RxISK's posts on consent start way back even before We have a Dream - Getting Engaged to a Doctor or You'll Come a Taltzing Matilda with Me. There's the recent Challenging my Doctor to Disclose or Challenging a Juggernaut and above all Guilty until Proven Innocent. Why another? Read on to find out about Connecting. When is Consent Consent The notion that medical treatment … [Read more...] about Consent to Waltz, Capacity to Tango, Connect to..
Dopamine agonists
Ordinary or Forgotten Women and Men
Mid-Ulster Council lit up for July 29 Dr Gerald Dal Pan druginfo@fda.hhs.gov This letter was emailed to Dr Dal Pan on July 29, 2026 See Prescribed Harm Awareness and Stolen Lives for more on this. Dear Dr Dal Pan I listened with interest to your recent interview with Dr Celia Williams in a Q & A with FDA series, where you were asked which types of adverse event … [Read more...] about Ordinary or Forgotten Women and Men
Gambling on SSRIs
Is Consent to an SSRI Possible The idea that we had a right to know what our treatment options are and should be able to consent to the option that looks right for us – even if that conflicts with the views of the doctor we are seeing - arose in the 1950s linked to breast cancer treatment, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and treatment trials (research). The original drug … [Read more...] about Gambling on SSRIs
Ostriches, Doctors, SSRIs and Tylenol
In 2023 a new set of Canadian Guidelines for the Management of Alcohol Use Disorders put a serious problem on the radar for doctors that few of them likely expected. See Antidepressants, Alcohol and Anne-Marie. The antidepressants doctors commonly prescribed, often telling people these medicines would help them manage their alcohol issues, were likely causing the problem – … [Read more...] about Ostriches, Doctors, SSRIs and Tylenol
The Future of Health App-ointments
Several of the many people who write or track RxISK posts, have had input to this one, which dovetails with Harriet Vogt's post last week Repairing Ruptures in Clinical Care and the work of Shane Cooke and Mary Hennessey in getting health systems to listen to the voices of those harmed by treatment. The post, maybe, casts an ominous light on our abilities to get medicine to … [Read more...] about The Future of Health App-ointments
Challenging My Doctor to Disclose
This recently published US strategy on Suicide Prevention epitomizes all that is going wrong in medicine today. It is stuffed full of references to Shared Decision Making, Informed Consent and Lived Experience. Stuffed full of token words, window-dressing, tick-boxing. It will increase rather than reduce suicide rates. It is clear that the people behind this, and … [Read more...] about Challenging My Doctor to Disclose
How the Safety of Drugs was Destroyed
Emer Cooke, the CEO of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is Irish. This is Dublin's famous Halfpenny Bridge which for some reason features in an article outlining the history of the phrase Tail wags Dog which seems appropriate for what followed. I wrote to Emer recently about a bizarre letter I received from Kinapse - A Brush with EMA - who run EMA's medical literature … [Read more...] about How the Safety of Drugs was Destroyed
The Wild Doctor – Le Médecin Sauvage
The French playwright Moliere loved poking fun at pomposity especially when it involved doctors. In Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, he pokes fun at Monsieur Jourdain, a pompous upstart, who has come into money and is taking on airs and graces. Translating gentilhomme into gentleman misses what the word meant around 1660, which was more like civilized, the manners which … [Read more...] about The Wild Doctor – Le Médecin Sauvage
Could Journalists be Doctors in Disguise
I had to give some workshops a few years ago to media students and either while thinking about what to say or in the middle of saying it, or soon after, it hit me that good doctoring has a lot in common with good journalism. Both hinge on getting the story right and key to that is having a real person whom others can contact to check out the story they have been told about … [Read more...] about Could Journalists be Doctors in Disguise
DD and AA Groups Similarities and Differences
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 may help make sense of material that may not sit well with some … [Read more...] about DD and AA Groups Similarities and Differences