Pyridoxal-5-Phosphate and Akathisia
May 26, 2023 | 3 Comments

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 […]

Read more ....

Benzodiazepine Facebook and Other Groups
March 30, 2023 | 5 Comments

Nicole Lamberson who will be familiar to many from Medicating Normal asked Barbara Connolly from Benzo Warrior to write a piece on Benzo Support Groups especially linked to Facebook.  This was to fill a benzodiazepine shapeed hole in the DD and AA group post.    Nicole Lamberson asked me to write something about what a […]

Read more ....

DD and AA Groups Similarities and Differences
March 20, 2023 | 15 Comments

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 […]

Read more ....

Podcasts, YouTube Channels, Blogs and Related
January 23, 2023 | 3 Comments

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 ....

Is there life after meds?
Antidepressant Neuropathy and the Color of Life
October 10, 2022 | 16 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 […]

Read more ....

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 […]

Read more ....

Prescribed Harms and Vaccine Hesitancy
October 18, 2021 | 48 Comments

In 2015, there was a series of posts on davidhealy.org Pharmaceutical Rape, Pharmaceutical Rape is not a Metaphor, Pharmaceutical Rape: Cast of Characters, Pharmaceutical Rape: The Good Patient, Pharmaceutical Rape: Doctors Still Know Best, Pharmaceutical Rape: Discrimination, Pharmaceutical Rape: Ending our Tolerance. The following year GlaxoSmithKline lawyers deposed me in the Dolin case, spending hours […]

Read more ....

Once We Were Warriors Tackling Prescription Drugs
August 16, 2021 | 6 Comments

The title of this echoes We Were Warriors but also Once Were Warriors. The post dovetails with What’s a Life Worth, Morgan vs Morgan, and next weeks Escaping the Prescription Drug Maze. All will be on the Politics of Care Forum. The post copies a letter sent to J Mercer MP last week, with images […]

Read more ....

Insomnia the Royal Road to Pills and Nightmares
July 26, 2021 | 16 Comments

This post links to Bob Fiddaman’s Forty Winks last week.  Insomnia is one of our all time biggest problems. We all need Kind Nature’s Chief Restorer to knit up the ravelled sleeve of care.  There is all sorts of health advice out there about how you owe it to yourself to get a good nights […]

Read more ....

Clinical Trial Fraud
June 28, 2021 | 13 Comments

This is part two of Johanna Ryan’s posts on Ghosts in the Clinical Trial Machine or Clinical Trial Fraud.  Last weeks post reported on how doctors in three states have been convicted of handing in fake clinical-trial results from fake patients.  This week we’ll examine how small-time crooks like these ended up doing world-class medical […]

Read more ....

Ghosts in the Clinical Trial Machine
June 21, 2021 | 18 Comments

This is the first part of a two part series on clinical trial fraud from Johanna Ryan, with part 2 next week.  Jo is RxISK’s clinical trial and shoddy clinical practice sleuth – see The Maintenance Man.   Recently the U.S. Department of Justice called attention to a small but worrisome crime wave.  Health care fraud […]

Read more ....

The Insomnia Diaries
June 14, 2021 | 18 Comments

Insomnia is a huge problem.  Insomnia triggered by the drugs supposed to treat it is another huge problem.  A RxISK post featuring enduring sleep difficulties after antidepressants has been very heavily accessed and commented on. Miranda Levy puts all three sleep problems in the frame in a way that all too many will recognize.  Eight […]

Read more ....

Antidepressants: Education and Disability Certificates
March 22, 2021 | 38 Comments

This post covers difficulties primarily on antidepressants that medicines can cause to people in schools or universities who end up unable to study or do course-work, as well as the difficulties people can have trying to get off medicines, a process that can be pretty disabling. The materials linked to this post are being put […]

Read more ....

TRP Drugs and Herbs for Withdrawal and PSSD
November 25, 2020 | 25 Comments

We first mentioned Transient Receptor Potential (TRP) Channels/ Receptors in several RxISK posts about withdrawal and they feature on the RxISK Complex Withdrawal Page under Ion Channels.  The table on that page gives a fascinating list of herbs and other compounds that could conceivably play a part in stabilizing people who are having withdrawal problems. […]

Read more ....

Functional Neurological Disorder?
October 14, 2020 | 12 Comments

A recent RxISK post on SSRI triggered Movement Disorders – My Doctor Thinks I’m Faking It – put together by Stevie Lewis, attracted less attention than we expected. This may be because it featured strange movements and few of us figure we are in a good position to make sense of strange movements. The movements […]

Read more ....

Starship Corona: Captain’s Log
April 26, 2020 | 22 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 […]

Read more ....

Medications compromising Covid Infections
April 2, 2020 | 74 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 […]

Read more ....

Antidepressant Withdrawal Welsh Senedd Debate
May 24, 2019 | 35 Comments

Editorial Note:  For context see Welsh Government Response to Withdrawal Petition.  The image is of Janet Finch-Saunders. The cover image is of the Senedd building. Debate on the Petitions Committee Report: Petition P-05-784 Prescription drug dependence and withdrawal—recognition and support Motion NDM7053 Janet Finch-Saunders To propose that the National Assembly for Wales: Notes the report […]

Read more ....

Welsh Government Response to Withdrawal Petition
May 21, 2019 | 10 Comments

  For Context to this post – See Welsh Senedd Withdrawal Seminar and Welsh and Scottish Petitions on Antidepressant Dependence. From Stevie Lewis Dear All, At the back end of last week I received the Welsh Government’s response to the Petitions Committee’s recommendations – see HERE. As you’ll see from the attached, they have accepted […]

Read more ....

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 […]

Read more ....

Stop suicide
Akathisia, Depression & Suicide: The List
September 27, 2018 | 36 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 […]

Read more ....

500+ Drugs that Cause Depression and Suicide – AKA Akathisia
September 4, 2018 | 14 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 […]

Read more ....

Crazy and it was
The WARM Network: Withdrawal and Recovery Meetings
June 27, 2018 | 18 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 […]

Read more ....

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 […]

Read more ....

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 […]

Read more ....

Backwards bike
Greg’s Dilemma: Riding a Backwards Bike
December 21, 2015 | 22 Comments

Greg’s dilemma is one we all share – even John Junig. The easy bit of the dilemma has to do with dependence and withdrawal. Dr Junig’s line that he’s trained in neuroscience and behavior and can confidently say that Greg’s – or anyone else’s – difficulties on treatment with benzodiazepines, antidepressants or mood stabilizers, are […]

Read more ....

Greg’s Dilemma: Riding a Bike Backwards
December 14, 2015 | 8 Comments

Editorial Note: Last week in Greg’s Dilemma, Greg outlined the difficulties he had with dependence on and withdrawal from serotonin reuptake inhibitors and benzodiazepines. The first comment was from a therapist who seemed to say “pull yourself together”. This eerily echoed the next part of Greg’s dilemma – that could have been posted last week […]

Read more ....

Ativan
Benzodiazepine and Antidepressant Dependence
August 31, 2015 | 14 Comments

Sally MacGregor has written about the horrors of dependence on olanzapine – see Olanzapine Withdrawal and Back In Olanzapine Waters. Here she picks up a conundrum – Primary Care Doctors react to the idea of Benzodiazepines as though they have been the greatest threat to the stability of society since World War II, while at the […]

Read more ....

Aircraft
Pilots and Antidepressants
March 30, 2015 | 12 Comments

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 […]

Read more ....

Crazy and it was
Over The Top: Tackling Medical Power
January 13, 2015 | 2 Comments

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 […]

Read more ....