Dr. Healy, I am writing to you after receiving distressing messages from my son, who asked for help with regards to names of specialists or supports to help him with his extreme PSSD condition. This may seem like helicopter parenting, but I feel compelled to write in regards to the devastating impact your message had on him. He is in utter despair over what has happened. … [Read more...] about Empathy for Drug Induced Injuries
Sex
Treatment Complications: Good Expert Needed
I recently had a request for input on akathisia and withdrawal related issues that for some reason charmed me into responding. The back and forth however began to sink into a quicksand that can put me off responding. There is an old aphorism about experts – a true expert is s/he who knows how little s/he knows. Sounds cute but it’s not what anyone who consults someone they … [Read more...] about Treatment Complications: Good Expert Needed
When the Personal becomes Political
This short talk was delivered 10 days ago. The video is Healy - Post SSRI Sexual Dysfunction is here. Slide 1: One of these two is on an antidepressant and unable to make love. Like SSRIs and Homicide, the sexual effect of SSRIs impacts significantly on people not on a drug. Or one of them was on an antidepressant and years later is still not able to make … [Read more...] about When the Personal becomes Political
New Test to Confirm a PSSD Diagnosis
A 2016 RxISK post discussing how common post-ssri sexual dysfunction (PSSD) might be, highlighted Colpi et al., 1991, and Yilmaz et al., 1999 showing fluoxetine and clomipramine, both serotonin reuptake inhibitors, reduce genital sensation. These studies feature in our 2018 paper: Enduring sexual dysfunction after treatment with antidepressants, 5α-reductase inhibitors and … [Read more...] about New Test to Confirm a PSSD Diagnosis
Withdrawal, PSSD and Cholinergic Drugs
Health Warning I don’t know a great deal about the issues in this post. Experts by Experience and The Marketing of Anticholinergic Maleficence along with Psychotropic Drug Follies will give some feel for the background that makes it difficult to be certain about anything linked to the cholinergic drugs. The Past Present and Future article will need to be downloaded to take to … [Read more...] about Withdrawal, PSSD and Cholinergic Drugs
Experts by Experience and Nobel Prizes
In the mid-1980s, I gave a very nice man, an in-patient, weekend leave. He hung himself. Everyone was shocked. The drug I’d put him on was the trigger to his suicide. Soon after, a medical resident called me to a case she was handling. She seemed exceptionally impressive, so I was surprised to hear afterwards she was taking an antidepressant. She told me about the … [Read more...] about Experts by Experience and Nobel Prizes
What Counts? A Tale of Good and Evil
This title plays on words. Counting suggests numbers but also hints at values. This talk hinges on a clash between a worldview centred on numbers and one centred on values. The slides and text are below. A video record of the talk is here - What Counts? Slide 2: One of these two is on an antidepressant and unable to make love. Like drug induced Homicide, … [Read more...] about What Counts? A Tale of Good and Evil
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
The Long Awaited PSSD Research Breakthrough?
This image is from an extraordinary blog which tells you how to sex your mouse Breakthrough? Most of the good ideas that RxISK has featured linked to the enduring sexual dysfunctions, whether PSSD, PRSD, PFS and PGAD, and in terms of other problems, have come from readers of these posts. Several readers have stood out in terms of contributions and this post comes from one of … [Read more...] about The Long Awaited PSSD Research Breakthrough?