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 […]
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 […]
Everyone who reads RxISK posts will know that SSRI and related drugs (some antibiotics, painkillers, antihistamines and most antidepressants) can cause sexual dysfunction. This has been known since 1961. And that they can cause suicide. This has been known since 1959. And that they can cause birth defects. The first publication by an Australian obstetrician, […]
Editorial Note: This is the third in a RxISK Map series of posts – See Reformation Day and Here We Stand. These link closely to the RxISK Prize. There are two aspects to finding a cure for an adverse event. One is understanding the biology. The other is getting it established that the effect happens. […]
Editorial Note: This post links to Are you Aware that Siliq causes Suicide and Otezla: Birth Defects and Suicide. Pharma companies have a great deal of skin in the dermatology game at the moment – perhaps more than in any other area of medicine. Taltz, aka ixekizumab, is yet another new drug for psoriasis. Others […]
We’ve been here before – a woman in come hither mode or able to plunge into come hither mode at a moment’s notice without the worry of being compromised by a minor skin blemish just below her hairline. See Stacy London and Welcome to Troy. AbbVie pioneered advertising like this for Humira, a hugely costly […]
Five years ago, the Croen et al article in the Figure above appeared suggesting that antidepressant use in pregnancy can cause Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Pharmaceutical companies rushed to manage the risks – to them. What you do is you convene your experts and you put them in boxes, a teratology box, an animal studies […]
This weeks Observer Review contains an interview (below) with Mikey Argy (above) to link up with the release of Attacking the Devil, a movie about the thalidomide story. The photo of Mikey here doesn’t show what the photo in the print edition shows. Almost two years ago RxISK featured the thalidomiders behind this movie in Thalidomide: […]
Paradise lost Any post about pregnancy pulls in more than the average amount of complexity. We had a series of posts on the risks of antidepressants in pregnancy at the end of last year The Dark is for Mushrooms, not for Women and Preventing Precaution and Mumsnet and a string of posts from Adam Urato – see […]
Editorial Note: This post is by Adam Urato. There are other Adam Urato posts on RxISK (see Antidepressants and Autism and Autism Awareness Day) about the use of antidepressants in pregnancy and by women of child-bearing years. This post appeared first on Mad in America. The image is from an article by Gideon Koren that seriously […]
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 […]
A quiet man A few months ago Martin Johnson retired as the Director of Britain’s Thalidomide Trust. Under his stewardship, UK Thalidomiders have become a major force for global drug safety. In a world where Brands are everything and even the BMJ seems to have sacrificed scientific content for good branding, the Thalidomiders adapted the […]
Editorial Note: A study published this week suggests that the issue of birth defects on antidepressants rather than suicide or homicide may yet end up as the Mark of Cain by which these drugs are remembered. Hush, little baby, don’t say a word, Mama’s gonna buy you a mockingbird. If that mockingbird won’t sing, Mama’s […]
Editorial Note: This post by Adam Urato from Boston picks up one of the most important issues of our time. It touches on one of the most sensitive issues of all – should anyone tell a mother-to-be what to do about medications like the Antidepressants. See The Dark is for Mushrooms. Does antidepressant use during pregnancy […]
Editorial Note: Two months ago we were deep in a controversy about Antidepressants and Birth Defects. (See The Dark is for Mushrooms, not for Women, Preventing Precaution and Mumsnet). Many women hearing a message that they should be wary about antidepressants and the risk of birth defects hear that they are being regarded simply as […]
Since 2005, Paroxetine, first marketed by GlaxoSmithKline as Seroxat/Paxil, has carried warnings of birth defect risks. These risks led to litigation in the US – but not elsewhere. In the first case that went to court in the US in 2009, the Kilker case, the lawyers for Lyam Kilker argued that, even before Paxil was launched, there was good […]
This is the first of two five minute surveys covering dilemmas that have been thrown up by the Panorama program on antidepressants, anticonvulsants and birth defects. The dilemma arises from the fact that women going on them are kept in the dark about a number of important issues. First, they aren’t told that these drugs can […]
Editorial Note: Two comments from Johanna and Neil in response to The Dark is for Mushrooms and Preventing Precaution. Johanna I didn’t see the BBC Panorama show (not available in the US) and don’t know if the outrage expressed by the Mumsnet blogger is sincere. It hardly sounds like Dr. Pilling was against using SSRI’s […]
Editorial Note: This post by Harriet Rosenberg aims at getting some debate going about medication and birth defects. We will run a survey early next week on this issue Right-to-Know (R2K). A recent post on RxISK, The dark is for mushrooms not for women features responses on Mumsnet to the issue of prescribing SSRIs during pregnancy. Johanna Ryan comments […]
The pre-pregnancy puzzle This post contains a comment by Neil Gorman on Humira in Ulcerative Colitis backed up by material criticising a BBC Panorama program on antidepressants in pregnancy retrieved from the link to Mumsnet mentioned by Neil. This link illustrates beautifully why Pharma has such an easy ride. There is a mythic element here. Where […]
Editorial Note: This post is by Adam Urato MD, the Chairman of Obstetrics and Gynecology at MetroWest Medical Center in Framingham, Massachusetts, as well as a Maternal-Fetal Medicine specialist at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts. He cares for pregnant women on a daily basis. Autism rates are on the rise, with the latest report from […]
Janet’s story I was diagnosed with epilepsy at the age of 14. After trying different drugs my seizures were controlled by a combination of Phenytoin (Epanutin) and Sodium Valproate (Epilim). What they didn’t tell me was that Sodium Valproate carried the highest incidence of birth defects to the unborn baby. In my ignorance I continued […]