Imagine: sitting with friends – maybe a couple of people you have never met before also present – having supper. You’re uncomfortable; it’s hard to sit still. You try hard to concentrate on the conversation – the political turmoil erupting around you, or a film someone’s just been to see – but you can’t. Because the discomfort between your legs is unbearable. It fills every … [Read more...] about The Princess and the Frozen Pea: PGAD
Withdrawal
RxISK Prize: Campaign & Challenge
The RxISK Prize campaign took off 3 months ago. The generosity of donors from all walks of life - many out of work because of the impact of these conditions on them - has been astonishing. There have also been substantial anonymous donations. While many of those affected have lost faith in doctors and pharmaceutical companies, seeing the donations come in has restored a … [Read more...] about RxISK Prize: Campaign & Challenge
Here We Stand, We Can Do No Other
Editorial Note. This post runs hand in hand with Vampire Medicine and Cisparency on David Healy.org. It is the second of three posts, following on from Reformation Day laying the basis for a RxISK Map which is linked to the RxISK Prize. When you are facing down the barrel of a tank… Pharmaceutical companies, medical academics, the government and the media will pitch … [Read more...] about Here We Stand, We Can Do No Other
RxISK Prize: Stigma and Recovery
This continues the series of posts about the RxISK Prize. It lays the way for the RxISK Prize and Map which will feature next week Stigma PSSD, PFS, PRSD and PGAD come with a heavy burden of stigma. This is a problem AIDS activists met head-on and conquered in an extraordinary fashion. It had never been done quite like this before by anyone. In the early 1980s few … [Read more...] about RxISK Prize: Stigma and Recovery
RxISK Prize: Global Impact
Globalization is not a word that's in favor at the moment. In the face of this very recent economic development that seemed to be sweeping the board in the 1980s and 1990s, we now want to reassert national boundaries, hang onto "our" jobs, and keep out others - sometimes those who have done a great deal to create our prosperity in the first place. This is understandable. … [Read more...] about RxISK Prize: Global Impact
RxISK Prize: No Nos
The RxISK Prize throws up one surprise after another. I would have thought as organizations that save lives and pillars of the economy, it should be relatively easy to contact a pharmaceutical company. It isn't. I have lots of contacts in organizations that liaise with pharma and used to have many contacts in pharma but it's been impossible to get a list of how to contact … [Read more...] about RxISK Prize: No Nos
RxISK Prize: The Golden Rule
This post follows Launching and How You Can Help which are also now on our Prize page on the Main Menu. Launching the RxISK Prize has been eye opening. Everyone who has donated or will donate will hopefully get some sense of this. If you're not getting it, you need to remember this Prize is yours not ours. Those donating money and those donating sweat own what is happening … [Read more...] about RxISK Prize: The Golden Rule
Withdrawal & PSSD: Terminal Diagnoses?
There has been something of a hiatus on posts on DH and RxISK in recent weeks. There are a few reasons - one of them outlined here and one to come next week. Part of the problem has been knowing what to say to people with PSSD and severe withdrawal. I have been swamped with emails that are terribly difficult to answer. It would be good to get input from readers on this … [Read more...] about Withdrawal & PSSD: Terminal Diagnoses?
Drug Wrecked: Where Does Change Come From?
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 and our doctors dismiss us, or get nasty, and close ranks. The idea behind a … [Read more...] about Drug Wrecked: Where Does Change Come From?
Illnesses Worse than Side Effects?
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 induced problems … [Read more...] about Illnesses Worse than Side Effects?