A Public Service or A Lethal Scam?
July 8, 2021 | 19 Comments

RxISK was emailed about a post on SSRI Stories recently.  Julie Wood runs SSRI stories, which features newspaper or related public domain material about suicides, homicides or other events linked to SSRI or other psychotropic drug intake. The email read as follows: Your using an article about my family members suicide as a propaganda piece and […]

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Farewell Marchino
April 30, 2021 | 100 Comments

Nearly a week ago a group of Italians sent this post written after one of their number gave up his struggle with PSSD and the system.  We’ve been very slow posting it – partly because of the emotions it stirs. Its quiet beginning and contained fury at the end conjured up Marc Antony’s speech after […]

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Heather Roberts: Heroine for our Times
November 17, 2020 | 13 Comments

This post is to honor the life, work, and words of our dear friend and regular blog contributor, Heather Roberts, who sadly we have learned died peacefully at her home on 20th October after a short illness. Heather campaigned alongside us in memory of her son, Olly, who had a severe adverse reaction to the […]

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Children of the Cure: Fear of Lying
May 27, 2020 | 16 Comments

Samizdat has just published Children of the Cure – the Preface of which is here  This Book is not a Game. Quotes from the text are in Hand of History on davidhealy.org. Most of the first chapter is below. Flying to Philadelphia Shelley Jofre was 32 when she got on a plane to Philadelphia in […]

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Montelukast: Beyond the Black Box
May 20, 2020 | 28 Comments

Dozens of these buttons flooded the United States Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) headquarters at a meeting for the widely prescribed asthma/allergy medication, montelukast (brand name, Singulair).  The message was simple: “The benefits did not outweigh the risks.” As each button approached the podium, the panel of experts heard gut-wrenching testimonials about the unimaginable psychiatric […]

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Causes Sexual Dysfunction, Suicide and Birth Defects?
March 3, 2020 | 35 Comments

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, […]

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Everything’s in Hand: Isotretinoin and the Usual Guff
January 4, 2020 | 32 Comments

Niks aan de Hand – Nothing out of hand. This item has just appeared in the BMJ:  An expert group has been reconvened to review recent safety data relating to the acne drug isotretinoin (Roaccutane) and evaluate the risk of sexual and psychiatric adverse effects, including suicide. The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency’s isotretinoin […]

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Extinction Revolt?
July 22, 2019 | 49 Comments

Editorial Note: Following the Montelukast, Fluoroquinolone and Psychotropic post, there is a comment from Heather Roberts to which David Healy responded.  The edited comments are here.  This led to an email exchange between HR and DH which follows.  Along with Wendy Dolin and her MISSD website (see above) and Billiam James’ Akathisia Anthem, Heather and […]

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Montelukast, Fluoroquinolone, Psychotropic Withdrawal & Toxicity
July 1, 2019 | 39 Comments

Last week’s post on Montelukast Withdrawal Syndrome has attracted comments at a higher rate than any prior post in 7 years of RxISK posts. It followed a post on Asthma causing Suicide and Homicide two weeks previously, which had links to the QuarterWatch 2015 report of adverse events in children fingering montelukast and suicidality as […]

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Montelukast Withdrawal Syndrome
June 24, 2019 | 162 Comments

When my happy, full-of-life, adventure-seeking 11-year-old son experienced severe, debilitating neuropsychiatric symptoms after stopping his asthma medication, I embarked on a journey in a desperate search for answers. How could a medication that acts on the respiratory system reduce my healthy child to a lifeless shell? How could our beloved doctor not discuss the potential […]

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When Asthma leads to Suicide or Homicide
June 3, 2019 | 16 Comments

  It seems like it’s all happening in Wales at the moment.  Wales Online last week reported on two children who developed suicidal behaviour and change of personalities on montelukast – Singulair. It was two mother who pieced the story together in the case of their children and confirmed the link to the drug by […]

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RxISK Rorschach: Do not Go Gentle
April 9, 2019 | 47 Comments

Last week’s RxISK post on Assisted Dying proved something of a Rorschach test.  People read diametrically opposite messages into it. It was written at the same time as Something Stupid This Way Comes and cross-referenced this.  This I thought made it clear that there is no such thing as Treatment Resistant Depression (TRD).  TRD is […]

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Assisted Dying: Going Gentle or Not so Gentle
April 1, 2019 | 54 Comments

Assisted dying has become a hot topic. For large parts of human history when people came toward an end, they might have been left in an outhouse by relatives or consigned themselves to a hut in the woods. Children too. When born, Spartan children were taken outside and their hands placed on the eaves of […]

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Encountering Doctors
March 18, 2019 | 9 Comments

Editorial Note: The image goes with a study headlined Doctors stop listening to patients several seconds into a conversation.  This post is from one of the many PSSD sufferers who behind the scenes has been helping push research on this awful condition forward.  It would be a lot easier if doctors did listen. Just as […]

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Silent Night – in the Vatican
December 24, 2018 | 22 Comments

There is no intention in this piece to cause offence.  But there seems to be no point in being anything other than blunt.  Two thousand years ago, Aristotle could argue that politics should be moral – that we should govern the polis in a manner that fostered virtue in its citizens.  There wasn’t then the […]

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Stop suicide
Akathisia, Depression & Suicide: The List
September 27, 2018 | 36 Comments

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 […]

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Even Politicians get killed by Akathisia
September 18, 2018 | 11 Comments

Editorial Note: – This continues our series of the lethal effects of akathisia running on RxISK and davidhealy.org – with special reference to Little Red SSRIding Hood and Even Docs get killed by Akathisia. Akathisia and treatment induced suicide took a political turn over the weekend, along with the issue of whether teenagers should be informed […]

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Akathisia Challenge
September 11, 2018 | 13 Comments

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 […]

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Akathisia Anthem
August 29, 2018 | 10 Comments

A link to the Akathisia Anthem song and video is available on RxISK’s Akathisia page.  There will be follow up posts on RxISK and DavidHealy over the next two weeks. Akathisia anthem Akathisia, Akathisia You make me wanna Make me wanna Akathisia Thank you doctor for this little pill But the fact of the matter, it’s […]

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RxISK Map: Relationship Based Medicine
November 14, 2017 | 15 Comments

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. […]

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Shipwrecked by the Cure
Drug Wrecked: Where Does Change Come From?
April 24, 2017 | 52 Comments

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 […]

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You’ll Come a Taltzing Matilda with Me
March 6, 2017 | 21 Comments

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 […]

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Otezla: Birth Defects and Suicide
February 27, 2017 | 22 Comments

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 […]

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Injectable Psoriasis Drug
Are You Aware Siliq Can Cause Suicide?
February 20, 2017 | 12 Comments

There are a host of new drugs coming to market for respiratory and skin problems. These include Brodalumab, aka Siliq, Apremilast, aka Otezla, and Daliresp. Prepare to hear a lot more about Phosphodiesterase antagonists and drugs acting on Interleukin 17 or 23. These drugs can cause suicide. The companies have made strenuous efforts to hide […]

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Drug wreck
Illnesses Worse than Side Effects?
February 13, 2017 | 23 Comments

This extraordinary image is from an advert for Clozapine. Mental illness can unquestionably bring distress – it can be haunting, dislocating and deeply disturbing. But the side effects are often more severe. Drugs like Clozapine are used by the military for torture purposes. Healthy volunteers commit suicide after a few days exposure to them. Treatment […]

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Olly
Roche and The Perfect Circle
December 19, 2016 | 84 Comments

Editorial Note: This is part 2 of the post by Heather and David Roberts – See RoAccutane and The Perfect Circle. Ever since in 2012 our son Olly died after using it, we have tried to learn what it does to the body and the mind. For the most terrifying thing about it, apart from […]

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Olly
RoAccutane and the Perfect Circle
December 12, 2016 | 31 Comments

Editorial Note: This post by Heather and David Roberts is about their son Olly and the struggles he and they had with the health system, acne and its treatments. Our son Olly had RoAccutane prescribed for him aged 21, getting ready to celebrate his birthday at Bristol University and wanting to look his best. He […]

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The Pill that Causes you to Steal Someone Else’s Life
September 4, 2016 | 52 Comments

Katinka Newman’s The Pill that Steals Lives brings out the hazards of being put on a treatment that then becomes the problem that other treatments are used to treat. In her case she could have easily killed herself – or her children. The website 100Families.org lists 1250+ cases where mental health is linked to homicides. […]

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Three Weeks To Prescripticide
May 12, 2016 | 35 Comments

Editorial Note: The post is by David Carmichael, who has coined the terms “Prescripticide” for a death that is caused by an adverse reaction to a prescription drug. In October and November 2015, Julie Wood published a 5-part RxISK.org series of blog posts about SSRI antidepressants and violence. It was based on the biomedical model developed […]

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This Present Madness
This Present Madness
February 1, 2016 | 3 Comments

This Present Madness was published in November. During the rehearsal of an all-star high school band near Dallas, Texas, a gunman enters the practice hall and starts firing with a semi-automatic shotgun. His attack is deadly. It is the worst mass shooting in US history. The blame for it, as usual, is attributed to the […]

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