push research on this awful condition forward. It would be a lot easier if doctors did listen. Just as the brain and the human nervous system are largely … [Read more...] about Encountering Doctors
Ketamine: What’s God got to do with it?
The fuss about ketamine has generated interest in where it has come from. There were probably multiple beginnings. One was with Stan Grof, who moved from Prague to Baltimore in 1967. His interest in therapy led him to a focus on early life experience. This stemmed from work with LSD and psilocybin in the 1950s and 1960s, under the influence of which many people volunteered … [Read more...] about Ketamine: What’s God got to do with it?
Bait and Switch: the Great Ketamine “Breakthrough”
Post by Johanna Ryan Maybe you heard the exciting news last month about a game-changing new treatment for depression. It offered new hope to millions who were not helped by existing drugs, the headlines said – the first real breakthrough in depression treatment since Prozac, some thirty years ago. The product was Janssen’s esketamine nasal inhaler, described … [Read more...] about Bait and Switch: the Great Ketamine “Breakthrough”
Could your Stimulant or Antidepressant cause Dementia?
Quixotic Challenge A few years ago, a friend, Alan Baumeister, embarked on an interesting journey. Alan had been Head of Psychology in Louisiana State University. He has been actively involved in the history of the mental health field and psychological inputs to it for a long time. Louisiana is the state that hosted Robert Heath in Tulane University in the 1970s who it … [Read more...] about Could your Stimulant or Antidepressant cause Dementia?
Is there such a thing as Adult ADHD?
After a variety of incarnations - Minimal Brain Damage - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) came on the radar in the 1970s in the US and exploded with its codification in DSM-III in 1980. The general sense in most of the world in the 1980s - aside from a developing ADHD-mania in the US - was that it affected children, particularly boys, but that they grew out of … [Read more...] about Is there such a thing as Adult ADHD?
Fluoroquinolones: Not so Carte-Blanche
Last June, in “Historic Summit: Flox and Tox Get Together”, I told you about the European Medicines Agency's Review and Public Hearing into the side effects of Fluoroquinolones. It was only the second time in the EMA's history that they'd decided to hold a Public Hearing (because of the amount of public interest in this review) (1), so it was indeed historic. They later … [Read more...] about Fluoroquinolones: Not so Carte-Blanche
Serotonin Syndrome
It is commonly recognized that certain medications should not be administered with some others. What is not well known is that several over the counter (OTC) medications and herbal supplements can be lethal if taken with SSRIs. I have a patient who was taking fluoxetine and, experiencing some difficulty with sleep, decided to take one tab of melatonin. He woke up with a red … [Read more...] about Serotonin Syndrome
RxISK’s Ten Threats to Global Health 2019
WHO's Ten Threats to Global Health in 2019 have been much in the news lately - a kind of collective New Year's Resolution list. The 10 resolutions can be seen below. They have prompted an alternate RxISK list of threats. These are not listed in order of importance. RxISK's Threat List Sequestration of Clinical Trial Data. Most of what passes as science in medicine is … [Read more...] about RxISK’s Ten Threats to Global Health 2019