This talk was first given at a Medicating Normal Meeting for mental health staff in Lexington Kentucky organized by Geoff Wilson and a few days later in May at the invitation of Don Marks to a group of clinical psychologists in Kean University New Jersey. I'm hoping it will lead to feedback from both groups and others. It is twinned with Truth, Trust and Health also given … [Read more...] about The Fantasies of Psychopharmacology
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Challenging My Doctor to Disclose
This recently published US strategy on Suicide Prevention epitomizes all that is going wrong in medicine today. It is stuffed full of references to Shared Decision Making, Informed Consent and Lived Experience. Stuffed full of token words, window-dressing, tick-boxing. It will increase rather than reduce suicide rates. It is clear that the people behind this, and … [Read more...] about Challenging My Doctor to Disclose
FDA Sued for Failing to Act on RxISK’s Petition
In February 2018, we began work on a petition requesting warnings about post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD) and persistent genital arousal disorder (PGAD) to be added to SSRI and SNRI antidepressants. The academic literature on these conditions had been steadily increasing, and our latest case series on persistent sexual dysfunctions had just been accepted for publication - … [Read more...] about FDA Sued for Failing to Act on RxISK’s Petition
Is Your Treatment Making You Suicidal?
This post links to a RxISK Reducing the Risk of Treatment Induced Suicide Resource. The immediate idea for this Resource came from an article by Katinka Newman on the Downward Spiral many prescription drugs can cause. Five years ago RxISK posted lists of drugs that can cause a downward spiral. Three years ago a mother of a 14 year old boy - see Mentally Hijacked by … [Read more...] about Is Your Treatment Making You Suicidal?
Juggling Our Selves and Our Bodies
Illustration: Juggling Act © 2020 created by Niki McQueen Balance in Balancing Our Bodies and Our Selves and Juggling or coordinating Our Selves and Our Bodies are closely linked. Life is a Tightrope Walk and Paul Klee's Tightrope Walker, emphatically concerned with his balance, features in Balancing. Once spotted Niki McQueen's extraordinary Juggling Act had to open this … [Read more...] about Juggling Our Selves and Our Bodies
Ondine’s Curse: Can’t Live With or Without
Ondine's Curse links closely to Balancing our Bodies and next week's Juggling our Selves. Ondine’s Curse sounds like a Greek Myths. Its not. The story began taking shape a few hundred years ago and has been elaborated ever since - ending up featuring in The Little Mermaid and other stories. The standard version is that a faithless man is cursed by Ondine, a water-nymph, … [Read more...] about Ondine’s Curse: Can’t Live With or Without
Balancing Our Bodies and Our Selves
Thanks to R who helped trigger this important RxISK post and some doctoring. . In July 2023, RxISK ran a post, written by R, giving an account of her Persistent Postural Perceptual Dizziness. PPPD was new to us. R had been in regular contact for a decade because of protracted withdrawal problems. Her problems came back in waves that were difficult to manage. She was then … [Read more...] about Balancing Our Bodies and Our Selves
Deprescribing – Where does Responsibility Lie?
This post follows on from last weeks Potentially Inappropriate Deprescribing and has links to this weeks The Creation Narrative and God Complex. It brings up a painfully tricky point. Reducing Medication Burdens is perhaps the most important task in medicine today. Many well-meaning folk are aware of and raising the profile of this need and attempting to work out how to go … [Read more...] about Deprescribing – Where does Responsibility Lie?
Potentially Inappropriate Deprescribing – PID
This post is linked to An Archipelago of Realities on DH.org. The link may not be clear when you start reading Archipelago but half way down it will be apparent. What is being said on Archipelago about SSRIs applies just as much to benzodiazepines here. Geriatric medicine came into being in the 1980s and with it a new word – polypharmacy – a phenomenon particularly … [Read more...] about Potentially Inappropriate Deprescribing – PID
Teresa Heartchild and World Down’s Syndrome Day
World Down's Syndrome was last week and we missed it. But it's still worth noting as RxISK has a link to it through Teresa Heartchild along with Bill and Franke James. We have had a number of posts on RxISK about Teresa - Quality of Care and Human Rights should be for Everyone. There are several more on DavidHealy.org - the most recent being Uplifting 2024. These … [Read more...] about Teresa Heartchild and World Down’s Syndrome Day