RxISK.org’s Dr. Healy coming to talk to U.S. audiences about deadly prescription drug side effects

How often do prescription medications cause people to do things they would never normally do?

Prominent psychopharmacologist Dr. David Healy will be in North America February 18-22 (Chicago, Washington) with his latest observations on all manner of uncharacteristic behaviors that prescription drugs can cause.

A researcher and acknowledged expert on antidepressants and the pre-market trials that assess their safety, Dr. Healy believes that the public has been deprived of crucial information about the behavioral side effects that these and other common medications can have. In lectures at Chicago medical and law schools, Dr. Healy will explain what is known about the risks of violence involving prescription drugs. He will shed light on why we find it hard to believe that these risks are real, and why our national food and drug safety regulators are not protecting us.

Finally, he plans a show-and-tell about RxISK.org, masterminded by Dr. Healy and several close colleagues. RxISK is a project which aims to improve prescription safety through the systematic collection of information about consumer experience. RxISK.org is the first free, independent website where consumers can report their own experience of prescription drug side effects, and receive personalized assessments of the risk that their prescriptions are causing the problems they report.

He will also be speaking at Access Living, a Chicago-based advocacy and independent living services organization. His topic is How Safe Are Your Prescription Drugs – and what can you do about it?

Later in the week Dr. Healy will be at the Selling Sickness Conference in Washington where his talk is Scaremongering: How RxISK.org will make Medicines Safer. His talk will include a demonstration of RxISK.org.

About Data Based Medicine Americas Ltd.

RxISK.org is owned and operated by Data Based Medicine Americas Ltd. (DBM), based in Toronto, Canada. DBM’s founders have international reputations in early drug-side-effect detection and risk mitigation, pharmacovigilance, and patient-centered care. Although drug side effects are known to be a leading cause of death and disability, less than 5% of serious drug side effects are reported. DBM’s mission is to capture this missing data directly from patients through RxISK’s free drug side effect reporting tool and use this data to help make medicines safer for all of us.

Media contact

David Carmichael
david.carmichael@RxISK.org
+1 (647) 799-3792

Venues

Chicago Monday, February 18

(12p – 1 p)
Rush Medical College
600 S. Paulina, Room 976
Sponsor: American Medical Students Association
“The Eclipse of Medicine”

(1p – 4p)
Chicago Kent College of Law
565 W. Adams Street, Room C-90
Sponsors: Illinois Assn. of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Chicago-Kent College of Law and Bill Clutter Investigations
“Side Effects: Homicidal and Suicidal Behavior Influenced by Prescription Medications”
Free; registration required: contact info@investigatinginnocence.org
3 hours CLE credit for Illinois attorneys
Dr. Healy’s presentation is from 3p – 4 pm

Chicago Tuesday, February 19

(3p – 5p)
University of Illinois at Chicago, Room 2028, University Hall, 601 South Morgan Street Chicago, Illinois 60607-7120
Psychotropic Drug – Induced Violence: A Hidden Epidemic
There is abundant clinical trial and other clinical data demonstrating that psychotropic drugs can trigger aggressive behavior up to and including homicide. This is not widely known because the data is largely hidden and there are barriers in the way of recognizing the link. This talk will outline the data, and explore the causation and medico-legal issues.

(6:30p – 8:30p)

Access Living, 115 W. Chicago Avenue
(Two blocks west of Chicago stop on CTA Red Line, between Clark and LaSalle Sts.) For more information call (708) 724-8945
How Safe Are Your Prescription Drugs – and what can you do about it?

Washington, Friday, February 22

(1:30p – 3:00p)
Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill
400 New Jersey Ave.
NW Washington DC
20001
Panel: Independent Resources for Journalists, Health Professionals and Consumers. Dr. Healy’s talk entitled Scaremongering: How RxISK.org will make Medicine Safer. (Includes discussion and demonstration of RxISK.org, the first free independent website for researching and reporting prescription drug side effects)