Starship Corona: Captain’s Log
April 26, 2020 | 21 Comments

The use of psychiatric meds in the U.S., already sky-high, is on the rise as a result of Covid-19.  That’s not surprising – it happened after the 9-11 attacks, the 2008 crash and other crises. This graph comes from “America’s State of Mind,” an April 2020 report from Express Scripts. In the month from February […]

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Covid and the Market in Research
April 13, 2020 | 20 Comments

  There are 3 bits to this post – an interview with Joan-Ramon Laporte.  An article by Ariane Denoyel and a Q and A with Laporte and Healy. Laporte Interview As part of a series for ROAR Magazine, Frank Barat has run some striking interviews about aspects of the Covid pandemic not usually mentioned. Here […]

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Medications compromising Covid Infections
April 2, 2020 | 59 Comments

IN THE MIDST OF THE SARS-CoV-2 PANDEMIA, CAUTION IS NEEDED WITH COMMONLY USED DRUGS THAT INCREASE THE RISK OF PNEUMONIA. Joan-Ramon Laporte, M.D. Emeritus Professor of Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Pharmacology, Therapeutics and Toxicology Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Fundació Institut Català de Farmacologia. WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Pharmacoepidemiology. jrl@icf.uab.cat David Healy […]

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Ecclesiastical and Pharmaceutical Risk Benefit Calculations
August 27, 2019 | 6 Comments

The Catholic Church has been convulsed in recent years by sexual abuse scandals. There are two aspects to this.  One has been the harm inflicted on children from the abuse but in many instances as much if not more damage has arisen from the secondary harms these children and later adults have incurred in their […]

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Montelukast, Fluoroquinolone, Psychotropic Withdrawal & Toxicity
July 1, 2019 | 37 Comments

Last week’s post on Montelukast Withdrawal Syndrome has attracted comments at a higher rate than any prior post in 7 years of RxISK posts. It followed a post on Asthma causing Suicide and Homicide two weeks previously, which had links to the QuarterWatch 2015 report of adverse events in children fingering montelukast and suicidality as […]

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Assisted Dying: Going Gentle or Not so Gentle
April 1, 2019 | 53 Comments

Assisted dying has become a hot topic. For large parts of human history when people came toward an end, they might have been left in an outhouse by relatives or consigned themselves to a hut in the woods. Children too. When born, Spartan children were taken outside and their hands placed on the eaves of […]

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Welsh and Scottish Petitions on Antidepressant Dependence
March 21, 2019 | 8 Comments

Scottish and Welsh Parliaments Debate Psychiatric Drug Dependence and Withdrawal Over the last decade, the UK has seen dramatic increases in the number of people prescribed psychiatric drugs. In the British National Formulary, the prescribers bible, Chapter 4 represents Central Nervous System drugs including antidepressants, antipsychotics, anxiolytics, antiepileptics and sedatives. The total numbers prescribed have increased […]

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Stop suicide
Akathisia, Depression & Suicide: The List
September 27, 2018 | 35 Comments

This post closes our series on akathisia. Along with posts on davidhealy.org, the other posts were: Akathisia Anthem 500+ Drugs that Cause Depression and Suicide – AKA Akathisia Akathisia Challenge Even Politicians get killed by Akathisia In 500 drugs that cause depression and suicide, we mentioned building a new list of drugs that can cause […]

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Even Politicians get killed by Akathisia
September 18, 2018 | 11 Comments

Editorial Note: – This continues our series of the lethal effects of akathisia running on RxISK and davidhealy.org – with special reference to Little Red SSRIding Hood and Even Docs get killed by Akathisia. Akathisia and treatment induced suicide took a political turn over the weekend, along with the issue of whether teenagers should be informed […]

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Akathisia Challenge
September 11, 2018 | 13 Comments

A post on May 31st on davidhealy.org, The Greatest Failure in What Used to be Called Medicine, and the following post on the Spectre of Dissent, triggered two conversations. One was about the appropriateness of the imagery used. The other was a long conversation initiated by Tim and then developed by Heather about what to […]

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500+ Drugs that Cause Depression and Suicide – AKA Akathisia
September 4, 2018 | 11 Comments

Billiam James’ Akathisia Anthem released last week and available HERE is timely.  Since this headline in Newsweek in May 2013, things have got worse.  In America since 2015, life expectancy has been falling and in other developed countries it has stopped rising. Recent American studies have fingered rising suicide rates as one factor in this […]

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Akathisia Anthem
August 29, 2018 | 10 Comments

A link to the Akathisia Anthem song and video is available on RxISK’s Akathisia page.  There will be follow up posts on RxISK and DavidHealy over the next two weeks. Akathisia anthem Akathisia, Akathisia You make me wanna Make me wanna Akathisia Thank you doctor for this little pill But the fact of the matter, it’s […]

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Crazy and it was
The WARM Network: Withdrawal and Recovery Meetings
June 27, 2018 | 17 Comments

New Initiative: The Withdrawal and Recovery Meeting (WARM) Network of Groups By Jennifer Bryant and Laurie Oakley This is a new initiative to give anyone who would like to start an in-person withdrawal group in their community a way to get started.  We have created a free “toolkit” that contains a Guide for Facilitators, Suggested […]

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The Princess and the Frozen Pea: PGAD
December 15, 2017 | 8 Comments

Imagine: sitting with friends – maybe a couple of people you have never met before also present – having supper. You’re uncomfortable; it’s hard to sit still. You try hard to concentrate on the conversation – the political turmoil erupting around you, or a film someone’s just been to see – but you can’t. Because […]

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RxISK Map: Relationship Based Medicine
November 14, 2017 | 15 Comments

Editorial Note: This is the third in a RxISK Map series of posts – See Reformation Day and Here We Stand. These link closely to the RxISK Prize. There are two aspects to finding a cure for an adverse event. One is understanding the biology. The other is getting it established that the effect happens. […]

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After the Rot Sets In: Teeth on Treatment
August 28, 2017 | 35 Comments

  Editorial Note:  In the midst of recent posts about SSRIs and homicide and other events, there has been a continuing input of reports of changes in hair on drugs or skin and this one on teeth.  All of these can have an impact on confidence but there is another worry – the treatment is […]

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Prescription for Murder ABCD
August 8, 2017 | 42 Comments

  If you look at the adverse events section of the sertraline – Zoloft – label you will see in small print that sertraline has been linked to psychosis, hallucinations and aggressive reactions. Its there in small print.  These links have been there since the mid-1990s. Vanishingly few doctors understand what is going on here.  […]

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Withdrawal & PSSD: Terminal Diagnoses?
July 17, 2017 | 96 Comments

There has been something of a hiatus on posts on DH and RxISK in recent weeks.  There are a few reasons – one of them outlined here and one to come next week. Part of the problem has been knowing what to say to people with PSSD and severe withdrawal.  I have been swamped with […]

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What a Surprise: RxISK taking entrepreneurs
June 12, 2017 | 7 Comments

It is worth wading through some slow moving stuff at the start of this post to get to the juicy bits. The Things Drugs Do Drugs do things.  Company marketing divides these things into the one good thing the company wants you to focus on – good for a company bottom-line and the ninety-nine other […]

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Shipwrecked by the Cure
Drug Wrecked: Where Does Change Come From?
April 24, 2017 | 52 Comments

Editorial Note:  There are two elements to RxISK.  One is identifying adverse events in order to keep people safe and to widen our knowledge about what drugs do. But just as important is taking on a power structure that some of us get a glimpse of when we raise the possibility of an adverse event […]

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Drug wreck
Illnesses Worse than Side Effects?
February 13, 2017 | 23 Comments

This extraordinary image is from an advert for Clozapine. Mental illness can unquestionably bring distress – it can be haunting, dislocating and deeply disturbing. But the side effects are often more severe. Drugs like Clozapine are used by the military for torture purposes. Healthy volunteers commit suicide after a few days exposure to them. Treatment […]

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The Pill that Causes you to Steal Someone Else’s Life
September 4, 2016 | 52 Comments

Katinka Newman’s The Pill that Steals Lives brings out the hazards of being put on a treatment that then becomes the problem that other treatments are used to treat. In her case she could have easily killed herself – or her children. The website 100Families.org lists 1250+ cases where mental health is linked to homicides. […]

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Neurological problem
Sarah’s Tourette Syndrome Story
August 15, 2016 | 10 Comments

Editorial Note: This post by DG follows up on last week’s Robbie’s Tourette Syndrome Story and continues a series begun a year ago looking at the effects of aripiprazole on Tourette Syndrome Abilify, Tourette Syndrome and Me. As mentioned last week, the key point is not just drug induced adverse effects but the ability of […]

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Tardive dyskinesia
Robbie’s Tourette Syndrome Story
August 8, 2016 | 6 Comments

Editorial Note: This post by DG continues a series begun a year ago looking at the effects of aripiprazole on Tourette Syndrome Abilify, Tourette Syndrome and Me. The key point here is not just the effect of a drug to trigger effects but the ability of someone who has the disorder and takes the treatment […]

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Zyprexa
Olanzapine: Still Treading Water
July 31, 2016 | 21 Comments

Editorial Note: Ages back, Sally MacGregor wrote this piece to follow up to her Olanzapine experience – Olanzapine Withdrawal: Sally’s Story. The original piece has routinely been among the top ten RxISK blog posts visited. This update slipped between the cracks. But here it is. Time for a progress report. I was in feisty mode […]

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Natalie at Rain Forest Cafe 10th Birthday
Kidnapped: Natalie’s Story
July 6, 2016 | 25 Comments

Editorial Note: Natalie’s story parts 1 and 2 are by her mother Kristina. Natalie, celebrating her tenth birthday in 2003, shortly after being prescribed Prozac. Her left eye was starting to show signs of amblyopia, more commonly called “lazy eye.” This adverse drug reaction worsened and was one of many Natalie suffered from unnecessary prescribing. We […]

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Hands tied with rope
A Kidnapped Daughter 2
June 13, 2016 | 12 Comments

Continued from Part 1. Put on mirtazepine my daughter deteriorated rapidly. The crisis intervention team descended. They started by counting pills. When they found the number correct, they assumed I had destroyed the pills. They seemed perplexed. One of the team would take her out for some one–to-one. They would visit the local park, go to […]

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Hands tied with rope
A Kidnapped Daughter
June 7, 2016 | 8 Comments

Editorial Note: This is the first of a two-part post by a father and daughter who want to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals – a very real and realistic fear. This is about how my daughter was “led away” (the literal meaning of abduction), in a cruel and calculated act undertaken by people to whom […]

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Kidnapped
Kidnapped: Arthur Hippe
March 28, 2016 | 4 Comments

Editorial Note: This post by Lois Sampson, an Elders’ Rights Advocate with the Seniors At Risk Coalition, is the first of several on this theme. The message for readers who think that neither they nor their relatives have been or are likely to be in the position that Arthur Hippe was in is that Arthur’s […]

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Antidepressant site specific action
Greg’s Dilemma: Feeling Blue
December 31, 2015 | 27 Comments

Magic bullet In Greg’s Dilemma 1 and Dilemma 2, Greg outlined more than one dilemma linked to getting hooked to antidepressants and benzodiazepines. The responses to these posts were all over the shop – from pull yourself together, to entrust your life to God, to support for descriptions of positions others find themselves in. The […]

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