Dr. Healy,
I am writing to you after receiving distressing messages from my son, who asked for help with regards to names of specialists or supports to help him with his extreme PSSD condition. This may seem like helicopter parenting, but I feel compelled to write in regards to the devastating impact your message had on him.
He is in utter despair over what has happened. He has been in this state for almost 4 years, but he has been trying to move on. That has been getting harder as he becomes more isolated by this condition, and comes to realize there is no help or support. He is smart and sensitive and has always had a curiosity about and researches everything. Ever since realizing he has PSSD, he has been trying to find a way forward, despite all the information to the contrary out there, and the wall of obfuscation by Big Pharma and the general medical system. He is holding onto life by a string so thin, so frayed, that reading your blunt, harsh, if honest and accurate response has left him with no hope. None. If he cannot have any hope, he is not going to live a full-length life. I am doing everything I can to access supports for him and find a way through this absolute horror. The grief I am experiencing as his mother is immense ~ I do not want to lose my son, and that feels like a very real possibility. It is deeply impacting our whole family.
I would think you would know this is a reality for every person who reaches out to you about PSSD. I am sure you receive letters from many like him, and know they are all extremely fragile, have medical PTSD, but from the tone of your letter you sound uncaring and dispassionate. In your response, I can sense your frustration with the dystopian, Kafkaesque reality we find ourselves in with the powers that be wanting to maintain the status quo and obscene money-generating powers of continuing to sell/prescribe SSRIs without truly informing those taking them of the real, potentially life-long risks of taking them. I understand the huge toll it must take on you to constantly be under fire for spreading misinformation and disinformation about this real condition (and others caused by prescription meds), to have others trying to discredit you, but you have a duty as a doctor and as a human, to first do no harm. You cannot be an advocate and supporter of this cause if you are going to respond without empathy and care, and in so doing destroy any hope that anyone dealing with this condition has. My son is contemplating applying to MAID. He does not want to die, he wants to live, but living in the physical, emotional and spiritual pain of this condition he is in is not livable for him for the long term. I am doing everything I can to keep him with us long enough that we just might find a way out of this for him and others. I think you have a responsibility to do the same, while still being honest about the current reality.
I hope this resonates and that you can find a way to answer these messages you receive with care and empathy while still remaining honest about the reality right now. Don’t assume the person you are writing has the personal resources to go about “marketing” and spreading the word about this reality if they are just holding onto staying alive. Be gentle with them. Show your care. This is as important as being honest.
Experts on Experts
The email above has had some words trimmed but no points removed. It came just after an email from this lady’s son, X, which came just after the Treatment Complications Good Expert Needed. There is no reason to believe X had seen the post. His ask was for me to point him toward some area in which he could make a difference.
The complained about response in full was:
X
Read the latest post on RxISK about experts, Just like there is no expert on what the right treatment might be there is no expert on what experts you should consult. Its worth reading all rxisk posts for the last few months including the ones that aren’t directly on PSSD and in particular read the comments and especially when there is some back and forth between me and one of the people commenting – they are asking the same questions you are
The best bet is to join PSSD network – there are all sorts of people chasing different things – the one’s who get places play into their own strengths rather than doing something they are told by me – if i could tell people the right answers we’d have had a cure years ago.
Your strengths may lie in something other than research – marketing for instance – there is a great need to find a way to get awareness of the condition out there when the media generally are liable to classify your efforts or mine as misinformation. – David
Empathy – Sympathy
Before jumping to conclusions here – there really shouldn’t be any conclusions – no-one knows what situation this woman or her son are in. It is easy to take sides, easy to know what you would do – if you don’t have the details. Beyond the original very brief email, and his mother’s follow up email, I don’t have the details.
I have had contact from many mothers in this position. One immediately comes to mind, whose son did take his own life. There was another mother, whose son I went out of my way to help by putting him in touch with experts in his area, who were as well placed as anyone in the world to help him in his mission which was not just to help himself but to help everyone suffering with PSSD. Despite this, he committed suicide.
Empathy and sympathy are not the same thing. Sympathy involves a general expression of sorrow or support – oh it must be tough – or – I wish there was something I could do. Empathy means actually spotting the position the person is in and responding to that rather than voicing what are often platitudes.
Another distinction is between hope and optimism. Optimism tells someone – yes sure, things will work out. Hope builds on an achievement the person has made – if there has been no achievement, however minor, there is no hope.
The achievement doesn’t have to be mind-bogglingly complex – it can involve humor. A while back Simon Wright wrote to the President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Britain telling her he had PSSD and was contemplating euthanasia. She responded – that sexual difficulties on SSRIs are mild and transient and she is sure that an appointment with a psychiatrist would put him right.
The humor here is black but this magnificently demonstrates how shallow the system is. There are lots of things like this that can be done – tempting those who should be on our side but aren’t out onto thin ice.
Almost self-evidently, the people who going to be by far the easiest for me to respond to are those who tell me something rather than ask me. Anne-Marie who featured in last weeks Medical Triumph post – Roy and Bryn and Simon who feature in Has HealthCare Gone Mad.
It is easy to respond to Daniel and others with PSSD who are actively researching angles on their problems and make me aware of great leads I knew nothing about. Or to Simon who has brought a new marketing dimension to what might be done. Or the many people like Amit who outlined his experience with Visual Snow and the many others who have drawn to my and everyone else’s attention problems that are happening that few of us knew anything about before it was put on our radar.
RxISK is mainly about people like this who tell me everything I now know, some of whom write not just reports on their own experience but posts that might look like they are written by me.
Asking me to solve problems that no one knows the answer to is not going to work out. Asking me to direct the course of someone’s life when I don’t know what their skill-set is and even if I did they should not be directed by me, won’t work out either. Asking me as three people today have done to help them taper off meds, when it seems to me they haven’t clearly checked in on whether I figure tapering is likely to work, is not a recipe for things working out.
(Several posts have outlined by doubts the mantra that there is no problem getting off these drugs if you only taper – a mantra pharmaceutical companies and the psychiatric establishment now find it convenient to quote back at people having real difficulites).
The problem with RxISK not solving people’s problems for them – with it being instead a place where you make contributions to solving our common problems – with me not doing what people tell me to do (which is what these ‘asks’ often amount to) is that there are now tons of people who bad mouth RxISK. Even from PSSD network.
Another Email
Fortunately, I had another email that almost coincided with the top email above.
Regarding some of the issues you raised in today’s blog, you offer something that most other doctors don’t even though it’s not an active intervention: you know more than the average doctor about what not to do and what might do more harm. And when to take a patient’s concerns seriously. After 10 years of searching, I found a psychiatrist this month who has curiosity and willingness to engage in discussing the antidepressant injury. I am going to have to teach him many things. But I can already see that he still has the potential to harm because he could convince me he understands something that he actually does not have accurate information on.
Lastly, one of the insidious things about having an antidepressant injury is some of the less torturous effects are harder to link to the SSRI but after reading your posts I can now trace back the development of many eye issues that I had not previously attributed to the antidepressant (but now I am very convinced that it is linked). These things I described above are things that you offer (from my perspective) so maybe that is why myself and many others keep approaching you. However, I realize. you cannot be everyone’s doctor. I am grateful for all the ways RxISK.org has helped me.
(I need to add that the visual post was not my work – it was folk like this emailer who has herself drawn my and all RxISK readers’ attention to problems few of us knew anything about like interstitial cystitis – See Girl on a Hot Tin Roof. Interstitial cystitis does not immediately look like it has anything to do with sex or PSSD but both this and the visual snow post have been hugely fruitful for the way I, at least, think about these things).
Delegated Narcissism
We are up against things that no-one has answers for. In situations like this it’s tempting to look around for a savior. When it comes to drugs and their injuries, many look around for a father figure, often medicines regulators like FDA, figuring they are there to keep us safe. They aren’t. Putting it politely, FDA are mindless bureaucrats.
Looking for guidance is a mugs game if no-one has the answers to the issues we are looking for guidance on. The Freudians called this reflex – delegating narcissism. Its tempting – the trouble is, as Oscar Wilde said, I can resist everything except temptation.
A hope built on achievement, rather than optimism, is critical but even this should not be allowed to blind us to an appreciation of the difficulties we face that if they are to be solved will only come about by teamwork – true teamwork that is, rather than being part of collective directed by a savior.
Katie B-T says
For me, it’s important to hold both: the grief and rage AND what I do have in my life and what I want to work to get more of in the future. It’s all too easy to get into all-or-none-thinking: because of all of the devastating loss from the drug injury, there is nothing left. But that is not true. I still have SOME things. My view is life is precious and I need to protect this flame. When in despair, it has helped me to note that I don’t know what the future holds. Even when there is not a linear solution that can be identified, I can hold onto how if I keep living, something is going to change and things will improve, even if I don’t know how yet. My approach has also been to do whatever I need to do to stay alive, even if that did entail in the past when things were more acute, taking risks with interventions.
Dr. Healy and Rxisk.org were/have been extremely important: to validate that my condition exists. Also, I have been very lucky to have someone about a year into the drug injury enter my life. He believed me and lent me his hope when I didn’t have any. He also helped me develop this perspective of holding how there is both the bad and the good. I also met a friend who has problems with her psych meds and this has been a valuable/meaningful friendship. Reading this and not knowing me, you may be quick to dismiss what I wrote, thinking that what I went through/go through isn’t so bad so that’s why I can think this way. Let me assure you—it’s been bad!
Another suggestion for coping: it helps to listen to the audio book of “Children of the Cure.” There is something very powerful about hearing truth about what goes on behind the scenes with pharma and regulators. And there is also something very collaborative and empowering about the invitation to contribute to a discussion of science.
I’m re-evaluating some of my assumptions about my medication injury after a worsening of symptoms in the context of a manufacturer change. I am now of the mindset that the small fiber neuropathy existed before the SSRI taper gone wrong 10 years ago. I am also of the mindset that the improvements that I have had after the taper-gone-wrong are not permanent improvements necessarily—as the manufacturer change awakened some of the same symptoms that had been dormant. The manufacturer change also brought about new nerve damage and eye problems, which may have answered my question about whether or not I should ever attempt any tapering again. (Though I still wonder if maybe, just maybe I went down over 5+ years if I could.) And for the sake of not going into too many details, this manufacturer change situation I refer to is complicated.
I am concerned that my condition has progressed as I am stuck on the meds. Right now I am trying to sort out which problems that I have developed in the last several years might be due to the psych meds vs. other explanations and I will report back. When I say it’s progressive, I don’t want you to take this and run with despair. After the taper-gone-wrong 10 years ago things were hell for about 5 years and I did what I needed to do to stay alive. But things HAVE improved overall. I’m still impacted daily but it is manageable.
One last thought: I think that the nerve damage that I have in my pelvis/butt/bladder is some combination nerves. It doesn’t all map onto the pudendal nerve. But I don’t think it’s all small fibers either.
annie says
One of the greatest discoveries over the last few years came from a woman whose husband jumped in front of a train. Putting her mind to it, she developed a marketing and publicity campaign.. Rarely in the world of drugs, has such a campaign taken off to such a grand degree, if at all, and she is now considered an international authority on the term – Akathisia.
Akathisia has impacted many lives of those taking psychotropics and if I may hazard a guess is something that has been covered fairly relentlessly by Rxisk. Many posts, many patient stories, many conversations have surrounded this term, which before Wendy Dolin put it on the world map, of it, most people had never heard.
There are many heroes and heroines in the world of drugs, who have gone the extra mile and educated us over the years as to what can lay behind serious issues of disablement and death.
The gift of Rxisk is that it keeps on giving.
How would we know about the terrible affliction of PSSD, and all the work that is going on to find a cure. It’s been a long time since the Rxisk Prize was announced which many, many of us contributed to because it seemed like such a phenomenal idea. We desperately wanted to help and raising money for such a cause brought us all together.
We gave with our hearts and minds and empathy.
“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”.”
― John Lydgate
tim says
This post evokes sorrow in the reader.
The enormity of suffering resulting from psychotropic drug induced adverse drug reactions (ADRs) such as PSSD appears to remain poorly understood (or even denied) by some prescribers.
Akathisia and its misdiagnosis as Serious Mental Illness is in a similar category of ADR. How many prescribers are aware of interstitial cystitis? These are serious and life changing ADRs, some of which are life-threatening.
It is not only those injured by psychotropic drug ADRs themselves who bear the suffering. It is almost intolerable for the entire family to live with one they love and cherish so much enduring torment day by day, year by year.
It is not only the family.
Those few expert physicians, who out of conscience, dedication, lifetime commitment and sacrifice; those who endeavour to help, inform, advise us truthfully, and who afford BELIEF to harmed patients and their families must surely carry some of the suffering themselves.
This is the price of the empathy that my family have received consistently from RxISK for over ten years.
Without this, we are in no doubt that our loved one would have undoubtedly succumbed to the cumulative toxicity of contraindicated, unnecessary, enforced psychotropic poly pharmacy.
The absolute commitment of RxISK to increasing prescriber and patient awareness of PSSD is surely self evident; not least via the RXISK Prize endeavouring to find treatment, which many of us supported.
I do hope that progress may be achieved that relieves the ordeal of families in this situation.
What might we contribute positively whilst this is awaited? My own, and many other family’s ordeal is preventable.
Would any of us be suffering like this if those prescribing for our loved ones had provided FAIR FULL AND INFORMED CONSENT? If prescribers believed what had happened to us? If the Duty of Candour was observed.?
We need recognition and not rejection.
We deserve an apology. We need our years of lobbying to result in changes that afford our heartfelt desire that an end to these dreadful ADRs is achieved promptly, and then maintained.
mary H says
It is my honest opinion that desperation can turn the mildest of us into very awkward individuals. Feeling totally out of your depth, trying to deal with a person who has changed out of all recognition, by doing no more than following the directions of their trusted doctor, is torture.
Of course the sufferer is going through far worse than is the onlooker but the helplessness of the situation you are handling is life-changing. You turn to those you should trust – you are turned away. You make suggestions about the situation as you see it – you are regarded as thinking yourself superior to the professional person. You are left to get on with it in whichever way you can. Nowhere to turn, noone to share your fears with beyond your own family – and that troubled, bedridden individual who you used to know takes up much of your time, in fear of not coping with the situation.
I remember the day, after a fraught exchange at an appointment, when I contacted you, David. We had been to an appointment with the Unit psychiatrist who was insisting on a dose increase. The patient had objected but it was discounted. I suggested a decrease may be preferential rather than another increase, only to be told that the new dose was a very low one. I asked David if the patient’s medication list was indeed “a low dose”. The reply, almost immediately, was “NO”.
As a result of that reply, many years ago now, we spent much time and effort in trying to support Rxisk in as many ways as we could, to repay, in a very small way, for the gratitude that we feel for the support that we got.
Our Prescribed Medication Withdrawal group grew out of that gratitude. In running the group, we have met many who are pretty desperate for answers to their problems. They know, of course, that I have not suffered in the way that they are suffering at present. They also know of David’s role in the creation of our group. I provide individual email support to any from our group who require more than a general discussion can provide. I know the pressure of taking on that role, of the insistence of a desperate individual for more than that which I can possibly give. That dread that, due to my failure to comply with their pleas, their suffering will lead to the end of their life. We walk a fine line but at least we provide a line without which there would be no hope.
It is hard to be honest sometimes – the easy way out would be to give false hope. I couldn’t live with myself if I did that. David, whilst I feel slightly overwhelmed with my few queries, I have no idea how you cope with the hundreds that turn to you for “hope”.
I guess that all we can do is give what we can – listen, believe and react in a way that is meaningful – even if it isn’t always what the patient, or group member, wishes to hear.
Maybe we should also be encouraging as many as possible to donate to the Research Fund to make sure that the present pace of work is able to be supported into the future.
Anne-Marie says
I was reading your this post and it made me think of how all my research started. [DH: See last post Medical Triumph that took a Decade].
I was in the courtroom and lost my case and was devastated. I was so angry I asked the barrister why they didn’t believe me. He said it’s not that they don’t believe you it’s that you have to prove it. I asked how do I do that? He mumbled something on the lines of scientific research. I looked at him in disbelief as I didn’t think it was possible to be able to to achieve this myself.
I went home exhausted, beaten and felt defeated. I spent weeks feeling irritable and angry because I felt cheated. My life had been destroyed by the tablets and noone could see it or cared. I couldn’t let it go. All I kept thinking in my mind is what the barrister said, “you have to prove it scientifically”.
That’s when I started researching. I felt driven to do it even though I didn’t know how to or want to I knew I had to do it. Thank God for the internet otherwise I would never had been able to do it. The more I researched and learnt the easier it got. I started to realise the answers are there it’s just like a jigsaw that needs the right parts putting together to prove it was the tablets.
I was driven by wanting to show the judge the proof. I wanted the judge to repair the damage done to me. For my life to just be normal again. I just wanted my pre tablet clean record life back again. It had caused me so much unfair damage.
It was coming across Dr Healy and Rxisk that then made me realise there was something far more important to be done and that was to help prevent it happening to all the other people across the world too. In fact I didn’t realise I was entering a new chapter in my journey and how it was a very important one too.
You are so right when you say it is team work that is so important and it’s that that makes it all possible to find the answers we are all looking for.
Dr. David Healy says
This really does help explain where your motivation came from. It makes what you ended up doing even more astonishing.
My favorite story from your experience, when, still in doing as you were told mould, you went along to an AA meeting and mentioned that you thought your SSRI was causing you to drink and got told that this kind of thinking just proves you were a true alcoholic.
There is something to someone who is told by all the authorities, those who know what is what, that you don’t know what you are talking about, to go and prove them wrong
David
Anne-Marie says
I know its ridiculous isn’t it. To be fair most people in AA are not medically trained so probably wouldn’t understand medication side effects. Thankfully I had the sense not take too much notice of them. It was hard enough talking to Drs who didn’t have a clue either, although a few were open to the possibility of this happening.
I have learnt now just to follow my instincts and to research and question everything now. I’ve lost my trust in the system. I now feel they really do not care about you. You have to look out for yourself and not rely on them totally to keep you from being harmed.
The good thing is there are lots of patients on the internet with similar problems where you can join forums and work together to help and support one another.
Rxisk is also a great website for researching together. We would be lost and abandoned without it. I wouldn’t have got this far without it.
Dr. David Healy says
DH: I have been put in my place following this post by someone who seemed to me among the many who get in touch and ask to be helped to Taper or for my input on her problems. There was an understated marker in the email that she has been in the mental health business and knew something about the scene. This may have played a part in me responding at all but the response was dismissive – it gave links to the Treatment Complications, Good Expert Needed and Empathy for Drug Induced Injury.
After the initial email and my negative response. she had asked did I know anyone else who could help – just the kind of email that is causing me problems at the moment.
When she got the links she apologized
It was me who followed up. One or two other treatment options were coming into the picture – such as going gluten free – more than one person had just mentioned this helping. Another is photobiomodulation. One of the things I can do if someone make a good case for something like this is to write to the doctors or research team involved and there is a better chance that I as a doctor will be listened to that someone else might be.
So I thought I’d drop C a note about these options – to which she responded.
C: I’ve tried stuff with the Vagus Nerve theory (hands free massage working on the Vagus Nerve) also explored “the theory of the Window of tolerance” as Mirtazapine puts you in a continuous “Boom and Burst” situation, completely out of sync and not in the healthy homeostasis we need to be in as much as is possible.
Pleased to hear the email off a client re gluten free as it can really help – generally I eat the gluten free FODMAP diet. Take Vit D/Vit B12 injection suggested by a passionate GP who believes in supporting patients with CFS/ME/BMS etc
I’m not sure where you are based but gather from your email trails that you continue to support clients with sexual dysfunction due to taking and withdrawal from SSRI’s. Can resonate with this.
I would be interested in becoming involved with this research if that would be a possibility as it makes a lot of sense to me.
Like you I am being blunt as having a purpose to this whole myriad of stuff would be helpful.
I now imagine you may come back and “blast me with my cheek” but I genuinely would like to help as well as trying to help myself in this journey.
DH: This left me feeling I was very lucky in the original emails not to be given out to for having a cheek to suggest C had not been helping herself There is more she has done than is listed here.
It also prompts a thought about how to get the attention or me or anyone else whose attention you need to get. Rather than starting with a request for help – better start with a – look here are all the things I’ve done, This paints a picture and gets me interested to find out more and dose so more effectively than an overture asking me for input that gives me nothing about the person and what they have already done and found out.
David
chris says
Don’t know of you were involved with this new guidance Anne-Marie and DH but it seems like someone is listening:
https://www.aldergrovestar.com/news/doctors-urged-to-screen-for-alcoholism-before-prescribing-antidepressants-6526512
“New guidance to help family doctors detect and manage high-risk drinking addresses a crucial gap in knowledge among both patients and doctors, say its authors, who warn that a common practice to prescribe antidepressants can actually induce cravings for alcohol.
The advice is comprised of 15 recommendations on early detection of alcohol use disorder, withdrawal management, psychological interventions and community-based programs.”
Maybe your paper got some attention –
New onset alcohol dependence linked to treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23796469/
Dr. David Healy says
Chris
Thanks for this. Can you also enter the same comment under last weeks post. If you read the post and download the links you’ll see this article is referring to the same Canadian Guidelines that Anne Marie’s original research played a part in bringing about.
David
Patrick D Hahn says
Medical Assistance in Dying for worsening depression caused by SSRI’s. The culmination of a health services industry that has lost all sight of the maxim “First do no harm.”
Dr. David Healy says
Patrick
This has unquestionably become something of a reality. Can the process be stopped at this point where we have slipped a few inches down the slippery slope or are we already too far gone? Will our depression pathways all soon end with a listing of MAiD as the next step?
David
David
annie says
time, treatment–and hope…
Trudo Lemmens
@TrudoLemmens
·
36m
“Ottawa needs to withdraw its amendments that include mental illness in the law for MAID. There are too many uncertainties, most crucially inability to determine who is suffering from a truly irremediable mental disease and who will recover given enough time, treatment–and hope”
Trudo Lemmens
@TrudoLemmens
·
36m
But also crucial is a reconsideration of how #euthanasia #MAID has been promoted as broad therapy for suffering, without even a most minimal requirement in Canada’s law: that it truly is a very last, since fatal, resort
Trudo Lemmens
@TrudoLemmens
·
Oct 27
When Death Becomes Therapy: Canada’s Troubling Normalization of Health Care Provider Ending of Life. My Commentary in @bioethics_net on Canada’s troubling promotion of #euthanasia #MAiD online open access
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15265161.2023.2265265
When Death Becomes Therapy: Canada’s Troubling Normalization of Health Care Provider Ending of Life
Trudo Lemmens
Canada’s developments show how health professionals and institutions can quickly normalize and self-justify practices even when they appear to run astray of the most basic professional standards of care; and how providing death on demand can be turned into a medical therapy even for only remotely disease-related suffering. Any jurisdiction contemplating some form of legalization of this practice should think about what it means for medicine and society at large to move in that direction.
Dr. David Healy says
I guess the question is whether MAiD qualifies as a demonstration of Empathy or Sympathy. You can get any treatment you want in Canada – Transitioning, MAiD etc and if the doctor refuses you can complain and laid him or her in serious trouble – any treatment you want except getting off the meds you are on – except reducing your medication burden.
If readers go to the bottom of the blog tab on the RxISK front page – press it and go to the bottom of the list of blogs, there is a search box that lets you put in the word MAiD – this brings up posts with the word Mermaid in the title etc but also a post with MAiD in Canada that has links to other MAiD posts.
David
C says
Is there an update on Dr. Guerrinis research? I was looking on pfsnetwork.org that is similar to PSSD Network and Post Finasteride Syndrome foundation but has a different group of scientific advisors. It says “The most important patient-focused study on PFS to date revealed an over expression of the androgen receptor and widespread and significant deregulation of gene expressions relevant to the broad symptoms experienced by patients”
They also note that finasteride increased androgen receptors in rats brains when administered finasteride, with this knowledge they turned to human patients with PFS and discovered that there was increased density of androgen receptors in penile skin tissue. With the obvious similarities between PSSD and PFS should we add Androgen to the Research Forum? They also have a diagram on the site I can’t paste here, but it shows many different pathologies leading to “disrupted AR-dependent gene activation” and it says increased 5HT results in this. I’m not sure if they included it because of the suspected link between the two drugs or if there’s actual evidence. Thought I’d mention it.
Dr. David Healy says
Callum
No update from Luisa recently. Her research assistant has left. This may be the hold-up. The Finasteride material you mention is quite old now. Its more useful that they pursue whatever line of research they figure makes sense and others pursue different lines – it will increase the odds of someone finding the key things.
D
C says
Thank you. I agree.
chris says
I remember watching this three years ago and wondered why he didn’t mention akathisia and the importance of differential between drug suicide ideation which if treated correctly will eventually go away and none drug toxic suicide ideation. I emailed him the information – no reply. Also referenced some of the information in this video to write a comment on here in 2019 relating eugenics, the role of psychiatry in the Holocaust and the art worlds funding by Sackler and Rockefeller.
Physician Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia for Psychiatric Patients: An Emerging Ethical Crisis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnTB1zsDXK0
annie says
In addition to MAID in Canada posts
https://samizdathealth.org/medical-assistance-in-dying-treatment-resistant-depression/
The End for Empathy?
“Just because an individual might belong to a group that is considered to be vulnerable, doesn’t mean that individual is vulnerable,” he said.
– Stan Kutcher
Dr. Stan Kutcher, a professor of psychiatry at Dalhousie University in Halifax, was one of the authors of Study 329.
In an email to CBC News regarding the reanalysis, Kutcher said “this pejorative and biased paper was created by authors who, in contrast to acceptable scientific enquiry, had predetermined what they would report.”
Speaking of Paxil, if you stick Dr. Kutcher, Paxil and “study 329” into the maw of Google, you’ll marvel at what emerges.
Superlatives aside, BBC called study 329, a Glaxo-funded study of using Paxil in kids, “one of the biggest medical scandals of recent times.” Kutcher co-authored the study and he and his colleagues concluded that Paxil is “generally well tolerated and effective for major depression in adolescents.” The reality is that the opposite was likely more true.
– Alan Cassels
martin says
Hey David, I’m finding it hard to find somewhere to get a sfn biopsy in Europe, I am paying out of my own pocket but find it close to impossible went to one neurologist in Europe and told me my symtoms were mental. Do you know anywhere good that won’t be much hassle I rather get it done even if it’s negative just to rule things out thanks.