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 prescribed … [Read more...] about How Common is Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD)?
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Medical Kidnap: Withdrawal & Non-Compliance
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 the stage of taking a very low dose (6.5 mg) of citalopram during my second … [Read more...] about Medical Kidnap: Withdrawal & Non-Compliance
A Kidnapped Daughter 2
Continued from Part 1. 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 park, go to the café and drink some cocoa. … [Read more...] about A Kidnapped Daughter 2
A Kidnapped Daughter
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 her mother and I had ill-advisedly, and to our eternal regret, trusted to … [Read more...] about A Kidnapped Daughter
Three Weeks To Prescripticide
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 to explain how someone can … [Read more...] about Three Weeks To Prescripticide
Medical Kidnap: Get Out of Jail Free Report
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 will figure this is a pretty common occurrence. The rest of us … [Read more...] about Medical Kidnap: Get Out of Jail Free Report
The Right Not to be Kidnapped
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 for a relative … [Read more...] about The Right Not to be Kidnapped
Medical Kidnapping: The Dilemmas of Therapeutic Optimism
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 first effective psychotropic drugs. Current … [Read more...] about Medical Kidnapping: The Dilemmas of Therapeutic Optimism
The History of Medical Kidnapping
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 bit. In 1706, Daniel Defoe, perhaps the first journalist and, … [Read more...] about The History of Medical Kidnapping
Kidnapped: In England
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 medicine. We need an up to date version of Buffy Sainte Marie's … [Read more...] about Kidnapped: In England