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
Benzodiazepines
Better to Die RxISKing It
Editorial Note: This post continues from last week's Persecution of Heretics. It's about how only a Popular Movement with those suffering adverse effects on drugs speaking up can save us now. It adapts a talk given a month ago to the International Society for Ethical Psychology and Psychiatry in Los Angeles. It loses something without its slides. But it was recorded and may be … [Read more...] about Better to Die RxISKing It
Girl on a Hot Tin Roof: Drug Withdrawal Syndrome
Editorial Note: There are two reasons to run Katie B-T's story here. One is the phenomenon of burning feet she reports. This seems common with benzodiazepine like drugs, including gabapentin and pregabalin. We would love to hear from others who have had problems like this - how long did the problem last, what helped if anything. The second reason is to launch the Notes on … [Read more...] about Girl on a Hot Tin Roof: Drug Withdrawal Syndrome
Written on Water
Editorial Note: This is a brief synopsis of Dear Luise by Dorrit Cato Christensen - a story of power and powerlessness, and a most extraordinary book. Extraordinary because of the horror it outlines. Extraordinary because of Dorrit's restraint when writing about her daughter. Do things go as badly wrong as this often - yes. Are we doing anything to stop disasters like this - … [Read more...] about Written on Water
Maclean’s magazine: There’s a pill for that
A B.C. class-action suit against the makers of Paxil is putting the spotlight on a controversial issue: the growing use of antidepressants during pregnancy. ...Yet a rising chorus of researchers is questioning Motherisk’s stance on SSRI use in pregnancy. One of the most vocal is psychiatrist and psychopharmacologist David Healy, director of the North Wales department of … [Read more...] about Maclean’s magazine: There’s a pill for that
BBC Radio: The Prozac Economy
Prozac is 25 years old. It has been taken by over 40 million people around the world and made billions of dollars for Eli Lilly, the company that created it. But does it work? And what effect has the promise of a "happiness pill" had on society? Will Self examines the legacy of the so-called 'wonder drug'. As he sets off on a personal exploration of the conflicting and … [Read more...] about BBC Radio: The Prozac Economy
Cora’s Story: A Benzodiazepine Story
In RxISK Stories, we regularly take you to dark places where few would wish to go. We have perhaps become too used to the horrific consequences of medicines going wrong that we fail to appreciate how off-putting this sequence of posts can be. It is like a doctor taking a friend into an operating theater just when the surgeon is sawing through the breastbone failing to … [Read more...] about Cora’s Story: A Benzodiazepine Story