A woman on lamotrigine, a drug I never give anyone because of its withdrawal and other problems, recently came my way. She had been tapering for a long-time partly because lamotrigine can be a nasty drug to stop but primarily because her lamotrigine support group were firm Hyperbolic believers. An extraordinary number of people, primarily in my experience women, are … [Read more...] about The Mysteries of Tapering – XX Rated
Taper
Antidotes for Akathisia and Dysregulation
A recent Mad in America Webinar on Antidepressant Dysregulation Syndromes introduced the idea that tapering might not be the only way to solve some of the problems SSRI antidepressants can cause. Tapering supporters give the impression tapering is the only legitimate way to go, leaving little or no room for the possibility that antidotes might help. Quite aside from … [Read more...] about Antidotes for Akathisia and Dysregulation
Madness, Normality and Antidepressant Dysregulation
Some weeks ago, Bob Whitaker asked me to do a Mad in America Continuing Education Webinar on the problems stopping Antidepressants. The talk with discussion is here Stopping Antidepressants and responses to points raised will be followed up in forthcoming posts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIlk1My4ZgQ I prerecorded the talk in case of disaster as Tapering … [Read more...] about Madness, Normality and Antidepressant Dysregulation
Where is the Great Light that is Supposed to Shine?
Around the time Bob Whitaker asked me to do a Webinar on Stopping Antidepressants, K filed a RxISK Report on her efforts to get off Prozac. Like many Reports, in her case it seemed clear she should never have been put in the situation she is now in - she didn't have a mental illness. She got sucked into a situation not of her own making. Some wonderful touches to her … [Read more...] about Where is the Great Light that is Supposed to Shine?
The Fantasies of Psychopharmacology
This talk was first given at a Medicating Normal Meeting for mental health staff in Lexington Kentucky organized by Geoff Wilson and a few days later in May at the invitation of Don Marks to a group of clinical psychologists in Kean University New Jersey. I'm hoping it will lead to feedback from both groups and others. It is twinned with Truth, Trust and Health also given … [Read more...] about The Fantasies of Psychopharmacology
Challenging My Doctor to Disclose
This recently published US strategy on Suicide Prevention epitomizes all that is going wrong in medicine today. It is stuffed full of references to Shared Decision Making, Informed Consent and Lived Experience. Stuffed full of token words, window-dressing, tick-boxing. It will increase rather than reduce suicide rates. It is clear that the people behind this, and … [Read more...] about Challenging My Doctor to Disclose
Deprescribing – Where does Responsibility Lie?
This post follows on from last weeks Potentially Inappropriate Deprescribing and has links to this weeks The Creation Narrative and God Complex. It brings up a painfully tricky point. Reducing Medication Burdens is perhaps the most important task in medicine today. Many well-meaning folk are aware of and raising the profile of this need and attempting to work out how to go … [Read more...] about Deprescribing – Where does Responsibility Lie?
Potentially Inappropriate Deprescribing – PID
This post is linked to An Archipelago of Realities on DH.org. The link may not be clear when you start reading Archipelago but half way down it will be apparent. What is being said on Archipelago about SSRIs applies just as much to benzodiazepines here. Geriatric medicine came into being in the 1980s and with it a new word – polypharmacy – a phenomenon particularly … [Read more...] about Potentially Inappropriate Deprescribing – PID