“Do you think studying monolayers of cells will tell you why you fall in love with a girl?" The quote comes from Rudolf Hess, who won the Nobel Prize for physiology in 1949. His students remembered him as telling them never to study a neurotransmitter or even a cell without thinking about where this bit of the body comes from and what it is supposed to do. This is one of … [Read more...] about Sex, Withdrawal and Boundaries
Antidepressants
What’s Sex Got to Do with It
This post gives the text of an article that has just been published online in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine - see Here. Another version of the material is in video form - Antidepressants and Sex: a Strange Story. Background In June 2019, in response to a petition, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) asked pharmaceutical companies to warn that sexual … [Read more...] about What’s Sex Got to Do with It
The Banality of Health Service Evil
In the early 1960s, the American social psychologist, Stanley Milgram, ran now famous experiments using university students - then largely white and middle-class - as his subjects . His research interest lay in the Nazi concentration camps and the defence used by Adolf Eichmann (featured image) in his trial in Israel in 1962 - that he was only following orders. The … [Read more...] about The Banality of Health Service Evil
Healthcare or Health Service?
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 to pump us as full of stuff as possible, commonly in the process, as most people recognised, … [Read more...] about Healthcare or Health Service?
Trust Withdrawal and Antidepressants
The images, which are a wonderful metaphor for the coming back to life, the restoration of emotions and senses that stopping an antidepressant can bring, comes from this news item - its worth clicking on the video link There have probably been more posts about withdrawal from antidepressants - especially if PSSD is included as a legacy effect of these drugs - and certainly … [Read more...] about Trust Withdrawal and Antidepressants
Antidepressant Withdrawal – The Enemy Within
National Horror Show It goes completely against the grain for almost everyone in the UK to say anything bad about the NHS. But in the case of the antidepressant group of drugs, with the brief note the NHS has just issued alerting people to the effect that antidepressants may be difficult to stop puts the NHS in an Enemy of the People category. The note reads: How … [Read more...] about Antidepressant Withdrawal – The Enemy Within
Sleep Problems After Stopping Antidepressants?
It is well known that antidepressants can interfere with a person's sleep, but it's less clear what happens after they stop taking the drug. One of our earliest blog posts from 2012 was written by someone experiencing terrifying nightmares while withdrawing from Cymbalta. The post received a number of comments from other people reporting the same problem. It would be … [Read more...] about Sleep Problems After Stopping Antidepressants?
Not the RxISK Manifesto
Last week's RxISK Manifesto post featured an article then just published in BMJ. The BMJ picture that went with the article looked like this. This gives entirely the opposite message to the article. The article says a doctors job would be a lot more interesting if they listened and encouraged anyone consulting them to become researchers rather than problems. It also … [Read more...] about Not the RxISK Manifesto
RxISK Manifesto
This post is close to identical to an article that has just appeared in the BMJ - Clinical Judgments, not Algorithms, are key to Patient Safety. Immediately on taking a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), most people have some genital anaesthesia.1 This may be aggravated on withdrawal of the drug and can remain for years after treatment has stopped, constituting … [Read more...] about RxISK Manifesto
PSSD Patient Experiences
New paper "If you wish to have such “syndrome” continue what you are doing ... read obscure studies and reviews in obscure databases and I can guarantee to you that you will have it till the end of your life!" Anyone who has experienced a serious side effect from a medication will know how difficult the conversation with your doctor can be. In our new paper, “Post-SSRI … [Read more...] about PSSD Patient Experiences