Suicide | RxISK - Part 2

Tourette Syndrome

Abilify, Tourette Syndrome and Me

April 27, 2015 | 9 Comments

Editorial Note: This post is by DG. It’s number three in the Abilify series, following Dodging Abilify and Abilify from the Inside Out. I was diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome (TS) as a child. It was always manageable. I did well in school and was actively involved with music programs at church and school. At 17, […]

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doctor holding timebomb

Abilify from the Inside Out

April 20, 2015 | 20 Comments

Editorial Note: This is part 2 of Johanna Ryan’s series that started with Dodging Abilify. Abilify is at present the best-selling drug in North America – how come? In last week’s column, Dodging Abilify, I described the fan-club enthusiasm for this drug among doctors I’ve met, my own reluctance to try it, and what I’d […]

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Abilify cartoon lady

Dodging Abilify

April 14, 2015 | 41 Comments

Editorial Note: This post is by Johanna Ryan, who has a unique ability to capture the American Nightmare. The best-selling drug in the United States isn’t a blood pressure pill, a painkiller or even an antidepressant. It’s Abilify, an antipsychotic agent with $6.3 billion in 2013 sales. Granted, Abilify isn’t the most prescribed pill, but […]

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Becoming Suicidal on an Antibiotic

April 11, 2015 | 6 Comments

Editorial Note: The last post on Lariam and suicide mentioned an alternate treatment for malaria prophylaxis – doxycycline. Doxycycline is not without its problems. It can cause suicide – Suicide is Painless. It and other tetracycline antibiotics can also cause sexual dysfunction including enduring post-treatment sexual dysfunction – makes you wonder if they also inhibit […]

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Old Malaria advert

Antibiotics: Suicide & Psychosis

April 6, 2015 | No Comments

Editorial Note: This is the transcript of a program broadcast as The Lariam Legacy on BBC Radio on March 31 2015. The narrator is Victoria Derbyshire. The featured drug is the anti-microbial Lariam, mefloquine. Mefloquine is closely related to the Fluoroquinolone’s Levaquin and Cipro. See previous RxISK posts on Lariam History, Lariam Hell and Flox-Tox. Atabrine […]

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Pilots and Antidepressants

March 30, 2015 | 12 Comments

Editorial Note: This post is by Julie Wood, the central figure behind SSRI Stories in its current incarnation. SSRI Stories has collected and posted 47 stories about pilots flying and crashing while on antidepressants. The majority are airplanes but several of the crashes involve helicopters. With the current focus on the possible contribution of psychoactive drugs […]

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An Irish Epidemic: Suicide and Homicide on Antidepressants

March 17, 2015 | 19 Comments

Editorial Note: This post is by Leonie Fennel. Ireland is currently in the midst of an unprecedented suicide/homicide epidemic. Parents are uncharacteristically killing their children; husbands are killing their wives; brothers are killing their brothers; mothers are killing themselves and their babies, all at an alarming rate. Dr Michael Curtis, Deputy State Pathologist, recently said […]

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We should talk about Brintellix: Antidepressants and Suicide

March 9, 2015 | 35 Comments

My father was born in 1955. He is medium height, loves his family, fishing and hunting. In 1980 he came to America with his wife and two children to pursue a better life. In the 1980s he would say he drank too much. He stopped because he knew he had a problem. In late 1993 […]

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woman with fire in background

Antidepressant Withdrawal: A Prozac Story

March 2, 2015 | 244 Comments

Editorial Note: Over two years ago we posted Antidepressant Withdrawal: V’s story. It has close to 100 comments making it one of the topics that has attracted the most interest. Right now the New York Times is running a series on Breaking up with my Meds that is attracting a lot of comment. This is […]

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Crazy and it was

Over The Top: Tackling Medical Power

January 13, 2015 | 2 Comments

Editorial Note: Laurie Oakley has recently brought out a book, Crazy And It Was, that gives many vivid illustrations of the problems of coping with healthcare systems, especially mental healthcare systems. Her account of what it’s like to deal with a doctor who just isn’t listening was particularly compelling. We asked her to give some […]

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Massacre of Innocence

December 30, 2014 | 3 Comments

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 […]

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I love to hear a doctor beg

Better to Die RxISKing It

December 15, 2014 | 8 Comments

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 […]

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How not to quit smoking

Chantix and Violence

October 12, 2014 | 12 Comments

Editorial Note: On October 16, there is an FDA hearing about Chantix and violence which is widely expected to feature an effort by Pfizer to roll back the warnings on the drug. One of the fascinating things about the Chantix story has been to see perfectly normal friends who use it to stop smoking become […]

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When is a Drug Guilty?

September 24, 2014 | 16 Comments

Editorial Note: We desperately need you to undertake some jury duty – we need you to explore why we react so strangely when it comes to changes on behavior linked to prescription drugs? In the last two posts Doctor Faces Marriage-Buster and Homicide of a Husband, there were two scenarios where drugs were involved and […]

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GSK and Catch 22

June 5, 2014 | 2 Comments

Editorial: This post by Johanna Ryan notes a significant legal development for anyone taking a generic drug. It’s also a testament to the ability of motivated women to make a difference to the landscape. We’re posting this interview with Wendy Dolin to draw attention to a victory – a possible break in the terrible legal […]

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Post Finasteride Syndrome: PFS

February 13, 2014 | 46 Comments

Editorial Note: Wikipedia astonishingly removed their post on Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction on January 27th (see this week’s previous posts: Sexual DEATH, Wikipedia Stumbles and Wikipedia Falls). This was a huge mistake. PSSD and related conditions like Post-Finasteride and Post-Isotretinoin Syndromes are very real, probably holding the key to a number of physiological and psychological mysteries, and have mobilized […]

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At First a Lifeline, Then a Noose

February 4, 2014 | 6 Comments

Editorial Note: The death of Philip Seymour Hoffman featured heavily in early news bulletins this week. It seems highly likely that Hoffman’s death originated from a prescription drug problem. As it happens Johanna Ryan from RxISK’s Community Board had been liaising with the parents of Steve Rummler and others concerned about the licensing of yet another […]

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The Strange History of Lariam

January 14, 2014 | 5 Comments

Editorial Note: This is the second part of a Lariam Odyssey by Dr Sam Ramsay Smith. The first part ran last week – Lariam Hell. Like most good stories this one involves expediency, hegemony, immorality, greed and even scientific bias, blindness and dishonesty all in the quest for power and money at the national and […]

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January 8, 2014 | 13 Comments

Editorial Note: This post and the following one on the strange story of the Birth of Lariam come from Dr Sam Ramsay-Smith who has some questions he wants answered. In October, ‘The Independent’ printed the news that the US Armed Forces had banned the use of the anti-malarial drug mefloquine, otherwise known as Lariam. To […]

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Accutane: 30 Years of Trading our Sex Lives for Clear Skin

December 10, 2013 | 176 Comments

Editorial: Bill G. Sex and skin There are an ever-increasing and disturbing number of young people claiming their sex lives have been permanently ruined from taking the acne drug, isotretinoin, commonly referred to by its former brand-name, Accutane. Often these affected young men and women, many in their teens and early 20s, cannot overcome their […]

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Shooters on Prescription Drugs

September 21, 2013 | No Comments

The news from Washington this week (September 17 – See Scientific American) of another shooting where the shooter has been on psychotropic medication – this time trazodone – raises once again questions about the interaction between violence and medication. The data points absolutely convincingly to the fact that the drugs can and do cause violence. Some […]

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Doctor and patient

We Have a Dream: Getting Engaged to a Doctor

June 6, 2013 | 12 Comments

Still, you take the medication as prescribed. At first you imagine your body may adjust or the pills will come to understand you. It is no use. From Virginia Chase Sutton: Lithium and the Absence of Desire. Patient engagement Patient engagement is one of the mantras of current healthcare improvement efforts. Medical students and junior doctors […]

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Suicide on Pain-Killers: John’s Story

June 4, 2013 | 33 Comments

Editorial note: Nearly 20 years ago I put someone on sodium valproate for a mental health problem. She was likely the first person in North Wales put on this drug for this reason. I was the person who knew most about psychotropic drugs in North Wales. She had left school before finishing and at the time […]

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Suicide is Painless: Sylvia’s Story

May 30, 2013 | 38 Comments

Editorial note: In 1962, Sylvia Plath committed suicide a week after going on phenelzine, an antidepressant. She had two young children, making her death close to inexplicable – unless the medication she was put on disturbed the balance of her mind. But what does ‘disturb the balance of your mind’ mean? In this account, another Sylvia […]

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Dopamine Agonist Withdrawal Syndrome (DAWS)

April 24, 2013 | 127 Comments

Editorial note: Renny’s story chillingly outlines the misery of Dopamine Agonist Withdrawal Syndrome (DAWS). Below this we present data from RxISK’s SoS Zone showing rates of Symptoms on Stopping and related problems on Dopamine Agonists which fully bear out her personal experience. I was prescribed Mirapex (Pramipexole), a ‘Dopamine Agonist’, in early 2012 for ‘Restless […]

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RxISK says Doxycycline causes Suicide

March 12, 2013 | 96 Comments

There have been several reports to RxISK of young men committing suicide on doxycycline. This led us to investigate further. The evidence seems clear – doxycycline can cause someone to commit suicide. We have no idea how often this happens but that it happens is certain. Given for a skin rash The first report came from […]

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Diane and Diana: Carly’s Story

January 8, 2013 | 16 Comments

Carly’s story: I was referred to a psychiatrist for adult ADD when I started my first year at university. I made a passing complaint to my aunt, who is also a GP, over the summer about some occasional acne around my period. She suggested that I try Diane-35. I was also taking dexedrine at the time, […]

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If You’re Going To Look After Patients, Man Up

December 12, 2012 | 5 Comments

Pharmalot has just posted a piece – ‘Controversial FDA official, Tom Laughren, retires.’ [It is no longer at http://www.pharmalot.com/2012/12/controversial-fda-official-tom-laughren-retires/] This is a must read for anyone with anything to do with mental health – both the post and the comments afterwards where some have posted that they still believe the Black Box warnings on antidepressants arose […]

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Sympathy and Pills

How Pharma Captures Bereaved Mothers

November 26, 2012 | 9 Comments

Introduction by David Healy In 1987 Herb Hendin started the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). AFSP is a non-profit 501(c)(3). It is an active fund-raiser. AFSP fell into the hands of Charlie Nemeroff and later John Mann and colleagues at Columbia. On December 1st 2000, Charlie Nemeroff told the Council of AFSP that Healy […]

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Brian’s Story: Raising Awareness among the Police

November 7, 2012 | 2 Comments

This was first posted on Leonie Fennell’s blog. Antidepressants, irrational behaviour and “out of the blue” suicides – raising awareness among UK police officers In 2009 my son, who had never been depressed in his life, went to see a doctor over insomnia caused by temporary work-related stress. He was prescribed Citalopram, and within days […]

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