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 box, an epidemiology box, a psychology box, a … [Read more...] about Autistic Spectrum Disorder and SSRIs
Pregnancy
The Devil Doesn’t Have All The Best Tunes
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: From Disaster to Recovery. This post … [Read more...] about The Devil Doesn’t Have All The Best Tunes
Massacre of Innocence
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 Massacre of the Innocents - with another point of view from Philippa … [Read more...] about Massacre of Innocence
Massacre of the Innocents
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 proposes putting the image of a pregnant woman on … [Read more...] about Massacre of the Innocents
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
Thalidomide: From Disaster to Recovery
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 British Army's Special Air Services … [Read more...] about Thalidomide: From Disaster to Recovery
Lullaby
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 gonna buy you a diamond ring If that diamond ring … [Read more...] about Lullaby
Antidepressants and Autism: Time to Worry?
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 lead to autism in the exposed children? This is a very … [Read more...] about Antidepressants and Autism: Time to Worry?
I’m not pre-pregnant. I just have a womb.
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 wombs rather than women. Others hear pharma … [Read more...] about I’m not pre-pregnant. I just have a womb.
Herding Women
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 laboratory evidence that the … [Read more...] about Herding Women