RxISK

Making Medicines Safer for All of Us

Antibiotics

Drugs and Smell: Smells of SHIT

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Medication can mess up your sense of Smell. This post links to the Magna Farta post on david healy, which tells the story of Zicam and Matrixx Pharmaceuticals. For anyone interested in adverse events, this is one of the most important stories in medicine. It also links to the SHIT Happens and SHIT happens 2 posts. There are three Tables. The first shows drugs that cause Anosmia … [Read more...] about Drugs and Smell: Smells of SHIT

DRESS Syndrome: No Way to Treat a Lady

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Black out Five minutes into yoga class, my sixteen year old daughter Hannah blacked out. Her face, white as a ghost. When she came to, she said she couldn’t see. Her pulse was almost nothing, and panic set in. I ran to my car to grab my phone and dial the infectious disease doctor Hannah had recently seen about an allergic reaction to a commonly prescribed antibiotic acne drug … [Read more...] about DRESS Syndrome: No Way to Treat a Lady

The Strange History of Lariam

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Editorial Note: This is the second part of a Lariam Odyssey by Dr Sam Ramsay Smith. The first part ran last week - Lariam Hell. Like most good stories this one involves expediency, hegemony, immorality, greed and even scientific bias, blindness and dishonesty all in the quest for power and money at the national and international levels. At the personal level there is a range … [Read more...] about The Strange History of Lariam

Lariam Hell

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Editorial Note: This post and the following one on the strange story of the Birth of Lariam come from Dr Sam Ramsay-Smith who has some questions he wants answered. In October, ‘The Independent’ printed the news that the US Armed Forces had banned the use of the anti-malarial drug mefloquine, otherwise known as Lariam. To many this may mean little or nothing, but to quite a few … [Read more...] about Lariam Hell

We Have a Dream: Getting Engaged to a Doctor

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Still, you take the medication as prescribed. At first you imagine your body may adjust or the pills will come to understand you. It is no use. From Virginia Chase Sutton: Lithium and the Absence of Desire. Patient engagement Patient engagement is one of the mantras of current healthcare improvement efforts. Medical students and junior doctors likely think they are doing … [Read more...] about We Have a Dream: Getting Engaged to a Doctor

Suicide is Painless: Sylvia’s Story

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Editorial note: In 1962, Sylvia Plath committed suicide a week after going on phenelzine, an antidepressant. She had two young children, making her death close to inexplicable - unless the medication she was put on disturbed the balance of her mind. But what does 'disturb the balance of your mind' mean? In this account, another Sylvia put on doxycycline gives one of the best … [Read more...] about Suicide is Painless: Sylvia’s Story

RxISK says Doxycycline causes Suicide

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There have been several reports to RxISK of young men committing suicide on doxycycline. This led us to investigate further. The evidence seems clear - doxycycline can cause someone to commit suicide. We have no idea how often this happens but that it happens is certain. Given for a skin rash The first report came from a mother in Australia who reported the death of her … [Read more...] about RxISK says Doxycycline causes Suicide

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