This brief post links to a development since the last – Everything you Want to Know about Sex – post. Twitter like Woody Allen seems to believe you shouldn’t be allowed to ask certain questions.
A few weeks ago I did a podcast with Liz Tucker on her What Your GP Doesn’t Tell You podcast series – which has a lot of stellar interviews. It took a while to edit, finally appearing on Thursday. Liz is keen to back every claim up.
Twitter, however, refused to promote a tweet Liz sent out on Saturday saying:
In my latest podcast, psychiatrist @DrDavidHealy discusses how some people on SSRI drugs may suffer from sexual dysfunction side effects & others even when they stop the drugs may continue to suffer from this problem
So I’ve (Liz) complained and said that this point is based on peer reviewed publications.
If anyone interested in these issues could promote the above issue and this second tweet, I’ve put out today, I’d be very grateful. The second tweet is not about sex but might bring people to the podcast, which is about sex:
https://twitter.com/lizctucker/status/1622600244113379330
It says:
In the latest episode of my podcast, in this clip @drdavidhealy discusses SSRI drugs and reveals that although every trial has been negative in children, surprisingly, every published result has been positive. So how does that happen? 1/2
susanne says
Liz T’s podcast is free or paid subscription
1 of 3
RE: Dr David Healy Discusses SSRI Drugs, Suicide and Sexual Dysfunction – Latest What Your GP Doesn’t Tell You Podcast
Inbox
Liz Tucker
4:26 PM (1 hour ago)
to me
Hi Susanne
Many thanks for your email, of course very happy to do that. I’ll add those details to the podcast information.
I can’t currently see where the podcast is referenced on David’s blog but if he could do so that would be great.
Many thanks
Best
Liz
Liz Tucker
Managing Director
@lizctucker
97C98BFC: +44 (0)20 8560 2056
M: +44 (0)7886 226083
From: Susanne
Sent: 03 February 2023 18:48
To: Liz Tucker from Liz Tucker’s Newsletter
Subject: Re: Dr David Healy Discusses SSRI Drugs, Suicide and Sexual Dysfunction – Latest What Your GP Doesn’t Tell You Podcast
Hi Liz
Great to see your pod cast and the reference to it is on David Healy Blog. I have been a long time contributor to his work and would like to ask if you can publicise the blogs ie Rxisk blog and David Healy blog where contributors publicise their own experiences and knowlege of the issues on ‘comments’.
Best wishes and thanks for highlighting the talk
Susanne
On Fri, Feb 3, 2023 at 12:39 PM Liz Tucker from Liz Tucker’s Newsletter wrote:
Without full access to drug data neither patients or doctors can have an accurate view of a drug’s effectiveness
ANON says
I would <3 to see David Healy in every medico's office, so that there is no ambiguity between what is ghost written and what is fact.
We need more experts in their field to say it the way it is.
Too many innocent people are suffering from withdrawal symptoms, medicine iatrogenesis and other nasty side effects without understanding/appreciating that it may be the medicine/vaccine that are inducing their health maladies. (add to this a lot of unnecessary tests and procedures).
Sadly, facts can easily be misconstrued.
susanne says
I flagged this up on Youtube to highlight the potential brutality people can experience for publishing what ‘they’ don’t want to become openly debated I attached it to the White Coat Storm lecture /video (David Healy blog)as Beata P. had referenced D.H. on Mad in America SCIENCE, PSYCHIATRY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE blog. It lasted half an hour before being taken down by whoever knows best at Youtube it doesn’t seem as though the video has been interfered with .Maybe more comments of a less scary nature to Youtube on the video site could help to get the lecture publicised https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYo8BNbrcV4
Threatened for Telling the Truth: Polish Journalist Speaks Out
By Beata Pawlikowska -January 28, 2023 who could also do with support.
7236 48
People don’t always like to hear the truth when it challenges them or contradicts their assumptions and biases. But I have always considered it my duty as a journalist to say it anyway.
Beata Pawlikowska
But nothing prepared me for the reaction to my latest video. Now I’m under attack, with threats of violence flung at me alongside threats of lawsuits. And all because I shared the large body of peer-reviewed research that contradicts the mainstream assumptions of psychiatry.
The question is this: What is the purpose of being a journalist in Poland today? Is it to regurgitate talking points? Is it to reinforce mainstream assumptions, even when they are not supported by the evidence? Is it to support the powerful at all costs, and never question their words? Or do we have a duty to seek out the truth—as presented in the peer-reviewed scientific literature—and present it to the people?
The Serotonin Theory Falls
I am fluent in English so I could read the latest books and research articles before they reached Poland. In some ways, Polish psychiatry is very slow to recognize the discoveries that are coming out of America and Western Europe.
Last year the article “The Serotonin Theory of Depression: A Systematic Umbrella Review of the Evidence,” by Joanna Moncrieff and her colleagues, was published in the peer-reviewed journal Molecular Psychiatry. The researchers found that, after reviewing all the studies on the topic, there was no evidence for a serotonin imbalance in depression.
Of course, psychiatry’s defenders rushed out in the US and the UK too. The commonality was a defense of antidepressants: pundits opined that the drugs were still effective, even if no one knows how or why they work.
Nonetheless, in the US and UK, there is a substantial body of research showing that while antidepressants may be statistically better than placebo in some studies (especially industry-funded, older, biased studies), this difference is tiny and likely not clinically relevant.
This was presented in Poland in quite a different way. A journalist from a popular news website asked the Polish Psychiatric Association for comment and this is what they said: “It would be difficult to assume that researchers on several continents gave their patients drugs for so many indications and did not realize until now that they were giving a placebo.”
The Polish Psychiatric Association in its official statement said that the new research focuses on explaining the mechanisms of action of antidepressants: “This does not mean that antidepressants do not work, as millions of people around the world experience every day. It means that they work in more complex mechanisms, which we have already partially learned and are still learning.”
The Reaction to My Video
I spent months listening to all the lectures on the subject I could find on YouTube. I devoured videos from Joanna Moncrieff, Robert Whitaker, Bertram Karon, David Healy, Peter Breggin, and others, reading books and scientific articles, and I realized that nobody talks about it in Poland. So I decided to write a book about it and make a video. I am halfway through writing the book, and on Monday night I published the video called “The Latest Research on Depression.”
As I said, I’m used to getting criticized for telling the truth. But nothing could have prepared me for the vehement attacks that followed my video. It made me the No. 1 public enemy in Poland. Everybody attacked me. Fellow journalists, doctors, and the general public. I felt lynched. I was afraid to go outside in fear I would be beaten. People publicly wished me death and blamed me for possible deaths of people who might stop their medication.
My video was carefully crafted and documented. It was all based on scientific articles which were quoted on the screen as I talked and the full list of the articles was put in the description below the video. In the beginning I said that I am not a doctor or a scientist, but as a journalist with fluent English I have access to the latest research and I would like to present some facts so that you can decide for yourselves what you want to do with these facts. In the video I said that the antidepressants may be very useful in the short-term; at the end of the video I showed a still saying IMPORTANT. Abrupt discontinuation of antidepressants is dangerous and can be detrimental to your health. If you are taking medications, follow your doctor’s instructions and, if necessary, work with your doctor to gradually stop taking them.
And then at the very end: This video is not a medical recommendation. The information contained in the video is educational in nature and is not intended to replace individual medical advice provided by a doctor.
The day after the video was published, a psychiatrist and president of the Polish Medical Media Association organized a fundraiser to sue me for publicly publishing “untrue information that poses a threat to the health and life of hundreds of thousands of people suffering from depression.”
This is what was posted with the fundraiser:
I’m a doctor, psychiatrist, CEO, and I’m honestly sick of celebrities talking about health. Especially about mental health. On January 16, 2023, on the YT channel, Ms. Beata P., a journalist fluent in English, published a video in which she gives false information that poses a threat to the health and life of hundreds of thousands of people suffering from depression. I’ve had enough. I need your help to raise funds and show all her possible successors that this type of content is over. It is time to start punishing.
Here’s link to the post: https://www.instagram.com/ptmediow_medycznych/
Link to the fundraiser: https://zrzutka.pl/v7ppj5
Within a day or so she collected over 30,000 zł needed to proceed to court (roughly 5,500 pounds) with comments like: “Thank you for promoting science and fighting falsehood in public space.”
I felt threatened. All alone, attacked by everyone, including journalists, doctors, scientists, and the general public all writing about me with headlines like: “Beata Pawlikowska Babbles about Depression. Enough Is Enough. Internet Users Are Preparing a Lawsuit.”
I decided to take down the video from my social media and published an apology:
ANON says
Shame on all the professionals who are part of a dysfunctional system that bows to a bullying hierarchy.
Nothing is perfect; however, we can demand improvement.
I am sure there are good doctors out there however, if they keep silent because the hierarchy bullies them, or they are afraid to lose their job or be penalized for speaking up, they are still part of the erroneous process and are also complicit.
If they all gathered in numbers and spoke up about issues that impact people’s lives, there would be no doctors practicing and businesses would close down.
The old boys club no longer stands for modern day health care.
It is outdated, draconian and ignoring dangers that need to be addressed.
Doctors and workers should not suffer from retribution if they have enough guts/courage to come forward and say it the way it is.
Too much political balderdash, as far as I am concerned.
It is still all about money.
Is safety of patients all a facade?
I worry about those who are in the health profession and genuinely care however, are severely punished if they speak up.
The standards of care need to be challenged and we need to always be grateful for those who ‘step-up’ and try to create positive changes that benefit all.
If the power of balance is only in favour of those who do harm, what HOPE do we have?
ANON says
Thank you Dr Kerryn Phelps for speaking up about pertinent matters that impact everyone.
Professionals, workers, families/friends of loved ones, should not be bullied by a system that is ‘supposed to be’ there for the people.
There are a lot of organizations and professionals that need to ‘clean up’ their act.
There should be accountability and transparency when truth tellers expose a conundrum of deceits, lies and misinformation. Truth tellers are doing their best to expose malfeasance that is going on.
It is very sad how freedom of speech is censored. When the precious narrative is turned upside and challenged, what are they going to do about it?
https://www.news.com.au/technology/science/human-body/dr-kerryn-phelps-reveals-devastating-covid-vaccine-injury-says-doctors-have-been-censored/news-story/0c1fa02818c99a5ff65f5bf852a382cf
It is about time that radical changes be made in the reporting system and the publishing of scientific papers are backed up with truthful data and honest facts.
That the health care system allows people to speak up if something is askew.
For all the people who have been injured or passed away, I am so sorry it slipped under the radar and that you were not given a voice.
https://www.facebook.com/diedsuddenly/