RxISK

Making Medicines Safer for All of Us

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Gambling on the Side Effects of Antidepressants: Does Pfizer Play Dice?

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This piece by Daniel O'Sullivan was first posted on Crikey.com. Our interest was stimulated by a query to RxISK from Daniel who had been told by the Australian regulator (the TGA) that they only had one report of this. Looking for gambling in RxISK, gives 1 case in Australia, but 4 cases of pathological gambling - more than from all the rest of the world combined, and 8 cases … [Read more...] about Gambling on the Side Effects of Antidepressants: Does Pfizer Play Dice?

Weight Gain on Thyroxine

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If there is one thing most doctors think they know it's that weight gain can be caused by an underactive thyroid and having an overactive thyroid leads to weight loss. So the thyroid hormone, thyroxine, will lead to weight loss. And magazines, newspapers and websites, especially in the United States openly invite anyone who is overweight to get their thyroid checked. Thyroxine … [Read more...] about Weight Gain on Thyroxine

Smoke & Pfizer Get In Your Eyes

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On March 15, Out of My Mind was published on davidhealy.org. This was one of the first RxISK stories. At the moment it is the blog post that has attracted the most comments. The comments are worth reading - there is close to universal recognition of something that applies to the person commenting that they haven't found elsewhere. We had no idea the problem would attract such … [Read more...] about Smoke & Pfizer Get In Your Eyes

The Myth of the Magic Bullet: Flox Tox

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In July this year, Antimicrobrial Agents & Chemotherapy had an article - Fluoxetine is a Potent Inhibitor of Coxsackievirus Replication by Zuo J, Quinn KK and colleagues. "No antiviral drugs currently exist for the treatment of enterovirus infections, which are often severe and potentially life-threatening. Molecular screening of small molecule libraries identified … [Read more...] about The Myth of the Magic Bullet: Flox Tox

Facts About FACS (Fetal Anti-Convulsant Syndrome)

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Janet's story I was diagnosed with epilepsy at the age of 14. After trying different drugs my seizures were controlled by a combination of Phenytoin (Epanutin) and Sodium Valproate (Epilim). What they didn’t tell me was that Sodium Valproate carried the highest incidence of birth defects to the unborn baby. In my ignorance I continued to take the drugs in all of my pregnancies … [Read more...] about Facts About FACS (Fetal Anti-Convulsant Syndrome)

Azathioprine Withdrawal

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This post was written by Ken Spriggs and comes from his DIYEHR (do it yourself electronic health record) site. It brings out nicely how some people are only aware of the problems their drug causes when they stop. This is particularly true for people taking statins, but can be found taking anything from aspirin to azathioprine. Poison is an emotive word but all drugs are poisons … [Read more...] about Azathioprine Withdrawal

Clopidogrel Withdrawal

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This is a first in a series of RxISK stories. We want any accounts of adverse or interesting events on drugs or new uses for drugs from people on them or doctors, pharmacists or others trying to manage the effects of drugs. We would be very interested in accounts of what happens when people take RxISK reports to doctors and what people may discover about their treatment. Query … [Read more...] about Clopidogrel Withdrawal