A Cure for PSSD, PFS and Post-Isotretinoin Syndrome
December 5, 2022 | 20 Comments

The Holy Grail © Nina Otulakowski June 2022 You need to click on the image to get the full effects. In recent months, RxISK has been working closely with Luisa Guerrini in Milan, whose background is in research on regulatory proteins like p 63 and p 53, on which Thalidomide works. This discovery led to […]

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Our Unequal Struggle with Health Systems
November 23, 2022 | 21 Comments

This is Lacoon, a Trojan priest, and his sons being engulfed and killed by snakes from the deep as he tried to warn the Trojans about the Horse they were planning to pull inside their walls. Gordon Hughes case, outlined last week in Treatment Great, Patient Died, shares a lot in common with Evelyn, Kafka, […]

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Science, Kansas and the Wizard of Washington
November 10, 2022 | 7 Comments

This post follows on from Science, Kansas and Pancakes.  Peter is doing a good job spreading word of this article on the Prozac studies in children and featuring other aspects of this extraordinary story.  This post focusses in on one revelatory feature. Reviewer #3: A window with the view on the details of how drug […]

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Science, Kansas and Pancakes
November 7, 2022 | 10 Comments

A long time ago, following work on the Restoration of Study 329, I was approached by Peter Goetzsche, featured above, to work on restoring the two trials that had got Prozac (fluoxetine) approved for children for depression. I may have suggested this idea to Peter in that from 2004 or so I was aware that […]

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PSSD Patients Needed for Small Fibre Neuropathy Investigation
October 31, 2022 | 9 Comments

We recently ran a couple of blog posts about the possibility of a link between post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD) and small fibre neuropathy: Sensory Receptors, Small Fibres and Neuropathy Antidepressant Neuropathy and the Color of Life The posts recapped some of the things we had previously discussed on the blog and also included new information […]

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Is there life after meds?
Antidepressant Neuropathy and the Color of Life
October 10, 2022 | 15 Comments

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 […]

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Antidepressants and Premature Death
October 5, 2022 | 25 Comments

An article appeared in the British Journal of Psychiatry some weeks ago, by Narinder Bansal and colleagues from Bristol University. Having met Narinder I can tell readers she is a very impressive woman, with an impressive husband, Petros, who are both in one way or another working on population health.  She had been working in […]

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Sensory Receptors, Small Fibres and Neuropathy
September 21, 2022 | 32 Comments

RxISK began in 2012.  One of its main goals was to offer people an opportunity to report problems they had on treatments – any treatment – and generate a report they could take to a doctor in the hope this might get the doctor to take their problem seriously. I had seen my first cases […]

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Marilyn Lemak: Trial or Clemency?
September 14, 2022 | 8 Comments

A few weeks ago, an original set of four posts about Marilyn Lemak – Trial and Punishment, Then and Now, Clemency, When the Music Stops elicited mostly supportive comments from those who comment regularly on RxISK. The three posts last week, Eric Zorn and Marilyn Lemak, People Respond and Janet Lagerloef responds,  drew a very […]

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Janet Lagerloef Responds to Eric Zorn
September 9, 2022 | One Comment

The following was written by Janet Lagerloef, a writer from Sugar Grove who is finishing up a book about her 10-year friendship with Marilyn Lemak, who is serving a sentence of life without parole for killing her three children in their Naperville home in March,1999. In last week’s issue, I covered the details of that crime […]

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People Respond to Eric Zorn and Marilyn Lemak
September 7, 2022 | 8 Comments

Does Marilyn Lemak deserve mercy? Readers weigh in These messages are in reference to items in last week’s issues of the Picayune Sentinel. On my interview with Marilyn Lemak Julie S.  Marilyn Lemak may have been a model citizen before and after her appalling crime. But the idea of “clemency” for her makes me queasy. I […]

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Eric Zorn and Marilyn Lemak
September 6, 2022 | No Comments

Rxisk has featured four posts on Marilyn Lemak, Trial and Punishment, Then and Now, Clemency Hearing and When the Music Stops. Eric Zorn is a former opinion columnist for the Chicago Tribune. His bio and contact information is here.  He now writes the Picayune Sentinel, where Marilyn Lemak speaks out about her bid for clemency first […]

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Our Love Life Needs You to be Wiked
August 3, 2022 | 15 Comments

Our Love Life Needs You © Nina Otulakowski August 2022 RxISK regularly gets enquiries about what can be done to find an answer to the sexual dysfunctions following SSRIs, Finasteride and Isotretinoin –  PSSD, PFS and PRSD. RxISK and Sharks outlined the likely Endgame.  This outcome would be terrible – especially as its highly likely […]

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Marilyn Lemak: When the Music Stops
July 26, 2022 | 34 Comments

Judith and the Head of .. © Nina Otulakowski July 2022 “I’m glad I didn’t know the way it all would end.  The way it all would go.  Our lives are better left to chance.  I could have missed the pain but I’d have had to miss the dance.”  – Garth Brooks This post by […]

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Marilyn Lemak Clemency Hearing
July 19, 2022 | 26 Comments

This post follows Janet Lagerloef’s Marilyn Lemak’s Trial and Punishment and Johanna Ryan’s Marilyn Lemak Then and Now.  Jo was the first person I ever heard talk about this case.  Janet has done more than anyone to get Marilyn’s case to a Clemency Hearing.  She prevailed on several lawyers to pick up the case and […]

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Marilyn Lemak Then and Now
July 12, 2022 | 26 Comments

Haven, House, Horror © Nina Otulakowski July 2022 This post is by Johanna Ryan for whom, like many in Chicago in 1999, the Lemak case was like knowing where you were when Challenger blew up. It is part two of a four part series on Marilyn Lemak and follows Janet Lagerloef’s opening post last week. […]

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Marilyn Lemak’s Trial and Punishment
July 5, 2022 | 23 Comments

In 1999 Marilyn Lemak killed her three children and tried to kill herself.  She has spent over 22 years in jail since.  People in Chicago and beyond can still remember when the news broke.  Janet Lagerloef did more.  She said there but for the grace of God go I and made it her mission to […]

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RxISK Research Fund and Prize
June 27, 2022 | 48 Comments

We need to clarify some things about the RxISK Prize and Research Fund.  The Prize was established RxISK Prize in 2017 – see The Golden Rule, RxISK No-Nos, Relationships, Stigma and Recovery, Campaign and Challenge. Some of us in RxISK have had a difficult few months attempting to set up a Research Fund for PSSD […]

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The Holy Grail: Searching for a Cure for PSSD
June 21, 2022 | 44 Comments

The Holy Grail © Nina Otulakowski June 2022 You need to click on the image to get the full effects. Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD) is a debilitating consequence of taking serotonin reuptake inhibiting drugs (SSRIs, SNRIs, some antihistamines, some antibiotics, some analgesics and other medicines) that can leave people of all ages, and from all countries […]

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Caught in the Firing Line: Nurse Prescribers
May 30, 2022 | 6 Comments

Back in early Covid times, I was asked by Cecile aan de Stegge to talk at a meeting: Suicide and its Prevention. Contemporary and Historical Perspectives in Nursing, 1880–2020 This finally happened in May 2022.  Cecile asked me to talk on the issues around suicide and antidepressants, which seemed particularly pertinent as an increasing number […]

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The Best Books on Medical Treatments Gone Wrong
May 23, 2022 | 12 Comments

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 […]

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The Caste System in Medicine
May 2, 2022 | 9 Comments

This post is by Spruce who has been a regular contributor to these columns.  It follows from his comments on The Invisible Doctor and it adds to that post which has had a lot of comments since.  Humans seem to have a tendency to caste systems but most people would be surprised to think you […]

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Tsang/Shidlofsky Visual Snow Protocol
April 25, 2022 | 11 Comments

Visual snow describes the appearance of flickering dots or “static” in the field of vision. It’s thought to be a problem with visual processing rather than a structural issue within the eyes. This can cause difficulties for patients when trying to report visual snow to their doctor, as standard eye examinations typically find no abnormalities […]

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The Invisible Doctor
March 28, 2022 | 23 Comments

From her first email M seemed completely believable. Everything since has added to her believability. So why is she not believed? This post offers another example of repeated Sanctuary Trauma, outlined in last week’s post, in earlier Kidnapped Daughter posts and in all posts tagged Medical Kidnap. In The Beginning Thirteen years ago, this spring […]

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Sanctuary Trauma and Lariam Toxicity
March 21, 2022 | 7 Comments

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. […]

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Brain Fog: What is it? How to Treat it.
March 15, 2022 | 22 Comments

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 […]

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New Study of Antidepressants and Vision Problems
March 7, 2022 | 21 Comments

The printed version of our new paper “Development and persistence of patient-reported visual problems associated with serotonin reuptake inhibiting antidepressants” has just been published. We couldn’t afford open access, so it would normally only be available to purchase or for subscribers of the journal. However, we’ve paid a fee of $200 USD which allows us […]

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Leader with a Mandate to Eliminate Contagion
February 4, 2022 | 11 Comments

Breaking News Jorge Mario Moves with the Times Having been the first Head of State to introduce Mandates, Jorge Mario Bergoglio appears to have gotten the bit between his teeth and is now embracing (perhaps the wrong word) modern medicine rather completely. While one will surely come, there is not at present an mRNA  gene […]

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Is Recovery from Medication Possible?
January 14, 2022 | 38 Comments

In response to recent posts, especially A Time for PSSD, Laurie Oakley got in touch with the following thoughts.  Laurie has had a series of six posts on Pharmaceutical Rape on davidhealy.org starting in February 2015 but mostly from early January 2016.  These outline her own difficulties recovering from medication induced injury and the equal […]

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No sex please (we're on antidepressants)
Sex Please but We Are on Antidepressants
January 5, 2022 | 4 Comments

This anonymous post stemmed from a RxISK report, which came in following A Time for PSSD last week. If anyone else, female or male, has started an antidepressant before or early in puberty with things not working quite as a result – anything from being asexual through to intrusive uncontrollable orgasms – you can file […]

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