Suicide | RxISK

Caught in the Firing Line: Nurse Prescribers

May 30, 2022 | 6 Comments

Back in early Covid times, I was asked by Cecile aan de Stegge to talk at a meeting: Suicide and its Prevention. Contemporary and Historical Perspectives in Nursing, 1880–2020 This finally happened in May 2022. Cecile asked me to talk on the issues around suicide and antidepressants, which seemed particularly pertinent as an increasing number […]

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Sanctuary Trauma and Lariam Toxicity

March 21, 2022 | 7 Comments

Illustration: Lost on the Sea of Medicine, © 2014 created by Billiam James This is the first of 4 posts on the idea of Sanctuary Trauma. Some weeks ago, Trixie Foster got in touch. Trixie is an extraordinary campaigner on behalf of those injured by Lariam (mefloquine) – see the Strange History and Lariam Hell. […]

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Mentally Hijacked by Doxycycline

November 22, 2021 | 14 Comments

There are several previous posts on this topic – Doxycycline causes Suicide and Suicide is Painless and becoming suicidal on an antibiotic. None of them give as compelling a picture of what the problem is like from the inside as this letter that came to RxISK some months ago. A Life in Good Shape I […]

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Prescribed Harms and Vaccine Hesitancy

October 18, 2021 | 48 Comments

In 2015, there was a series of posts on davidhealy.org Pharmaceutical Rape, Pharmaceutical Rape is not a Metaphor, Pharmaceutical Rape: Cast of Characters, Pharmaceutical Rape: The Good Patient, Pharmaceutical Rape: Doctors Still Know Best, Pharmaceutical Rape: Discrimination, Pharmaceutical Rape: Ending our Tolerance. The following year GlaxoSmithKline lawyers deposed me in the Dolin case, spending hours […]

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Regula(to)r Woman or Mother: Wright as Raine

October 11, 2021 | 8 Comments

This post needs to be read in conjunction with Companies and Mothers on davidhealy.org. Most people think pharmaceutical companies are evil and regulators are on our side. Both are intensely bureaucratic. They hide behind procedures. Judge for yourself which has the most humanity. June Raine CEO, MHRA 10 South Colonnade Canary Wharf London E14 4PU […]

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Once We Were Warriors Tackling Prescription Drugs

August 16, 2021 | 6 Comments

The title of this echoes We Were Warriors but also Once Were Warriors. The post dovetails with What’s a Life Worth, Morgan vs Morgan, and next weeks Escaping the Prescription Drug Maze. All will be on the Politics of Care Forum. The post copies a letter sent to J Mercer MP last week, with images […]

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What’s a life worth? Is anyone listening?

August 9, 2021 | 19 Comments

This post is by Tracey G. Tracey approached me and as you’ll see others in October 2020 for materials on antidepressants to give her Member of Parliament, Johnny Mercer. She had been in touch in 2018 – “lost in the world of not being taken seriously or believed with regards to a possible protracted withdrawal”. […]

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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 | 102 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 | 29 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 | 173 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 | 55 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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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 | 23 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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