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 do about Akathisia. One of the suggestions was that … [Read more...] about Akathisia Challenge
Dopamine agonists
500+ Drugs that Cause Depression and Suicide – AKA Akathisia
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 fall. In March 2013 in a post … [Read more...] about 500+ Drugs that Cause Depression and Suicide – AKA Akathisia
Prescription for Murder ABCD
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. They see a label saying something … [Read more...] about Prescription for Murder ABCD
I Took Antidepressants and I Still Feel Medicated
I suffered from a pretty bad biological anxiety that runs in my family and was very difficult to control without medication. Prior to the timeline of events below, I have taken other medications (Paxil, Effexor, Cymbalta) each causing sexual dysfunction at the lowest possible dose and genital numbness almost immediately upon taking them. I stopped them fairly quickly because of … [Read more...] about I Took Antidepressants and I Still Feel Medicated
What a Surprise: RxISK taking entrepreneurs
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 "side effects" that we are doing our best to minimize. This issue came up in … [Read more...] about What a Surprise: RxISK taking entrepreneurs
It’s alright Ma, I’m only Punding: Stimulants and Compulsions
This post by Johanna Ryan touches on the problems of compulsive gambling and other compulsive behaviors that are linked to Abilify, SSRIs and Dopamine Agonists and also to Dopamine Agonist Withdrawal Syndrome (DAWS). It was Lester Grinspoon’s 1975 book The Speed Culture that introduced me to the concept of “punding”: a drug-induced compulsion for repetitive, sometimes … [Read more...] about It’s alright Ma, I’m only Punding: Stimulants and Compulsions
United States of Adderall
Ed Note: This post is by Johanna Ryan who covers most of our stimulant related topics. Dr. Larry Diller is a pediatrician who specializes in children’s behavioral problems, especially Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). He’s by no means anti-medication; he has prescribed stimulants to kids for decades. But twenty years ago he was already concerned about their … [Read more...] about United States of Adderall
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?
Dopamine Agonist Withdrawal Syndrome (DAWS)
Editorial note: Renny's story chillingly outlines the misery of Dopamine Agonist Withdrawal Syndrome (DAWS). Below this we present data from RxISK's SoS Zone showing rates of Symptoms on Stopping and related problems on Dopamine Agonists which fully bear out her personal experience. I was prescribed Mirapex (Pramipexole), a ‘Dopamine Agonist’, in early 2012 for ‘Restless Legs … [Read more...] about Dopamine Agonist Withdrawal Syndrome (DAWS)