Welsh and Scottish Petitions on Antidepressant Dependence

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March 21, 2019 | 8 Comments

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  1. James Moore Retweeted

    BBC Wales Politics‏ @WalesPolitics 3h

    AMs said ministers had no strategy to deal with the problem

    Scottish and Welsh Governments Debate Psychiatric Drug Dependence and Withdrawal

    JM Moore

    March 21 2019

    http://www.letstalkwithdrawal.com/governments-debate-psychiatric-drug-withdrawal/

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-47643985?ns_campaign=wales_politics&ns_linkname=wales&ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=twitter

    James Moore‏ @jf_moore 40m

    More support and guidance should be available to patients using prescription drugs http://www.assembly.wales/en/newhome/pages/newsitem.aspx?itemid=1968 … via @AssemblyWales

    Cyflwynwyd y ddeiseb hon gan Stevie Lewis, ar ôl casglu 213 o lofnodion ar-lein.

    “Prescribing of psychoactive drugs is a major clinical activity and a key therapeutic tool for influencing the health of patients. But often their use can lead to a patient becoming dependent or suffering withdrawal symptoms. In the absence of robust data, we do not know the true scale and extent of the problem across the UK. However, the evidence and insight presented to us by many charity and support groups shows that it is substantial. It shows us that the ‘lived experience’ of patients using these medications is too often associated with devastating health and social harms. This represents a significant public health issue, one that is central to doctors’ clinical role, and one that the medical profession has a clear responsibility to help address.”

  2. Our thanks, as a nation as well as a family, should go to Stevie for her excellent work in pushing onwards with her petition. everything. We often hear that ‘everything Welsh applies only to South Wales but Stevie has made sure that the WHOLE of Wales has been included when gathering evidence to use to support her petition.
    I most sincerely hope that Senedd now debate the issues with a sincere wish to provide better services for all in Wales who are in need of such.
    One point which will be of great importance is knowledge-sharing of any new services should they be provided. So far, this is very poor up here in North Wales – we must improve so that we can make the best of what is on offer. When listening to Stevie at the Senedd at the end of last year, a N Wales service was praised – a service that we knew next to nothing about although its headquarters are a mere 15 miles away from us. It has been in existence for a good few years and is an NHS service dealing with prescribed drug dependence and withdrawal ( including ADs), patients being referred to the service by their doctors. I only found out about it when researching the area in search of services who may have clients who wished to join our withdrawal peer support group. I think I’m right in saying, David, that you hardly knew of their work either although you, too, work within the same Health Board. We cannot let this secrecy ( if that is what it is) continue – we are here to share every single service that can work to support in withdrawal.
    Now, to our peer support group – we are still not gathering any ‘withdrawers’ whatsoever. When looking at the numbers it stands to reason that our area must have a fairly high number of AD users – are none of them in withdrawal? Is no one struggling in withdrawal? We have advertised the fact that we are there regularly within the local area – nothing, absolutely no one comes. Yet when we held an ‘open meeting’ (advertised under our group heading, we had around 50 people turn up. The majority were from our local area and they are now very helpful in taking the info about the group meetings out into neighbouring areas. But still no one turns up!
    We will not give up. Maybe, if the response from Senedd is encouraging, we may find an interest in peer support too, suddenly? No harm in dreaming! We need ALL who work in the NHS and other areas of support to show a bit more ‘joined up thinking’ and show that a small country such as we are CAN be a leader IF WE CO-OPERATE.
    Again, Stevie, thanks so much for all you have and continue to do – you fired us up and you can be sure of our continued support whenever it’s needed. Thanks also go to James, David, Aled (PAST) and all others who have been involved of course. As Stevie would surely say, this success has come because we’ve ALL worked together – long may it continue.

    • Further to my comment above, I’m ashamed to say that very little has been in the media about Stevie’s petition/Senedd following yesterday’s announcement. Nothing on BBC Wales or ITV nor S4C (Welsh language channel). BBC Wales online actually covered it. Today’s local daily paper has no coverage whatsoever. Had I not been informed by Stevie or happened to read here, I wouldn’t know a thing about it – and that’s with it happening IN MY OWN COUNTRY. That’s what we’re up against I guess – the usual MH stuff not worthy of a mention.
      This lack of sharing the knowledge adds to my frustration when I think of the people who attended our open meeting, (many read the Mail last week and came up to me saying how the Mail article was saying “exactly what you’ve been saying for ages Mary”) who have been so helpful since the meeting and are sharing any knowledge that we share with them. They, too, LIVE IN WALES, but news about the petition points discussed in Senedd this week will have escaped them completely – until I round them up and share it with them. Stevie also came to our open meeting so this news is of interest to this group.
      One positive to come out of this possibly, I suppose, is that it will prove, yet again, how very difficult it is to wake mainstream media to the fact that it is only by honest sharing that we can ever hope to come to grips with what is going on in the world of medicine – and how much suffering is brushed under the carpet as a result.

  3. Just to let people at Rxisk know that another young person who went by the name of Zadig777 on the PSSD forum, has taken their own life. He was 23, and had PSSD. That is the third person with PSSD to take their own life in the last year. So sad.

  4. John Read Retweeted

    James Moore‏ @jf_moore 43m

    Replying to @ReadReadj

    Time and time again, we are reassured that antidepressants and not the ‘first response’ and not for mild/moderate depression, yet the soaring number of prescriptions tells a different story. Either ADs are prescribed too quickly, or off-label prescribing is uncontrolled, or both

    kiwi 29/03/2019 at 8:38 am #

    imo ….This is TOTALLY due to the unimaginable horror and trauma inducing symptoms of abstinence that is … withdrawal.
    No one can get off these drugs without a serious fight for their life.
    As my pharmacist once confided in me …you deserve a medal for getting of paxil we have many people on our books taking this drug and they cant get off it.
    Its a miracle i am still alive after the many years i had to hold on for before i made it to the other side.
    oh yeah lets not forget the behind the scenes pharma prescribing kickbacks to doctors …that would no doubt cause an uptick in ssri addicts!

    http://cepuk.org/2019/03/29/dont-blame-brexit-doubling-antidepressant-prescriptions-fact-reflects-longer-term-use/

    Prof Wendy Burn, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: “For many people antidepressants can be lifesaving,

    Prof Helen Stokes-Lampard, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: “Prescribing is a core skill for GPs, and we will only prescribe medication to a patient after a full and frank discussion with them,

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/mar/29/antidepressant-prescriptions-in-england-double-in-a-decade?CMP=share_windows_twitter

    Prof Stokes-Lampard said that part of the rise in prescriptions could be down to an increased awareness of mental health conditions in society, and more people feeling able to seek medical advice.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-47740396

    Experts said the NHS figures showed the toll of modern life, with political uncertainty linked to Brexit adding to the nation’s woes,

    But she said: “We currently live in turbulent times and the impact of Brexit on the nation’s mental health is hard to measure. We know political and world events can create a great deal of uncertainty, which can make some of us feel anxious, stressed and down.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/03/28/doubling-number-antidepressants-doled-decade-nhs-figures-show/?WT.mc_id=tmg_share_tw

    John Read‏ @ReadReadj 4h

    John Read Retweeted John Read

    We are now at one antidepressant prescription per 6 adults. At what level will Colleges of Psychiatrists and GPs stop defending this epidemic use of a marginally effective drug with multiple adverse effects? 1 in 4? 1 in 2? Negligent, unscientific, unethical.

  5. Off label prescribing? Recently I was offered amitryptaline ‘for oesophagitis pain’. “Surely that’s an antidepressant.” I was surprised. “Ah, well, yes it was, but we use it now for pain control”…… so, I assume the little pill, knowing as it is swallowed that it is destined for this ‘new’ purpose, won’t affect one’s mind for a moment. I declined a prescription, assuming that the way it would control pain would be by making me feel so dozy that I hadn’t got the will left to report it.

    BBC ‘Today’ programme 29.3.19 reports that prescriptions for antidepressants have DOUBLED over last ten years. I wonder how many are being given to otherwise ok patients for pain control.

  6. October 14, 2012 at 12:47 pm

    Karl – there is no agreed answer to any of these questions, except that amitripytline is a serotonin reuptake inhibitor also – so less point going back on Seroxat if you are on amitripytline. I think the problems are protracted withdrawal and many of them may not stem from the brain at all

    Antidepressant Withdrawal: V’s Story

    August 29, 2012 | 117 Comments

    https://rxisk.org/antidepressant-withdrawal-vs-story/

    This is a most incredible blog with incredible comments which puts a lot of things in perspective, and we are lucky to have it …

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