The title of this post borrows a famous line from Monty Python: No one expects the Spanish Inquisition This is an advance notice of things to come rather than a post per se. To get a sense of the things to come, it is worth reading the Antidepressants, Homicide and a Challenge post and the comments that come after it where many regular contributors to RxISK pick up … [Read more...] about No One Expects the Reformation
akathisia
Antidotes for Akathisia and Dysregulation
A recent Mad in America Webinar on Antidepressant Dysregulation Syndromes introduced the idea that tapering might not be the only way to solve some of the problems SSRI antidepressants can cause. Tapering supporters give the impression tapering is the only legitimate way to go, leaving little or no room for the possibility that antidotes might help. Quite aside from … [Read more...] about Antidotes for Akathisia and Dysregulation
Madness, Normality and Antidepressant Dysregulation
Some weeks ago, Bob Whitaker asked me to do a Mad in America Continuing Education Webinar on the problems stopping Antidepressants. The talk with discussion is here Stopping Antidepressants and responses to points raised will be followed up in forthcoming posts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIlk1My4ZgQ I prerecorded the talk in case of disaster as Tapering … [Read more...] about Madness, Normality and Antidepressant Dysregulation
Complex Sensory Imbalances: New Remedies
In the Beginning The sulfonamides transformed medicine in the 1930s. They were the first effective antibiotics and they gave rise to the first diuretics, antihypertensives and hypoglycemics. The latest medical miracle, Semaglutide – Novo-Nordisk’s Ozempic - is touted not just as an effective hypoglycemic (anti-diabetic) medicine but also a Holy Grail drug that … [Read more...] about Complex Sensory Imbalances: New Remedies
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
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
Lonesome Heroines, Forgotten Women and Consent
This post needs reading along with Silent Health and Silencing Safety. The Forgotten Woman in Silent Health is the Lonesome Heroine here. Informed Consent Someone, seriously injured by a medicine he had taken, got in touch this week asking if it was possible to take an action against his doctor or in some way get compensation for his drug inflicted damage. He was sure he had … [Read more...] about Lonesome Heroines, Forgotten Women and Consent