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 depression and … [Read more...] about Akathisia, Depression & Suicide: The List
Pain-killers
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
PGAD: Clitoridectomy or ECT?
Editorial Note: Following on from The Princess and the Frozen Pea, this is a second post in a PGAD series. There will be one more on the range of conditions mentioned here that are often linked to PGAD - interstitial cystitis, pelvic floor dysnergia, prostatitis and others. See also PGAD Video Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder (PGAD) has been associated with SSRI use … [Read more...] about PGAD: Clitoridectomy or ECT?
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
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
Drug Wrecked: Where Does Change Come From?
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 and our doctors dismiss us, or get nasty, and close ranks. The idea behind a … [Read more...] about Drug Wrecked: Where Does Change Come From?
Life Unarmed
Editorial Note from Johanna Ryan: Matthew Purinton has been a patient all his life – but if that word suggests to you a passive person awaiting rescue, think again. As a child born with a rare and seemingly overwhelming set of disabilities, he and his parents signed up for some of the most radical interventions modern medicine has to offer. Those surgeries gave him the chance … [Read more...] about Life Unarmed
My Trip Through the Polypharmacy Blender
By Rory Tennes I was asked by David Healy to write my own story after he read my comment on another RxISK story. I agreed but have been surprised how hard it was to sit down and do it. I knew the story, the words were in my head. Yet I avoided getting started. Perhaps it was because of the painful emotions I knew it would bring to the surface. Or maybe because it reminds me … [Read more...] about My Trip Through the Polypharmacy Blender
At First a Lifeline, Then a Noose
Editorial Note: The death of Philip Seymour Hoffman featured heavily in early news bulletins this week. It seems highly likely that Hoffman's death originated from a prescription drug problem. As it happens Johanna Ryan from RxISK's Community Board had been liaising with the parents of Steve Rummler and others concerned about the licensing of yet another opiate pain-killer - … [Read more...] about At First a Lifeline, Then a Noose
Suicide on Pain-Killers: John’s Story
Editorial note: Nearly 20 years ago I put someone on sodium valproate for a mental health problem. She was likely the first person in North Wales put on this drug for this reason. I was the person who knew most about psychotropic drugs in North Wales. She had left school before finishing and at the time there was no access to the internet. Listening to what I was proposing to … [Read more...] about Suicide on Pain-Killers: John’s Story