RxISK

Making Medicines Safer for All of Us

Toxicity

Withdrawal, PSSD and Cholinergic Drugs

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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

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  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

How the Safety of Drugs was Destroyed

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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

Clinical Details Confuse Expert Doctors

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Following the death of their 16-year-old son Romain, who had been put on paroxetine with Tercian later added, Yoko Motohama and Vincent Schmitt began asking questions of GSK, Sanofi, the French ANSM (Agence nationale de sécurité du medicament), and others. They set up two websites Antidepeffects.wordpress.com and Romainschmitt.wordpress.com. Romain’s case features on … [Read more...] about Clinical Details Confuse Expert Doctors

Could Journalists be Doctors in Disguise

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I had to give some workshops a few years ago to media students and either while thinking about what to say or in the middle of saying it, or soon after, it hit me that good doctoring has a lot in common with good journalism. Both hinge on getting the story right and key to that is having a real person whom others can contact to check out the story they have been told about … [Read more...] about Could Journalists be Doctors in Disguise

Touch Fibres, Autonomic Fibres and Kissing

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Someone, who regularly emails breaking research that I haven't spotted or don't have time to spot, got in touch recently with great insights on an article about Kisspeptin that I had seen. But I had managed to miss several things he spotted that may be important to anyone thinking about PSSD. A Kiss Before Sex The article reported a clinical trial on the Effects of Kisspeptin … [Read more...] about Touch Fibres, Autonomic Fibres and Kissing

DD and AA Groups Similarities and Differences

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Illustration: Is There Life After Meds?, © 2014 created by Billiam James DD in this case stands for Drug Damaged.  AA for Alcoholics Anonymous.  Some of the material in this post is likely to disturb some readers.  Reading it in conjunction with Here We Stand We Can Do No Other and Dos Centavos - Veinte Euros may help make sense of material that may not sit well with some … [Read more...] about DD and AA Groups Similarities and Differences

The Treatment was Great, The Patient Died

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This post contains a letter sent on October 31, 2022 to the Minister for Mental Health in Scotland about Gordon Hughes pictured here with his mother a few weeks before the events outlined below.  Pictures and headings have been added. Kevin Stewart MSP, Minister for Mental Wellbeing and Social Care, MinisterMWSC@gov.scot Dear Mr. Stewart, I was recently approached by … [Read more...] about The Treatment was Great, The Patient Died

Science, Kansas and the Wizard of Washington

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This post follows on from Science, Kansas and Pancakes.  Peter is doing a good job spreading word of this article on the Prozac studies in children and featuring other aspects of this extraordinary story.  This post focusses in on one revelatory feature. Reviewer #3: A window with the view on the details of how drug approval proceeds. Very informative and helpful for … [Read more...] about Science, Kansas and the Wizard of Washington