Editorial Note: This post is by Johanna Ryan, who has a unique ability to capture the American Nightmare. The best-selling drug in the United States isn’t a blood pressure pill, a painkiller or even an antidepressant. It’s Abilify, an antipsychotic agent with $6.3 billion in 2013 sales. Granted, Abilify isn’t the most prescribed pill, but its #1 status is sealed by popularity … [Read more...] about Dodging Abilify
Antidepressants
Pilots and Antidepressants
Editorial Note: This post is by Julie Wood, the central figure behind SSRI Stories in its current incarnation. SSRI Stories has collected and posted 47 stories about pilots flying and crashing while on antidepressants. The majority are airplanes but several of the crashes involve helicopters. With the current focus on the possible contribution of psychoactive drugs to the … [Read more...] about Pilots and Antidepressants
An Irish Epidemic: Suicide and Homicide on Antidepressants
Editorial Note: This post is by Leonie Fennel. Ireland is currently in the midst of an unprecedented suicide/homicide epidemic. Parents are uncharacteristically killing their children; husbands are killing their wives; brothers are killing their brothers; mothers are killing themselves and their babies, all at an alarming rate. Dr Michael Curtis, Deputy State Pathologist, … [Read more...] about An Irish Epidemic: Suicide and Homicide on Antidepressants
We should talk about Brintellix: Antidepressants and Suicide
My father was born in 1955. He is medium height, loves his family, fishing and hunting. In 1980 he came to America with his wife and two children to pursue a better life. In the 1980s he would say he drank too much. He stopped because he knew he had a problem. In late 1993 the company he worked for closed so he decided to open his own machine shop. My father worked by … [Read more...] about We should talk about Brintellix: Antidepressants and Suicide
Antidepressant Withdrawal: A Prozac Story
Editorial Note: Over two years ago we posted Antidepressant Withdrawal: V's story. It has close to 100 comments making it one of the topics that has attracted the most interest. Right now the New York Times is running a series on Breaking up with my Meds that is attracting a lot of comment. This is a hot button issue with many people desperate to get off antidepressants and … [Read more...] about Antidepressant Withdrawal: A Prozac Story
Dopamine & Addiction: Junkies of the Third Age?
The last set of posts have brought stimulants and dopamine into the frame. In the 1960s and 1970s while stimulants were becoming controlled drugs it was nevertheless denied that they caused dependence. It is now clear that the closely related dopamine agonists, increasingly the first line treatment for Parkinson's Disease, cause a host of compulsive behaviors in addiction to … [Read more...] about Dopamine & Addiction: Junkies of the Third Age?
Over The Top: Tackling Medical Power
Editorial Note: Laurie Oakley has recently brought out a book, Crazy And It Was, that gives many vivid illustrations of the problems of coping with healthcare systems, especially mental healthcare systems. Her account of what it's like to deal with a doctor who just isn't listening was particularly compelling. We asked her to give some hints of the kinds of problems covered in … [Read more...] about Over The Top: Tackling Medical Power
The Mysteries of Love
RxISK has had twenty-two stories and features on sex and drugs over the last two years - more than on any other topic. While we have a Sex Zone on the RxISK front page because we thought the topic might be of some interest, we didn't expect sex to take over quite like this. There are a few reasons sex may be so hot. Mysterious effects First a great deal of what is … [Read more...] about The Mysteries of Love
Massacre of Innocence
Paradise lost Any post about pregnancy pulls in more than the average amount of complexity. We had a series of posts on the risks of antidepressants in pregnancy at the end of last year The Dark is for Mushrooms, not for Women and Preventing Precaution and Mumsnet and a string of posts from Adam Urato - see Massacre of the Innocents - with another point of view from Philippa … [Read more...] about Massacre of Innocence
Massacre of the Innocents
Editorial Note: This post is by Adam Urato. There are other Adam Urato posts on RxISK (see Antidepressants and Autism and Autism Awareness Day) about the use of antidepressants in pregnancy and by women of child-bearing years. This post appeared first on Mad in America. The image is from an article by Gideon Koren that seriously proposes putting the image of a pregnant woman on … [Read more...] about Massacre of the Innocents