In some of the comments after the last post, POGO mentioned that Josef Witt-Doerring has done two interviews with me so far and posted them on his site. The Risks of Antidepressants and Antidepressants and Mass Shootings/Murder Suicide: An interview has also appeared on Demystifying Science podcast with Anastasia & Michael Shilo The Podcast called […]
A month ago I had an email from Ben Fox of forauthors@shepherd.com – a new venture looking to promote books in a new way. See Shepherd.com. The idea is to feature a book by an author and then get her or him to list five books that have particularly influenced them – centered on a […]
Illustration: Lost on the Sea of Medicine, © 2014 created by Billiam James This is the first of 4 posts on the idea of Sanctuary Trauma. Some weeks ago, Trixie Foster got in touch. Trixie is an extraordinary campaigner on behalf of those injured by Lariam (mefloquine) – see the Strange History and Lariam Hell. […]
Lots of people complain of cognitive problems on or after taking medications, whether psychotropic drugs, cholesterol lowering statins, asthma drugs like montelukast, or fluoroquinolone antibiotics. They often use the word “Brain Fog” to cover this. Women get Brain Fog in pregnancy that can linger afterwards. People with Long Covid complain of Brain Fog as do […]
There are several previous posts on this topic – Doxycycline causes Suicide and Suicide is Painless and becoming suicidal on an antibiotic. None of them give as compelling a picture of what the problem is like from the inside as this letter that came to RxISK some months ago. A Life in Good Shape I […]
In 2015, there was a series of posts on davidhealy.org Pharmaceutical Rape, Pharmaceutical Rape is not a Metaphor, Pharmaceutical Rape: Cast of Characters, Pharmaceutical Rape: The Good Patient, Pharmaceutical Rape: Doctors Still Know Best, Pharmaceutical Rape: Discrimination, Pharmaceutical Rape: Ending our Tolerance. The following year GlaxoSmithKline lawyers deposed me in the Dolin case, spending hours […]
There are many RxISK posts on antibiotics – look under antibiotics – with 6 or so dealing with Fluoroquinolones from the original Flox-Tox to Fluoroquinolones: Not so Carte Blanche. Miriam Knight has written this one. Doctor: “I’ll give you an antibiotic to clear that up”. Me: “Thanks very much”. I imagine just about everyone reading […]
RxISK was emailed about a post on SSRI Stories recently. Julie Wood runs SSRI stories, which features newspaper or related public domain material about suicides, homicides or other events linked to SSRI or other psychotropic drug intake. The email read as follows: Your using an article about my family members suicide as a propaganda piece and […]
This is part two of Johanna Ryan’s posts on Ghosts in the Clinical Trial Machine or Clinical Trial Fraud. Last weeks post reported on how doctors in three states have been convicted of handing in fake clinical-trial results from fake patients. This week we’ll examine how small-time crooks like these ended up doing world-class medical […]
This is the first part of a two part series on clinical trial fraud from Johanna Ryan, with part 2 next week. Jo is RxISK’s clinical trial and shoddy clinical practice sleuth – see The Maintenance Man. Recently the U.S. Department of Justice called attention to a small but worrisome crime wave. Health care fraud […]
Nearly a week ago a group of Italians sent this post written after one of their number gave up his struggle with PSSD and the system. We’ve been very slow posting it – partly because of the emotions it stirs. Its quiet beginning and contained fury at the end conjured up Marc Antony’s speech after […]
This post covers difficulties primarily on antidepressants that medicines can cause to people in schools or universities who end up unable to study or do course-work, as well as the difficulties people can have trying to get off medicines, a process that can be pretty disabling. The materials linked to this post are being put […]
There are 3 bits to this post – an interview with Joan-Ramon Laporte. An article by Ariane Denoyel and a Q and A with Laporte and Healy. Laporte Interview As part of a series for ROAR Magazine, Frank Barat has run some striking interviews about aspects of the Covid pandemic not usually mentioned. Here […]
IN THE MIDST OF THE SARS-CoV-2 PANDEMIA, CAUTION IS NEEDED WITH COMMONLY USED DRUGS THAT INCREASE THE RISK OF PNEUMONIA. Joan-Ramon Laporte, M.D. Emeritus Professor of Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Pharmacology, Therapeutics and Toxicology Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Fundació Institut Català de Farmacologia. WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Pharmacoepidemiology. jrl@icf.uab.cat David Healy […]
Everyone who reads RxISK posts will know that SSRI and related drugs (some antibiotics, painkillers, antihistamines and most antidepressants) can cause sexual dysfunction. This has been known since 1961. And that they can cause suicide. This has been known since 1959. And that they can cause birth defects. The first publication by an Australian obstetrician, […]
Up to 1800, no-one went near a doctor if they could avoid it. At best doctors might amuse the patient while nature cured the disease – the doctor’s business was to take as much of the credit and the money as possible. The best was rare. In an effort to get the money, doctors liked […]
Last week’s post on Montelukast Withdrawal Syndrome has attracted comments at a higher rate than any prior post in 7 years of RxISK posts. It followed a post on Asthma causing Suicide and Homicide two weeks previously, which had links to the QuarterWatch 2015 report of adverse events in children fingering montelukast and suicidality as […]
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 […]
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 […]
Editorial Note: This post returns to PSSD – post SSRI sexual dysfunction – PRSD – post retinoid sexual dysfunction – PFS – post finasteride sexual dysfunction and PGAD – persistent genital arousal disorder. See our RxISK PSSD page for the many prior posts on these conditions There is also post on davidhealy.org – Khashoggi and […]
This post closes our series on akathisia. Along with posts on davidhealy.org, the other posts were: Akathisia Anthem 500+ Drugs that Cause Depression and Suicide – AKA Akathisia Akathisia Challenge Even Politicians get killed by Akathisia In 500 drugs that cause depression and suicide, we mentioned building a new list of drugs that can cause […]
A post on May 31st on davidhealy.org, The Greatest Failure in What Used to be Called Medicine, and the following post on the Spectre of Dissent, triggered two conversations. One was about the appropriateness of the imagery used. The other was a long conversation initiated by Tim and then developed by Heather about what to […]
Billiam James’ Akathisia Anthem released last week and available HERE is timely. Since this headline in Newsweek in May 2013, things have got worse. In America since 2015, life expectancy has been falling and in other developed countries it has stopped rising. Recent American studies have fingered rising suicide rates as one factor in this […]
A link to the Akathisia Anthem song and video is available on RxISK’s Akathisia page. There will be follow up posts on RxISK and DavidHealy over the next two weeks. Akathisia anthem Akathisia, Akathisia You make me wanna Make me wanna Akathisia Thank you doctor for this little pill But the fact of the matter, it’s […]
Editorial Note: The European Medicines’ Agency are holding a public meeting today about Fluoroquinolone antibiotics and the problems they can cause. They invited submissions. RxISK submitted. But was not selected for a presentation so we will not be there. Miriam Knight who has been a vigorous campaigner on the need to warn about the […]
Editorial Note: This is the third in a RxISK Map series of posts – See Reformation Day and Here We Stand. These link closely to the RxISK Prize. There are two aspects to finding a cure for an adverse event. One is understanding the biology. The other is getting it established that the effect happens. […]
If you look at the adverse events section of the sertraline – Zoloft – label you will see in small print that sertraline has been linked to psychosis, hallucinations and aggressive reactions. Its there in small print. These links have been there since the mid-1990s. Vanishingly few doctors understand what is going on here. […]
It is worth wading through some slow moving stuff at the start of this post to get to the juicy bits. The Things Drugs Do Drugs do things. Company marketing divides these things into the one good thing the company wants you to focus on – good for a company bottom-line and the ninety-nine other […]
Editorial Note: There are two elements to RxISK. One is identifying adverse events in order to keep people safe and to widen our knowledge about what drugs do. But just as important is taking on a power structure that some of us get a glimpse of when we raise the possibility of an adverse event […]
Editorial Note: Twenty-five years ago, Diane Fried took Floxin, a fluoroquinolone antibiotic and a predecessor of Levaquin and Cipro, and was severely damaged as a consequence, leading her husband to write Bitter Pills. Three years ago we featured two posts on fluoroquinolone antibiotic problems. We have also featured posts on the closely related Lariam – mefloquine […]