In the mid-1980s, I gave a very nice man, an in-patient, weekend leave. He hung himself. Everyone was shocked. The drug I’d put him on was the trigger to his suicide. Soon after, a medical resident called me to a case she was handling. She seemed exceptionally impressive, so I was surprised to hear afterwards she was taking an antidepressant. She told me about the … [Read more...] about Experts by Experience and Nobel Prizes
Anticonvulsants
How the Safety of Drugs was Destroyed
Emer Cooke, the CEO of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is Irish. This is Dublin's famous Halfpenny Bridge which for some reason features in an article outlining the history of the phrase Tail wags Dog which seems appropriate for what followed. I wrote to Emer recently about a bizarre letter I received from Kinapse - A Brush with EMA - who run EMA's medical literature … [Read more...] about How the Safety of Drugs was Destroyed
The Wild Doctor – Le Médecin Sauvage
The French playwright Moliere loved poking fun at pomposity especially when it involved doctors. In Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, he pokes fun at Monsieur Jourdain, a pompous upstart, who has come into money and is taking on airs and graces. Translating gentilhomme into gentleman misses what the word meant around 1660, which was more like civilized, the manners which … [Read more...] about The Wild Doctor – Le Médecin Sauvage
A Brush with the European Medicines’ Agency
This post should be read in conjunction with Are Journalists the Answer to Clinical Medicines Cause and Effect Problem which is on davidhealy.org, or will be, and last weeks Clinical Details Confuse Expert Doctors along with Royal College of Psychiatrist's Suicide Note. Several months ago, I agreed to review an article by John Read analyzing the hundreds of antidepressant … [Read more...] about A Brush with the European Medicines’ Agency
Could Journalists be Doctors in Disguise
I had to give some workshops a few years ago to media students and either while thinking about what to say or in the middle of saying it, or soon after, it hit me that good doctoring has a lot in common with good journalism. Both hinge on getting the story right and key to that is having a real person whom others can contact to check out the story they have been told about … [Read more...] about Could Journalists be Doctors in Disguise
Pyridoxal-5-Phosphate and Akathisia
This post came from a regular contributor to RxISK and DH posts. An earlier comment pointed to something interesting and has developed into this post which should be of interest to anyone who has a withdrawal problem that entails some kind of akathisia. When I came out of a psychiatric hospital in Summer 2019, I had been on zopiclone for a good 6 months. For most of that … [Read more...] about Pyridoxal-5-Phosphate and Akathisia
DD and AA Groups Similarities and Differences
Illustration: Is There Life After Meds?, © 2014 created by Billiam James DD in this case stands for Drug Damaged. AA for Alcoholics Anonymous. Some of the material in this post is likely to disturb some readers. Reading it in conjunction with Here We Stand We Can Do No Other and Dos Centavos - Veinte Euros may help make sense of material that may not sit well with some … [Read more...] about DD and AA Groups Similarities and Differences
Podcasts, YouTube Channels, Blogs and Related
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 … [Read more...] about Podcasts, YouTube Channels, Blogs and Related
Antidepressant Neuropathy and the Color of Life
Illustration: Is There Life After Meds?, © 2014 created by Billiam James Here is a Question put to the recent RxISK post on Sensory Neuropathy. I’m a psychologist and I have made numerous attempts to discontinue antidepressants only to experience significant withdrawal symptoms. I’ve been on antidepressants for 25 years at this point and have made four unsuccessful attempts … [Read more...] about Antidepressant Neuropathy and the Color of Life
All DRESSed Up With Nowhere To Go
This post was written by several members of the RxISK Team drawing on the work of Jorge Carrasco - see below. There is a prior RxISK post on DRESS Syndrome - No Way to Treat a Lady. María Elisa Rangel was 38 and a mother of four children when she signed up for a phase 1 clinical trial in April 2015. They needed the money. The drug was cenobamate, marketed by SK Life … [Read more...] about All DRESSed Up With Nowhere To Go