rxisk.org

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# RxISK

Making Medicines Safer for All of Us

## Sitemaps

- [XML Sitemap](https://rxisk.org/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website.

## Posts

- [Blog](https://rxisk.org/blog/)
- [Triple Therapy for Enduring Sexual Dsyfunction](https://rxisk.org/triple-therapy-for-enduring-sexual-dsyfunction/) - The similarities between AIDS and PSSD/PFS/PRSD are striking. Both involve: Sex Anonymity – everyone’s initial instinct was not to reveal they had the problem. The AIDS community faced up to this with the creation of ACT UP. For PSSD things changed dramatically when the PSSD Network put names and faces to the condition. A
- [Adverse Events Need A Human Touch](https://rxisk.org/adverse-events-need-a-human-touch/) - One of the most dramatic moments in the annals of adverse events was when in 2008 Audrey Bahrick, a psychologist linked to the U of Iowa, contacted her senator, Senator Chuck Grassley, telling him about Post SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD) and asking him to alert FDA to the problem in the hope that something could
- [FDA Responds to Isotretinoin Petiton](https://rxisk.org/fda-responds-to-isotretinoin-petiton/) - Recap Shortly after RxISK was launched in 2012, we began receiving reports and messages from people complaining of persistent sexual dysfunction after stopping isotretinoin, a medication used in the treatment of acne. This was interesting because it seemed to have common elements with post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD) and post-finasteride syndrome (PFS). As a result of
- [ADHD, ASD and Disability Benefits Collide](https://rxisk.org/adhd-asd-and-disability-benefits-collide/) - : This is a tricky talk. ADHD and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are not simple medical disorders. They come with a lot of baggage. There is a video version of the talk here with the slides and text and links to related articles or posts below. You can make all slides below bigger by Clicking
- [Love Actually and Looping Disorders](https://rxisk.org/love-actually-and-looping-disorders/) - None of the psychotropic drugs – SSRIs, antipsychotics - we now have or their clinical effects good or bad have been discovered in/with cohort studies, animal models, brain scans or randomized controlled trials (RCTs). They have been discovered by looking at and listening to people. At the recent Enduring Sexual Dysfunction Congress and
- [Love Making Actually - the science of](https://rxisk.org/love-making-actually-the-science-of/) - Last week’s Enduring Sexual Dysfunctions post opens doors to new ways of thinking about these and other medical conditions but also to big questions such as Why We Fall in Love . Robb Dixon, who was also at the meeting interviewed Will Powers, the guy who at the Congress, in last millennium language, shifted the
- [Enduring Sexual Dysfunction World Congress](https://rxisk.org/enduring-sexual-dysfunction-world-congress/) - Over a few days in late April 2026, Ken Peters, a Professor of Urology in Detroit, chaired a meeting he had organized that pulled together some of the folk most engaged with a set of enduring medicine induced sexual dysfunctions – Post SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD), Post Finasteride Syndrome (PFS) and Post Accutane Syndrome (PAS).
- [Gambling on SSRIs](https://rxisk.org/gambling-on-ssris/) - Is Consent to an SSRI Possible The idea that we had a right to know what our treatment options are and should be able to consent to the option that looks right for us – even if that conflicts with the views of the doctor we are seeing - arose in the 1950s linked to
- [Good Trips on SSRIs](https://rxisk.org/good-trips-on-ssris/) - No Sex - We're on Antidepressants mentions that this series of videos began with a recent gift from Britain's Medicines Regulator - MHRA - and that RxISK is expecting another gift in April. Turns out we are being spoilt for gifts. On March 18, MHRA issued a fabulous new document about transparency. A colleague did
- [Sex, Fertility, France and Serotonin Timeline](https://rxisk.org/sex-fertility-france-and-serotonin-timeline/) - In a recent press conference, Emmanuel Macron said that France faced a Fertility Crisis and needed a Demographic Rearmament - see Liberty, Equality, Fertility. The Timeline below traces an important contribution from the medicines we take to that crisis, left unmentioned in his speech - and the role of an important player, the Industry making
- [No Sex - We're on Antidepressants](https://rxisk.org/no-sex-were-on-antidepressants/) - No Sex Please! (We’re on antidepressants). Based on 17th Century Kama Sutra and Ragamala paintings. © 2014 created by Billiam James. Post SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD) was the first born sexual dysfunction - before its Finasteride and Isotretinoin siblings - Finasteride and Consent - Isotretinoin and Consent. This video and post give you the background
- [Erotic Sensory Shocks](https://rxisk.org/visual-balance-and-erotic-sensory-shocks/) - https://youtube.com/shorts/VPH7U2IdqaY This video reflects a view many doctors have about Visual Snow and in particular a possible link to treatment. Last week's Can Antidepressants Cause Visual Snow Syndrome post hinted at what lies beneath the medical surface. The video came our way when Hannaa, one of the papers authors, mentioned VSS to one of her
- [Bad Trips on SSRIs](https://rxisk.org/bad-trips-on-ssris/) - Britain's Medicines Regulator (MHRA), taking a very similar line to FDA in the United States, EMA in Europe, Health Canada and the TGA in Australia, has recently been trying to extricate itself from a corner into which lawyers crafting pharmaceutical industry strategies have painted all regulators. Pharmaceutical companies write drug labels and are legally obliged
- [Consenting to Isotretinoin and Finasteride Treatment](https://rxisk.org/consenting-to-isotretinoin-and-finasteride-treatment/) - In the Isotretinoin and Consent and the Finasteride and Consent posts we encouraged readers to make their own videos. Our aim was to contrast the BAD Isotretinoin video with something more decent. But lots of those whose lives or families have been badly damaged by isotretinoin or finasteride want something more. They often call for
- [Finasteride and Consent](https://rxisk.org/finasteride-and-consent/) - Finasteride, a treatment for Hair Loss, shares hazards in common with Isotretinoin given for acne. These include Suicide, Sexual, vision, bowel and balance problems and notably sexual, suicidal, visual, balance and bowel problems that can begin after stopping treatment and endure indefinitely. The problems that start on stopping Finasteride are termed Post-Finasteride Syndrome (PFS). PFS
- [Isotretinoin and Consent](https://rxisk.org/isotretinoin-and-consent/) - Isotretinoin and Safety outlines the efforts people disabled by Isotretinoin (Accutane, Claravis) and their families have been making for a decade to get medicines regulators in Britain (MHRA) as well as in Europe (EMA) and America (FDA) to make Isotretinoin use safer. Some of those who have been injured or who have lost children or
- [Who Will Make Medicine Great Again](https://rxisk.org/who-will-make-medicine-great-again/) - Apologies to all readers outside of Britain who may never have heard about The Pirates of Penzance, definitely not The Pirates of the Caribbean. PoP though has a famous song - I am the Very Model of a Modern Major General - featuring a dimwit General who knows everything about everything except military strategy. This post
- [Isotretinoin and Safety - Destiny or Mirage?](https://rxisk.org/isotretinoin-and-safety-destiny-or-mirage/) - On January 22, Britain's Medicines Regulator convened a meeting on consent to Isotretinoin (Accutane, Claravis), whose dynamics map straight onto Prima Facie. Families whose children died from Isotretinoin triggered suicide, or whose sexual function is potentially wiped our forever have clamored for reform for over a decade. In 2023, MHRA rewrote the Rules of Evidence
- [Guilty Until Proven Innocent - Prima Facie](https://rxisk.org/guilty-until-proven-innocent-prima-facie/) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOQ7YsxkVUQ Prima Facie - on the face of it - it is clear who the legally guilty party is - until (perhaps) it is proven otherwise. Prima Facie is a play by Suzie Miller. She tells the story behind it and the changes to the law around sexual assault it has brought about, along with
- [Are HealthCare and Science Compatible?](https://rxisk.org/are-healthcare-and-science-compatible/) - MEDICAL CARE MEDICAL SCIENCE This talk was given at the request of Professor Ilana Crome to healthcare staff and students linked to the UK's Midland's Partnership University on January 12, 2026. Slide 1: In the US, the term medical model translates to a pharmaceutical, model - a giving meds model. The term medical model began
- [Are Diabetes and Depression Linked?](https://rxisk.org/are-diabetes-and-depression-linked/) - This book is also available in English as The Logic of Care but the cover is not as good. By Annemarie Mol, it is an extraordinary book on the meaning of care - making sure, for instance, people with diabetes know to prick the side of their finger, not the pulp which is rich in
- [Treating Narcissistic Doctor Disorder](https://rxisk.org/treating-narcissistic-doctor-disorder/) - Many of Freud's ideas linger with us to this day. A few are disastrously misapplied in some situations but still capable of offering insights in other situations. One of these Janus-Faced ideas was about transference reactions. One day a woman in therapy threw her arms around Sigmund. Rather than reach for the obvious explanation, discombobulated
- [Interoception needs Intrepid Interoceptors](https://rxisk.org/interoception-needs-intrepid-interoceptors/) - This post complements I've Come to Praise SSRIs not to Bury Them as well as Interoception or Neuroplasticity. Ghosts In 1832 the discovery of spinal reflexes initiated a journey that led to a realization that incoming sensations could trigger motor reflexes that could account for ever greater amounts of our behaviour. This was the start
- [The Caste System in Medicine](https://rxisk.org/the-caste-system-in-medicine/) - This post is by Spruce who has been a regular contributor to these columns. It follows from his comments on The Invisible Doctor and it adds to that post which has had a lot of comments since. Humans seem to have a tendency to caste systems but most people would be surprised to think you
- [Can Antidepressants Cause Visual Snow Syndrome?](https://rxisk.org/can-antidepressants-cause-visual-snow-syndrome/) - New article We are pleased to announce the publication of a new peer-reviewed article based on data from RxISK: "Serotonin reuptake inhibiting antidepressants: A trigger for visual snow syndrome?" It can be freely viewed and downloaded. We would be grateful if you could share it as widely as possible. To our knowledge, it is the
- [Authenticity Inc: Telehealth and Influencers](https://rxisk.org/authenticity-inc-telehealth-and-influencers/) - This post is from Johanna Ryan. A post on DH - Artificial I - semi links in. Social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, we are often told, are a portal into the Zeitgeist of today’s young adults. If you want to understand Generation Z (ages 15-30), or their Millennial elder siblings, just dip into
- [A Circular Firing Squad](https://rxisk.org/a-circular-firing-squad/) - Brooke Siem Brooke lives in Reno and featured in a prior Reno meeting organized by David Antonuccio which had Bob Whitaker as the speaker. She had previously met up with Bob and has since done podcasts for Mad in America. When she learnt Kim, Angie, David H and of course David Antonuccio would be in
- [Good Care in Healthcare](https://rxisk.org/good-care-in-healthcare/) - Invited by the Nevada Psychological Association I gave a lecture in Reno on October 4 - see Health, Care and Science. The lecture centered on the death of Woody Witczak on a Zoloft Big Dipper ride and what can be done to save us from a fate like his. Two days later the Southern California
- [Tylenol and Autism, Cause and Effect](https://rxisk.org/tylenol-and-autism-cause-and-effect/) - Shag Rock (Rapanui) at Sumner Christchurch February 2008 Bob Eregli, from Christchurch Library A floodtide of extraordinarily heated opinion pieces has recently swept in and swirled around treasured landmarks in the healthcare landscape – much the way Spring Tides once swept around Shag Rock at the entrance to Christchurch Harbor in New Zealand on which
- [Health News Reviews SSRIs and FDA](https://rxisk.org/health-news-reviews-ssris-and-fda/) - This post needs reading in conjunction with - ideally just before - reading Partnerships in Healthcare on dh.org. Over several decades, most people I know, have, along with me, seen Gary Schwitzer, who runs a Health News Review Substack, as the best reviewer of lay and academic media accounts of health issues. Among Gary's great
- [Epidemiology of Autism Spectrum Disorder](https://rxisk.org/epidemiology-of-autism-spectrum-disorder/) - Epidemiology deals in correlations that are subject to confounding. Think tobacco and lung cancer. Although studies should attempt to account for confounding, confounding can also be exploited to explain away inconvenient data as tobacco company claims that correlations do not prove causation illustrated. This underpinned the famous Doubt is our Product tobacco company strategy, which
- [American Psychiatric Association and FDA](https://rxisk.org/american-psychiatric-association-and-fda/) - See American Psychiatric Association Request for Assistance Dear Commissioner Makary, On behalf of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), the largest medical specialty society representing more than 39,200 physicians who specialize in the treatment of mental illnesses, including substance use disorders, we appreciate the agency’s attention to maternal mental health. However, we are alarmed and concerned
- [Back to the Future of Personal Care](https://rxisk.org/back-to-the-future-of-personal-care/) - This post links to From Just Say No to Getting to Yes. If I prescribe you a medicine, the science starts when you swallow it. The observers at this experiment are you, your family, friends, people you work or live with – and me. Science is said to be based on Show Me not
- [Lonesome Heroes can work Miracles](https://rxisk.org/lonesome-heroes-can-work-miracles/) - Yesterday, the BBC reported that following inquests where older drivers with compromised eyesight have killed pedestrians, and what, possibly thanks to the work of the BBC's Hazel Martin (SSRIs and Alcohol), the British government has called "a catastrophic rise" in deaths linked to alcohol, it has been announced that there will be a tightening of
- [Antidepressants and Pregnancy Adam Urato](https://rxisk.org/antidepressants-and-pregnancy-adam-urato/) - Following the FDA Panel on SSRIs and pregnancy, there have so far been 25 English language US-based media reports and counting. These are reproduced following the UnSafe Safety Systems post. There will likely be more from professional medical groups and medical journals which will be posted after this post. Anything anyone spots would be good
- [Unsafe Safety Systems: SSRIs and Pregnancy](https://rxisk.org/unsafe-safety-systems-ssris-and-pregnancy/) - On behalf of FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, M.D., M.P.H., the FDA is holding a series of roundtable discussions with independent panels of scientific experts that will review the latest scientific evidence, evaluate potential health risks, explore safer alternatives, and may offer recommendations for regulatory action. This initiative is part of the FDA’s broader efforts to apply
- [Pregnancy: Acetaminophen or Paracetamol](https://rxisk.org/pregnancy-acetaminophen-or-paracetamol/) - I took part in a podcast recently at the invitation of John Wilks and Our Birth Journey a group John is linked to. Our conversation is on this link: Antidepressants and Acetaminophen Use During Pregnancy The title says Antidepressants and Acetaminophen (U.S. for Paracetamol). The original invite was to talk about Antidepressants and Pregnancy. The
- [Who Knew Drugs could have Antibodies](https://rxisk.org/who-knew-drugs-could-have-antibodies/) - Is the 60-year battle to conquer the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) in its final phases? Is bronchiolitis about to be banished for ever? The propaganda might lead you to think so. Most developed countries from USA to Australia and Luxembourg to Nicaragua have jumped on the bandwagon and give “free” immunisations with either Pfizer’s maternal
- [Ostriches, Doctors, SSRIs and Tylenol](https://rxisk.org/ostriches-doctors-ssris-and-tylenol/) - In 2023 a new set of Canadian Guidelines for the Management of Alcohol Use Disorders put a serious problem on the radar for doctors that few of them likely expected. See Antidepressants, Alcohol and Anne-Marie. The antidepressants doctors commonly prescribed, often telling people these medicines would help them manage their alcohol issues, were likely causing
- [Withdrawal Syndromes: Lost in Translation](https://rxisk.org/withdrawal-syndromes-lost-in-translation/) - Understanding Antidepressant Withdrawal © Coral Smith 2025 This post by Harriet Vogt follows on from her recent Ruptures in Clinical Care post The members of Shane Cooke and Mary Hennessey’s antidepressant withdrawal peer support group decided there was more to explore together after our first meeting. They wanted to dig deeper into their experiences of protracted
- [Over-Diagnosing or Under-Diagnosing](https://rxisk.org/over-diagnosing-or-under-diagnosing/) - This post follows on from Repairing Ruptures in Clinical Care and the Future of Health App-Ointments. It also links to An Appleby a Day and Tangled up in Bureaucracy. Repairing Ruptures had a lot of comments from Lucy. One of them kicks things off here. Lucy’s Struggle Since waking up to the adverse effects of
- [The Future of Health App-ointments](https://rxisk.org/the-future-of-health-app-ointments/) - Several of the many people who write or track RxISK posts, have had input to this one, which dovetails with Harriet Vogt's post last week Repairing Ruptures in Clinical Care and the work of Shane Cooke and Mary Hennessey in getting health systems to listen to the voices of those harmed by treatment. The post,
- [Repairing Ruptures in Clinical Care](https://rxisk.org/repairing-ruptures-in-clinical-care/) - Better Times Will Return © Josie Russell 2017 This post is by our warzone correspondent Harriet Vogt from frontline trenches. A few weeks ago I was invited to join an online discussion with a group of experts on iatrogenesis who have an in-depth knowledge of antidepressant withdrawal and the risks of polypharmacy. These highly informed,
- [Restoring the Magic to Healthcare](https://rxisk.org/restoring-the-magic-to-healthcare/) - The Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SRI) story starts in 1969 with Arvid Carlsson (above) who created Zelmid, the first SRI, after listening to people on antidepressants. He linked an anxiolytic effect some older drugs have to the serotonin system. The SRIs aimed at exploring that effect - Normality and Antidepressant Dysregulation. Fluoxetine (Prozac). sertraline (Zoloft). paroxetine
- [Akathisia Challenge](https://rxisk.org/akathisia-challenge/) - A post on May 31st on davidhealy.org, The Greatest Failure in What Used to be Called Medicine, and the following post on the Spectre of Dissent, triggered two conversations. One was about the appropriateness of the imagery used. The other was a long conversation initiated by Tim and then developed by Heather about what to
- [Akathisia Anthem](https://rxisk.org/akathisia-anthem/) - A link to the Akathisia Anthem song and video is available on RxISK's Akathisia page. There will be follow up posts on RxISK and DavidHealy over the next two weeks. Akathisia anthem Akathisia, Akathisia You make me wanna Make me wanna Akathisia Thank you doctor for this little pill But the fact of the matter, it’s
- [Assisted Dying: Going Gentle or Not so Gentle](https://rxisk.org/assisted-dying-going-gentle-or-not-so-gentle/) - Assisted dying has become a hot topic. For large parts of human history when people came toward an end, they might have been left in an outhouse by relatives or consigned themselves to a hut in the woods. Children too. When born, Spartan children were taken outside and their hands placed on the eaves of
- [Deciphering the Web We Have Woven](https://rxisk.org/deciphering-the-web-we-have-woven/) - Three people who got in touch recently, one with a problem, one with an idea, and one 'outraged' contributed to this post. The problem and idea illustrate what happens when doctors take Probity Blockers. The outrage tells you almost everything you need to know about the Web we are enmeshed in. Using the problem, idea
- [Deprescribing - Where does Responsibility Lie?](https://rxisk.org/deprescribing-where-does-responsibility-lie/) - This post follows on from last weeks Potentially Inappropriate Deprescribing and has links to this weeks The Creation Narrative and God Complex. It brings up a painfully tricky point. Reducing Medication Burdens is perhaps the most important task in medicine today. Many well-meaning folk are aware of and raising the profile of this need and
- [Did My Doctor Make Me Alcoholic or Substance Abusing](https://rxisk.org/did-my-doctor-make-me-alcoholic-or-substance-abusing/) - AnneMarie Kelly is among the most impressive researchers I have met and I've met Nobel Prize winners like Arvid Carlsson and Julie Axelrod. I have told the story in many venues how she, with no background in healthcare or university research, taught me things about the serotonin system that I, who have a PhD in
- [Withdrawal, PSSD and Cholinergic Drugs](https://rxisk.org/withdrawal-pssd-and-cholinergic-drugs/) - Health Warning I don’t know a great deal about the issues in this post. Experts by Experience and The Marketing of Anticholinergic Maleficence along with Psychotropic Drug Follies will give some feel for the background that makes it difficult to be certain about anything linked to the cholinergic drugs. The Past Present and Future article
- [M. A. D. and Treatment Resistant Depression](https://rxisk.org/m-a-d-and-treatment-resistant-depression/) - MAiD is Medical Assistance in Dying. That little 'in' is doing a lot of work. The recent MAiD in Canada: Treatment Resistant Depression post attracted the following comment from Gus - book28@telus.net - that was just too good to leave as a comment. Let's DisGus Are you people for real? Is this MD for real,
- [Amnesia on Statins](https://rxisk.org/amnesia-on-statins/) - Editorial Note: This is a third post on Statins. The first two were Birth of a Statinista and The Legacy Effects of Statins. This one deals with one of the more complex problems these drugs can cause - cognitive failure. Many people might ask why post a story like this here and court media attention - this is a scientific
- [Skin and Drugs and Sex](https://rxisk.org/skin-and-drugs-and-sex/) - Editorial Note: This post returns to PSSD - post SSRI sexual dysfunction - PRSD - post retinoid sexual dysfunction - PFS - post finasteride sexual dysfunction and PGAD - persistent genital arousal disorder. See our RxISK PSSD page for the many prior posts on these conditions There is also post on davidhealy.org - Khashoggi and
- [Neutered Britain: Sex and Drugs](https://rxisk.org/neutered-britain-sex-and-drugs/) - An article in the BMJ last week triggered a flurry of newspaper interest. Sex is a surefire generator of column inches as it were. Stories appeared in all the major broadsheets. Rather surprisingly I didn't put two and two together until the Daily Mail took the tried and trusted tack of talking about one of
- [Grey Hair, Rotting Teeth, Semi-Blind and Demented](https://rxisk.org/grey-hair-rotting-teeth-semi-blind-and-demented/) - The Human Body is not meant to be taking ‘stuff’ all the time, whether medicines or biohack stuff or whatever. Forget the image of a magic bullet that flies to the one spot where it is needed and causes no collateral damage, every medicine poisons. The trick is to use medicines only when the damage
- [Antidepressant Neuropathy and the Color of Life](https://rxisk.org/antidepressant-neuropathy-and-the-color-of-life/) - Illustration: Is There Life After Meds?, © 2014 created by Billiam James Here is a Question put to the recent RxISK post on Sensory Neuropathy. I’m a psychologist and I have made numerous attempts to discontinue antidepressants only to experience significant withdrawal symptoms. I’ve been on antidepressants for 25 years at this point and have made
- [Harry and Meghan and Narinder](https://rxisk.org/harry-and-meghan-and-narinder/) - Some weeks ago, in Antidepressants and Premature Death RxISK featured an article by Narinder Balsal and colleagues from Bristol in the British Journal of Psychiatry, which caused quite a fuss. See below. Today we are posting about another article by her in PLoS Medicine. This comes with an Animated Trailer - the first RxISK post to
- [New Test to Confirm a PSSD Diagnosis](https://rxisk.org/new-test-to-confirm-a-pssd-diagnosis/) - A 2016 RxISK post discussing how common post-ssri sexual dysfunction (PSSD) might be, highlighted Colpi et al., 1991, and Yilmaz et al., 1999 showing fluoxetine and clomipramine, both serotonin reuptake inhibitors, reduce genital sensation. These studies feature in our 2018 paper: Enduring sexual dysfunction after treatment with antidepressants, 5α-reductase inhibitors and isotretinoin: 300 cases. In
- [Medicine, Civilization and Cradles](https://rxisk.org/the-cradle-of-civilization/) - Hush-a-bye baby on the tree-top, When the wind blows the cradle will rock; When the bough breaks the cradle will fall, Down will come baby, cradle, and all. We face a problem as important or more important than Climate Change - the changing climate in healthcare - see Pharmageddon and Our Healthcare Climate. For a
- [Potentially Inappropriate Deprescribing - PID](https://rxisk.org/potentially-inappropriate-deprescribing-pid/) - This post is linked to An Archipelago of Realities on DH.org. The link may not be clear when you start reading Archipelago but half way down it will be apparent. What is being said on Archipelago about SSRIs applies just as much to benzodiazepines here. Geriatric medicine came into being in the 1980s and with
- [The Fantasies of Psychopharmacology](https://rxisk.org/the-fantasies-of-psychopharmacology/) - This talk was first given at a Medicating Normal Meeting for mental health staff in Lexington Kentucky organized by Geoff Wilson and a few days later in May at the invitation of Don Marks to a group of clinical psychologists in Kean University New Jersey. I'm hoping it will lead to feedback from both groups
- [Ondine's Curse: Can't Live With or Without](https://rxisk.org/ondines-curse-cant-live-with-or-without/) - Ondine's Curse links closely to Balancing our Bodies and next week's Juggling our Selves. Ondine’s Curse sounds like a Greek Myths. Its not. The story began taking shape a few hundred years ago and has been elaborated ever since - ending up featuring in The Little Mermaid and other stories. The standard version is that
- [Detached Retina Triggered by Antidepressant](https://rxisk.org/detached-retina-triggered-by-antidepressant/) - This post is from an American Veteran who was given Zoloft for PTSD. The trials that brought Zoloft on the market for PTSD were negative for men. It only got a license because there were some marginal benefits in women in the trial. It has always been worrying to see troops returning from war zones
- [Experts by Experience and Nobel Prizes](https://rxisk.org/experts-by-experience-and-nobel-prizes/) - In the mid-1980s, I gave a very nice man, an in-patient, weekend leave. He hung himself. Everyone was shocked. The drug I’d put him on was the trigger to his suicide. Soon after, a medical resident called me to a case she was handling. She seemed exceptionally impressive, so I was surprised to hear
- [Silencing Doctors Silencing Safety](https://rxisk.org/silencing-doctors-silencing-safety/) - This post runs hand in hand with Women and Children First by Peter Selley. Both posts link to a BMJ Consent Article and Vaccine contre la bronchiolite: Pfizer Essais en zone d'ombre by Ariane Denoyel for Blast, a French investigative journalism unit. Peter Selley first contacted me in April 2020. As I now know Peter
- [Everything's in Hand: Isotretinoin and the Usual Guff](https://rxisk.org/everythings-in-hand-isotretinoin-and-the-usual-guff/) - Niks aan de Hand - Nothing out of hand. This item has just appeared in the BMJ: An expert group has been reconvened to review recent safety data relating to the acne drug isotretinoin (Roaccutane) and evaluate the risk of sexual and psychiatric adverse effects, including suicide. The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency’s isotretinoin
- [Obedience Pills](https://rxisk.org/obedience-pills/) - Samizdat has just published Patrick Hahn’s Obedience Pills, a book that reviews the ADHD scene from its origins in the US to its current bloated stimulants-in-the-drinking-water state and the extension of the ADHD franchise to other countries. Like Patrick’s Prescription for Sorrow, Obedience Pills makes no excuses for grabbing people by the throat, pinning them
- [When Asthma leads to Suicide or Homicide](https://rxisk.org/when-asthma-leads-to-suicide-or-homicide/) - It seems like it's all happening in Wales at the moment. Wales Online last week reported on two children who developed suicidal behaviour and change of personalities on montelukast - Singulair. It was two mother who pieced the story together in the case of their children and confirmed the link to the drug by
- [Catch San Marino if you Can](https://rxisk.org/catch-san-marino-if-you-can/) - There have been some major developments on the RxISK Prize front. First we are hovering around the $66,666 point – depending on how exchange rates go we may be wandering back and forth over this line as I write. More important however is that San Marino has raced out in front as the donor leading
- [Flox-Tox; Guerilla Guide](https://rxisk.org/flox-tox-guerilla-guide/) - Editorial Note: Twenty-five years ago, Diane Fried took Floxin, a fluoroquinolone antibiotic and a predecessor of Levaquin and Cipro, and was severely damaged as a consequence, leading her husband to write Bitter Pills. Three years ago we featured two posts on fluoroquinolone antibiotic problems. We have also featured posts on the closely related Lariam - mefloquine
- [Juggling Our Selves and Our Bodies](https://rxisk.org/juggling-our-selves-and-our-bodies/) - Illustration: Juggling Act © 2020 created by Niki McQueen Balance in Balancing Our Bodies and Our Selves and Juggling or coordinating Our Selves and Our Bodies are closely linked. Life is a Tightrope Walk and Paul Klee's Tightrope Walker, emphatically concerned with his balance, features in Balancing. Once spotted Niki McQueen's extraordinary Juggling Act had
- [Visual Snow: A Looming Epidemic](https://rxisk.org/visual-snow-a-looming-epidemic/) - There have been multiple RxISK posts on visual problems linked to SSRI use, starting a decade ago with Keeping an Eye on the Ball and most recently Visual Snow Protocol and New Study of Antidepressants and Vision Problems. Visual Snow can be episodic linked to migraine, or continuously present when triggered by antidepressants. When visual
- [Fake News and the Great Purple Pill](https://rxisk.org/fake-news-and-the-great-purple-pill/) - Editorial: This post by Johanna Ryan is one of several that will pick up on the Fake News theme. But we also want anyone who has PPI stories to get in touch. And to pick up Dee Mangin's legacy prescribing issue, do PPIs lead to SSRI use or is it the other way around? There
- [Ketamine: What's God got to do with it?](https://rxisk.org/ketamine-whats-god-got-to-do-with-it/) - The fuss about ketamine has generated interest in where it has come from. There were probably multiple beginnings. One was with Stan Grof, who moved from Prague to Baltimore in 1967. His interest in therapy led him to a focus on early life experience. This stemmed from work with LSD and psilocybin in the 1950s
- [Dennis the Menace gets Covid](https://rxisk.org/dennis-the-menace-gets-covid/) - Last March when the world was locking down for the first time in response to Covid, Joan-Ramon Laporte primarily, with me tagging along, wrote a short piece on polypharmacy as a possible hazard for older people, especially those in residential or care homes. Everybody was looking for the drug that might provide a miracle cure
- [Five Minutes to Midnight](https://rxisk.org/five-minutes-to-midnight/) - See Taper MD In 2016 life expectancy in the United States fell for a second year in a row. This was the first time anything like this had happened apart from a brief flatlining for men around 1962 we now know was linked to tobacco use. In 1962 the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) put
- [Hope, Hype, Consent and Alzheimer's](https://rxisk.org/hope-hype-consent-and-alzheimers/) - By Johanna Ryan A recent New York Times article told the troubling story of two women who died in a clinical trial of a new Alzheimer’s drug. Jean and Genna One in particular stayed on my mind. Her name was Jean Terrien, and she was just about my age. Like me, she lived in the
- [SNOMED, Your Doctor and You - Having an Impact](https://rxisk.org/snomed-your-doctor-and-you-having-an-impact/) - This post is about you who read it, and the ten of us or so who have helped write it, having an impact on the system. Modern healthcare is very disempowering. The arrangement that makes some medicines Prescription-Only began life as a police function and unfortunately many of us consulting a doctor can feel knee-high
- [Antidepressant Withdrawal: Avoid Doctors?](https://rxisk.org/antidepressant-withdrawal-avoid-doctors/) - Antidepressant Withdrawal and Dependence is one of the greatest public health crises of our time. Ed White has recently featured in the UK recounting his experiences he drifting into dependence on antidepressants and finding that the people best placed to help him and you were others in same position supporting each other through groups on
- [Antidepressants: Education and Disability Certificates](https://rxisk.org/antidepressants-education-and-disability-certificates/) - This post covers difficulties primarily on antidepressants that medicines can cause to people in schools or universities who end up unable to study or do course-work, as well as the difficulties people can have trying to get off medicines, a process that can be pretty disabling. The materials linked to this post are being put
- [The Long Awaited PSSD Research Breakthrough?](https://rxisk.org/the-long-awaited-pssd-research-breakthrough/) - This image is from an extraordinary blog which tells you how to sex your mouse Breakthrough? Most of the good ideas that RxISK has featured linked to the enduring sexual dysfunctions, whether PSSD, PRSD, PFS and PGAD, and in terms of other problems, have come from readers of these posts. Several readers have stood out
- [Getting Off Proton Pump Inhibitors](https://rxisk.org/getting-off-proton-pump-inhibitors/) - I would like to describe my experiences with Omeprazole / Esomeprazole to warn others of the ease with which it is possible to become hooked on this medicine, or other so called Proton Pump Inhibitors PPIs. To start with here is an explanation of these drugs that could have saved me about 9 months
- [Mandated Harms: The Day of the Dead](https://rxisk.org/mandated-harms-the-day-of-the-dead/) - Tens of thousands of people have been killed or badly injured by Covid vaccines. I have had the privilege to meet and assess over ten of the injured in the last two weeks, thanks to Bri Dressen. On November 2, the Day of the Dead, in the Capitol, Bri, along with Senator Ron Johnson, and
- [A Medical Triumph SSRIs and Alcohol](https://rxisk.org/a-medical-triumph-that-took-a-decade/) - Over the last decade David Healy.org and RxISK.org have both featured a series of posts about SSRIs and alcoholism and about Anne Marie Kelly. There has been Out of my Mind Driven to Drink and related posts, Petra's Story and Every Drink Spiked on DavidHealy as well as Driven to Drink: Antidepressants and Craving for
- [Could your Stimulant or Antidepressant cause Dementia?](https://rxisk.org/could-your-stimulant-or-antidepressant-cause-dementia/) - Quixotic Challenge A few years ago, a friend, Alan Baumeister, embarked on an interesting journey. Alan had been Head of Psychology in Louisiana State University. He has been actively involved in the history of the mental health field and psychological inputs to it for a long time. Louisiana is the state that hosted Robert Heath
- [What's Sex Got to Do with It](https://rxisk.org/whats-sex-got-to-do-with-it/) - This post gives the text of an article that has just been published online in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine - see Here. Another version of the material is in video form - Antidepressants and Sex: a Strange Story. Background In June 2019, in response to a petition, the European Medicines Agency
- [Disaster Sex Yes, No Sex Disaster](https://rxisk.org/disaster-sex-yes-no-sex-disaster/) - Disaster Sex is a well-known phenomenon. But Apocalyptic Sex - who knows. Hopefully the last journalist left will leave a story behind. Will it be racy and pacey or much ado about nothing? Following Emmanuel Macron's recent Press Conference about the Fertility Disaster facing France and our posts - Liberty Equality and Fertility - Sex,
- [Treatment Complications: Good Expert Needed](https://rxisk.org/treatment-complications-good-expert-needed/) - I recently had a request for input on akathisia and withdrawal related issues that for some reason charmed me into responding. The back and forth however began to sink into a quicksand that can put me off responding. There is an old aphorism about experts – a true expert is s/he who knows how little
- [MHRA Adopts Code for Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction](https://rxisk.org/mhra-adopts-code-for-post-ssri-sexual-dysfunction/) - A longstanding problem for people with post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD) when trying to report their condition to drug regulators has been the absence of a code for PSSD. When regulators receive adverse event reports, they are coded against specific terms in their database which are usually taken from the Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA).
- [The Mysteries of Tapering - XX Rated](https://rxisk.org/the-mysteries-of-tapering-xx-rated/) - A woman on lamotrigine, a drug I never give anyone because of its withdrawal and other problems, recently came my way. She had been tapering for a long-time partly because lamotrigine can be a nasty drug to stop but primarily because her lamotrigine support group were firm Hyperbolic believers. An extraordinary number of people, primarily
- [Getting a Juggernaut to Stop and Think](https://rxisk.org/getting-a-juggernaut-to-stop-and-think/) - Seeing people make a difference is among the the great things about being linked to RxISK. One of those is Anne-Marie Kelly, celebrated here before, of whom more below. But first, Peter Selley. Over the last two years and more but especially in the last 18 months, Peter has been working on RSV vaccines and
- [Embracing Healthcare's Opportunities](https://rxisk.org/embracing-healthcares-opportunities/) - Up to 1980, the pharmaceutical industry was small beer. Most of the companies had recently demerged from chemical companies, and were hiring management consultants to help them work out how to do the job. A steady stream of life-saving drugs from the 1940s to 1960s that people and health services were willing to buy at
- [It is Hard for Thee to Kick Against the Pricks](https://rxisk.org/it-is-hard-for-thee-to-kick-against-the-pricks/) - The title of this post by Peter Selley comes from the Acts of the Apostles. It captures the moment where the Divine is advising Paul to stop persecuting Christians. Acts 9:5 (KJV). An if you can't beat them, why not join them moment. The words lend themselves to the situation of anyone attempting to grapple
- [No One Expects the Reformation](https://rxisk.org/no-one-expects-the-reformation/) - The title of this post borrows a famous line from Monty Python: No one expects the Spanish Inquisition This is an advance notice of things to come rather than a post per se. To get a sense of the things to come, it is worth reading the Antidepressants, Homicide and a Challenge post and the
- [Antidepressants, Homicide and a Challenge](https://rxisk.org/antidepressants-homicide-and-a-challenge/) - This post follows a Mad in America Webinar about Antidepressant Dysregulation Syndromes, which was built on the research done by people on these meds. Antidepressant linked Automatism Spectrum Disorders is also built entirely on reports from those who have been taking these medicines. You will hear some extraordinary things few people know about. We need
- [Antidotes for Akathisia and Dysregulation](https://rxisk.org/antidotes-for-akathisia-and-dysregulation/) - A recent Mad in America Webinar on Antidepressant Dysregulation Syndromes introduced the idea that tapering might not be the only way to solve some of the problems SSRI antidepressants can cause. Tapering supporters give the impression tapering is the only legitimate way to go, leaving little or no room for the possibility that antidotes might
- [New Article about PSSD Epidemiology](https://rxisk.org/new-article-about-pssd-epidemiology/) - We are pleased to announce the publication of “Post-SSRI sexual dysfunction: barriers to quantifying incidence and prevalence” in Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences. The journal was an ideal fit for the article, so we’re pleased that they not only accepted it for publication but also made it an editorial and freely available. RxISK first explored the
- [The Handmaid's Vaccine](https://rxisk.org/the-handmaids-vaccine/) - This post is a companion to Where Does the Misinformation Come From? on DH.org, which gives the slides and text of a lecture on Monday evening. Norman Fenton asked me to give the talk to a group that is neither pro nor anti vaccines or drugs but were all interested in how we go about
- [Is Your Treatment Making You Suicidal?](https://rxisk.org/is-your-treatment-making-you-suicidal/) - This post links to a RxISK Reducing the Risk of Treatment Induced Suicide Resource. The immediate idea for this Resource came from an article by Katinka Newman on the Downward Spiral many prescription drugs can cause. Five years ago RxISK posted lists of drugs that can cause a downward spiral. Three years ago a mother
- [Madness, Normality and Antidepressant Dysregulation](https://rxisk.org/madness-normality-and-antidepressant-dysregulation/) - Some weeks ago, Bob Whitaker asked me to do a Mad in America Continuing Education Webinar on the problems stopping Antidepressants. The talk with discussion is here Stopping Antidepressants and responses to points raised will be followed up in forthcoming posts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIlk1My4ZgQ I prerecorded the talk in case of disaster as Tapering Antidepressants which
- [The Seductive Charm of Pharmacology](https://rxisk.org/the-seductive-charm-of-pharmacology/) - The Post-Finasteride Syndrome Foundation has done great work for over a decade raising the profile of the sexual dysfunction that finasteride (Propecia) can cause - Post-Finasteride Syndrome - and more recently the suicidal effects this drug can have. The clear similarities between the difficulties triggered by Finasteride/Propecia, Isotretinoin/Accutane and SSRIs often tantalising glimpses of routes toward
- [Where is the Great Light that is Supposed to Shine?](https://rxisk.org/where-is-the-great-light-that-is-supposed-to-shine/) - Around the time Bob Whitaker asked me to do a Webinar on Stopping Antidepressants, K filed a RxISK Report on her efforts to get off Prozac. Like many Reports, in her case it seemed clear she should never have been put in the situation she is now in - she didn't have a mental illness.
- [Serotonin Systems, Gut Systems and Gravity](https://rxisk.org/serotonin-systems-gut-systems-and-gravity/) - Young folk are probably less likely to read a post about bowel problems on meds because their bowels generally work without a hitch. They haven't had to learn to accommodate to the loss of elasticity that comes with age, which can make Gravity Feed an instantly recognizable concept for older people, especially when on meds.
- [Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction and Protracted Withdrawal Syndromes](https://rxisk.org/post-ssri-sexual-dysfunction-and-protracted-withdrawal-syndromes/) - Escaping the Hell of Protracted Withdrawal Syndrome by Thomas Staczewski is a well written post on Mad in America this week. TS's post links to an attractive Protracted Withdrawal Syndrome website he has, that has eye-catching imagery of brains. The bit, however, that really caught my eye was a suggestion - not quite an outright
- [Complex Sensory Imbalances: New Remedies](https://rxisk.org/complex-sensory-imbalances-new-remedies/) - In the Beginning The sulfonamides transformed medicine in the 1930s. They were the first effective antibiotics and they gave rise to the first diuretics, antihypertensives and hypoglycemics. The latest medical miracle, Semaglutide – Novo-Nordisk’s Ozempic - is touted not just as an effective hypoglycemic (anti-diabetic) medicine but also a Holy Grail drug that licensed
- [Vision Weird, Vision Blurred and Visual Snow](https://rxisk.org/vision-weird-vision-blurred-and-visual-snow/) - If you look carefully at the blue sky in mid-picture between the clouds, you will a bunch of wispy white threads. They look like they are wisps of cloud and are up in the sky and they are often best seen against a blue background but they aren't cloud wisps - they are in the
- [Visual Snow, Visual Blur, Visual Weird](https://rxisk.org/visual-snow-visual-blur-visual-weird/) - Last week's post on Antidepressants and Retinal Detachment has generated a lot of very interesting comments. There will be another post on vision issues after this one - probably called Vision Weird. Serotonin reuptake inhibiting antidepressants can cause a range of problems on starting that continue or sometimes only appear on stopping. These include visual,
- [Breaking the Word of Promise to our Hope](https://rxisk.org/breaking-the-word-of-promise-to-our-hope/) - Be these juggling fiends no more believed, That palter with us in a double sense; That keep the word of promise to our ear, And break it to our hope. William Shakespeare: Macbeth A storm blew up just over a week ago with a Lancet article on antidepressant dependence and withdrawal. Based on company studies, this article
- [Challenging My Doctor to Disclose](https://rxisk.org/challenging-my-doctor-to-disclose/) - This recently published US strategy on Suicide Prevention epitomizes all that is going wrong in medicine today. It is stuffed full of references to Shared Decision Making, Informed Consent and Lived Experience. Stuffed full of token words, window-dressing, tick-boxing. It will increase rather than reduce suicide rates. It is clear that the people behind this,
- [FDA Sued for Failing to Act on RxISK’s Petition](https://rxisk.org/fda-sued-for-failing-to-act-on-rxisks-petition/) - In February 2018, we began work on a petition requesting warnings about post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD) and persistent genital arousal disorder (PGAD) to be added to SSRI and SNRI antidepressants. The academic literature on these conditions had been steadily increasing, and our latest case series on persistent sexual dysfunctions had just been accepted for publication
- [Sudden Cardiac Death: Jeannie's Story](https://rxisk.org/sudden-cardiac-death-jeannies-story/) - Editorial Note: This RxISK story written by Jeannie's mother records a growing epidemic of sudden unexplained cardiac deaths. These are linked to the effects of a range of drugs on the cardiac QTc interval. There is considerable evidence that pharmaceutical companies have known about these risks for years and sometimes before drugs like citalopram are marketed.
- [We Are the Ninety-Nine Percent](https://rxisk.org/we-are-the-ninety-nine-percent/) - Editorial Note: This is a Coda to the four posts on davidhealy.org about Sense about Science and AllTrials - Follow the Rhetoric, First Admit no Harm, Follow the Lawsuit and Follow the Patient. It's running here because it attempts to lay out some of the principles behind RxISK. The last post ended on this note: Over 18 months ago, RxISK
- [Balancing Our Bodies and Our Selves](https://rxisk.org/balancing-our-bodies-and-our-selves/) - Thanks to R who helped trigger this important RxISK post and some doctoring. . In July 2023, RxISK ran a post, written by R, giving an account of her Persistent Postural Perceptual Dizziness. PPPD was new to us. R had been in regular contact for a decade because of protracted withdrawal problems. Her problems came
- [Teresa Heartchild and World Down's Syndrome Day](https://rxisk.org/teresa-heartchild-and-world-downs-syndrome-day/) - World Down's Syndrome was last week and we missed it. But it's still worth noting as RxISK has a link to it through Teresa Heartchild along with Bill and Franke James. We have had a number of posts on RxISK about Teresa - Quality of Care and Human Rights should be for Everyone. There are
- [For Every Matter under Heaven, there is a Season](https://rxisk.org/for-every-matter-under-heaven-there-is-a-season/) - This post is by Peter Selley, - a doctor and RSV research trail blazer. 'Tis the season to be jolly. In the Northern hemisphere the dreadful RSV season is drawing to a close: man- and womankind can now relax. But over the next few weeks “experts” in Europe and elsewhere will begin planning for the
- [Transferring the Prize to the Research Fund](https://rxisk.org/transferring-the-prize-to-the-research-fund/) - The RxISK Prize was launched on September 12, 2017. It was a campaign to raise $100,000 USD which would be offered as a prize to anyone who could provide a cure for post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD), post-finasteride syndrome (PFS), or post-retinoid sexual dysfunction (PRSD). The possibility of a research fund had been considered, but despite
- [Sex, Death and the Royal College of Psychiatrists](https://rxisk.org/sex-death-and-the-royal-college-of-psychiatrists/) - The Guardian just ran an article on PSSD - It feels like we've been lobotomized. The following day they surprisingly had two articles on Singulair - Montelukast - hazards Safety fears over asthma drug after young children suffer severe side effect and A healthy kid dies and there has been no change’. For a paper
- [Fertility, the Moon and the Military](https://rxisk.org/fertility-the-moon-and-the-military/) - For Millennia, the Moon has been linked to Fertility, Healing and Creativity. It was the Goddess for Fertility. None of our ancestors, however, had to wonder if a Robot on the moon might have implications for Fertility. If you think last week's Lunar Landing of an Intuitive Machine Robot could have nothing to with Fertility
- [Fertility and Desire](https://rxisk.org/fertility-and-desire/) - Recent posts on RxISK and davidhealy.org have covered Fertility and heralded the forthcoming birth of a Fertility Zone. On RxISK Uterine Roulette and Consent No Room at the Inn Medicine, Civilization and Cradles Sex, Fertility, France and Serotonin Timeline Disaster Sex Yes, No Sex Disaster On DH Has Healthcare Gone Mad Pharmageddon and Fertility Pharmageddon
- [Why Shrink Yourself to Better than Well?](https://rxisk.org/why-shrink-yourself-to-better-than-well/) - This post is by Harriet Vogt. Emmanuel Macron’s recent political right turn towards ‘Old France’ includes a renewed focus on stimulating French reproduction – a ‘réarmement démographique’. Free fertility checks for 25 year olds, and funding for research into ‘bodily chemicals than can hinder fertility’. Not, of course, the pharmaceutical chemicals that most IVF clinics
- [Lonesome Heroines, Forgotten Women and Consent](https://rxisk.org/lonesome-heroines-forgotten-women-and-consent/) - This post needs reading along with Silent Health and Silencing Safety. The Forgotten Woman in Silent Health is the Lonesome Heroine here. Informed Consent Someone, seriously injured by a medicine he had taken, got in touch this week asking if it was possible to take an action against his doctor or in some way get
- [Polypharmacy: When is enough, enough?](https://rxisk.org/too-many-drugs/) - Could you be on too many drugs? by Dr. Derelie (Dee) Mangin David Braley and Nancy Gordon Chair in Family Medicine, McMaster University The scenario is familiar: you or your mother or father has multiple pills to take at multiple times of the day. A pillbox called a dosette may be used to try and reduce the
- [Sudoscan Saga & Propecia/Finasteride Survey](https://rxisk.org/sudoscan-saga-propecia-finasteride-survey/) - Sudoscan Several months ago, we became aware of a device called Sudoscan made by Impeto Medical, based in Paris. It’s mainly used to assess peripheral neuropathy in the hands and feet. But the company also have a special adaptor for Sudoscan that has been used to test genital function and found disturbances where other tests
- [Ghosts in the Clinical Trial Machine](https://rxisk.org/ghosts-in-the-clinical-trial-machine/) - This is the first part of a two part series on clinical trial fraud from Johanna Ryan, with part 2 next week. Jo is RxISK's clinical trial and shoddy clinical practice sleuth - see The Maintenance Man. Recently the U.S. Department of Justice called attention to a small but worrisome crime wave. Health care fraud
- [Wikipedia Stumbles: Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction](https://rxisk.org/post-ssri-sexual-dysfunction-pssd-wikipedia-stumbles/) - Editorial Note: There was until recently a Wikipedia post on Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD), which helped put this condition on the map. On January 27 it was taken down. We reproduce the original post here and in a post tomorrow we will give the debate surrounding its removal. See our main PSSD page for more information
- [PSSD - One Hundred and Twenty Cases](https://rxisk.org/pssd-one-hundred-and-twenty-cases/) - Delete - Delete! No sooner was the original Wikipedia PSSD page restored that it attracted an extermination notice from the Wikipedia Daleks. The original page may or may not still be here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_SSRI_Sexual_Dysfunction_(PSSD). In Wikipedia Editor Inserts Foot in Mouth on Monday, we called on people to consider hosting Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, Spanish, Dutch and
- [Go Ask Alice](https://rxisk.org/go-ask-alice/) - Editorial Note: RxISK is all about people discovering things for themselves and alerting others to something that can make a real difference. There have been some wonderful examples outlined in posts here on RxISK from Anne-Marie Kelly’s discovery of a cure for alcoholism – stop your SSRI and perhaps try a serotonin-3 antagonist like mianserin or ondansetron
- [Post Minoxidil Syndrome](https://rxisk.org/post-minoxidil-syndrome/) - Greetings all, I want to thank RxISK for presenting this opportunity for me to share my experience with this drug and my persisting side effects from it. It all started in April 2021, I was an insecure eighteen year-old Canadian guy slowly losing his hair like many others out there. Desperate for a cure, I
- [A New RxISK for a New Year](https://rxisk.org/a-new-rxisk-for-a-new-year/) - Our New Year’s resolution is to strengthen and expand RxISK.org. We want the website to reach more people who have problems or questions about their prescription drugs, and to offer them more resources. Even more important, we want to expand its role as a hub for you to share information about you experiences, hopefully
- [The Insomnia Diaries](https://rxisk.org/the-insomnia-diaries/) - Insomnia is a huge problem. Insomnia triggered by the drugs supposed to treat it is another huge problem. A RxISK post featuring enduring sleep difficulties after antidepressants has been very heavily accessed and commented on. Miranda Levy puts all three sleep problems in the frame in a way that all too many will recognize. Eight
- [Wikipedia Editor Inserts Foot in Mouth](https://rxisk.org/wikipedia-editor-inserts-foot-in-mouth/) - Editorial Note: This is the first of several posts about Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD) over the next two weeks on RxISK. This post coincides with the restoration of the Wikipedia PSSD Page which was taken down earlier this year. We reposted the page on RxISK and outlined the controversy surrounding its removal. The restored Wikipedia page, within
- [RxISK Map: Relationship Based Medicine](https://rxisk.org/rxisk-map-relationship-based-medicine/) - Editorial Note: This is the third in a RxISK Map series of posts - See Reformation Day and Here We Stand. These link closely to the RxISK Prize. There are two aspects to finding a cure for an adverse event. One is understanding the biology. The other is getting it established that the effect happens.
- [RxISK Drug Safety Petition](https://rxisk.org/rxisk-drug-safety-petition/) - The RxISK Drug Safety Petition has been translated into 19 different languages. Click on the links below to view: ARABIC - إن سلامة الأدوية لا تكون سرا تجاريا BOSNIAN - Hocemo pristup farmaceutskim podacima o lijeku! CHINESE - 让我们看到药物数据！药物的毒害性不是”商业机密“。 CZECH - Zveřejněte údaje o lécích! Riziko jejich užívání není obchodním tajemstvím DUTCH - RxISK.org heeft een
- [Twas the NICE before Christmas.](https://rxisk.org/twas-the-nice-before-christmas/) - To the Sounds of a Drum © Nina Otulakowski November 2022 This letter, which has had no response, needs to be read in conjunction with Can you Hear the Suzerain Call? Letter to Dr S Roberts, CEO, Ms Nebhrajani, Chair, NICE November 30 2022 Dear Drs Roberts and Ms. Nebhrajani I wrote to your predecessors
- [Asexuality: A Curious Parallel](https://rxisk.org/asexuality-a-curious-parallel/) - Editorial Note: This post is by James Bennett who is organizing RxISK research on PSSD. In the last two decades there has been an explosion in the number of children being prescribed a range of drugs including antidepressants, antipsychotics and stimulants. There is also a dramatic increase in the number of children exposed to these
- [Drugs & Sex & Fertility - and SSRIs](https://rxisk.org/drugs-sex-fertility-and-ssris/) - Our Love Life Needs You © Nina Otulakowski August 2022 This post calls on everyone, male or female, currently or previously taking any drug who thinks that a drug may have impacted on their fertility. Fertility should be of interest to anyone taking serotonin reuptake inhibiting drugs - SSRIs, SNRIs, tricyclics, antihistamines, antibiotics, analgesics and
- [Tales of an Unexpected Gallbladder](https://rxisk.org/tales-of-an-unexpected-gallbladder/) - This post was written by Shane Cooke's mother Mary. There have been developments since - see below. I used to really enjoy Tales of the Unexpected by Roald Dall when they were first broadcast on television. Each was a complete story with a twist in its tail – usually a most unexpected twist. They seem
- [Can Antidepressants Make You Less Attractive?](https://rxisk.org/can-antidepressants-make-you-less-attractive/) - In recent years, there has been increasing concern about the problem of antidepressants finding their way into the environment. These drugs aren't fully absorbed by the body and are present in human waste. Small concentrations are then flowing into rivers via wastewater treatment facilities where wildlife can be affected. In August 2018, several media outlets reported
- [Side Effexor Withdrawal](https://rxisk.org/side-effexor-withdrawal/) - About 12 years ago I was diagnosed with mild depression and prescribed 75 mg effexor. I did achieve relief from my symptoms on this dose. Later, maybe a few years, my dose was increased to 150 mg when my job became more stressful. There was no discussion about duration of treatment. I used to be
- [Empathy for Drug Induced Injuries](https://rxisk.org/empathy-for-drug-induced-injuries/) - 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
- [Uterine Roulette and Consent](https://rxisk.org/uterine-roulette-and-consent/) - This post continues with the Lonesome Heroines theme - Consent. It needs reading in conjunction with Peter Selley's Coming Clean on Neonatal Deaths. The fact these posts deal with vaccines is semi-irrelevant - they are about a development model, a playbook, set up with SSRIs that industry now apply across all products. Our Bodies, Ourselves,
- [Antidepressant Withdrawal: A Prozac Story](https://rxisk.org/antidepressant-withdrawal-a-prozac-story/) - Editorial Note: Over two years ago we posted Antidepressant Withdrawal: V's story. It has close to 100 comments making it one of the topics that has attracted the most interest. Right now the New York Times is running a series on Breaking up with my Meds that is attracting a lot of comment. This is
- [Azathioprine Withdrawal](https://rxisk.org/azathioprine-withdrawal/) - This post was written by Ken Spriggs and comes from his DIYEHR (do it yourself electronic health record) site. It brings out nicely how some people are only aware of the problems their drug causes when they stop. This is particularly true for people taking statins, but can be found taking anything from aspirin to azathioprine.
- [Going on Depakote](https://rxisk.org/going-on-depakote/) - Beginnings Childhoods are difficult to remember in detail. My first few memories were about the age of 2 1/2, maybe 3. I had chickenpox and I got an encephalitis. I didn't know that this is what it was until years later, when I became a medical provider. My experience was that I visually hallucinated (the
- [Stevie's Story: Beware Osteoporosis Drugs](https://rxisk.org/stevies-story-beware-osteoporosis-drugs/) - Editorial Note: We want any accounts of adverse or interesting events on drugs or new uses for drugs from people on them - or doctors, pharmacists or others trying to manage the effects of drugs. We would be very interested in accounts of what happens when people take RxISK reports to doctors. I thought that
- [Mentally Hijacked by Doxycycline](https://rxisk.org/mentally-hijacked-by-doxycyline/) - There are several previous posts on this topic - Doxycycline causes Suicide and Suicide is Painless and becoming suicidal on an antibiotic. None of them give as compelling a picture of what the problem is like from the inside as this letter that came to RxISK some months ago. A Life in Good Shape I
- [Antidepressants and Dental Problems](https://rxisk.org/antidepressants-and-dental-problems/) - The issue of dental problems linked to medications has previously been discussed on the blog. “After the rot sets in” told the story of someone on the antipsychotic olanzapine who developed crumbling and rotting teeth. “Can antidepressants make you less attractive” touched upon dental problems linked to antidepressants. “Gray Hair, Rotting Teeth, Semi-Blind and Demented”
- [One Story to Rule them all: From Prozac to Abilify](https://rxisk.org/one-story-to-rule-them-all-from-prozac-to-abilify/) - Paul John Scott's review of : Prescription for Sorrow: Antidepressants, Suicide and Violence by Patrick D. Hahn (Samizdat Health. Available in Print or Kindle ) Prozac, arguably the most famous drug of our lifetimes, was never approved for sale. Rather, Prozac when combined with anti-anxiety medication was approved for sale. In an unpromising design that seems so very much
- [Our Love Life Needs You to be Wiked](https://rxisk.org/our-love-life-needs-you-to-be-wiked/) - Our Love Life Needs You © Nina Otulakowski August 2022 RxISK regularly gets enquiries about what can be done to find an answer to the sexual dysfunctions following SSRIs, Finasteride and Isotretinoin - PSSD, PFS and PRSD. RxISK and Sharks outlined the likely Endgame. This outcome would be terrible - especially as its highly likely
- [We Will Get Fooled Again](https://rxisk.org/we-will-get-fooled-again/) - See We Won't Get Fooled Again. A regular contributor got in touch two days ago, asking a question. I have described all my symptoms to the AI without mentioning PSSD, and chat.openai.com is of the opinion that it's a rebound effect that I'm experiencing. Do you agree? I was too busy to respond A follow up
- [Queen's University PSSD Research Project](https://rxisk.org/queens-university-pssd-research-project/) - Caroline F. Pukall, PhD, CPsych Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Sexual Health (CIHR) Professor, Department of Psychology, Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen's University, Kingston ON K7L 3N6, Canada Email: caroline.pukall@queensu.ca Lab website: https://www.sexlab.ca Twitter: @QSexLab; Instagram: qsexlab; Facebook: /sexlab.ca Editor of Human Sexuality: A Contemporary Introduction Research Seeking participants for an online research study. Participants must be: 18
- [DD and AA Groups Similarities and Differences](https://rxisk.org/dd-and-aa-groups-similarities-and-differences/) - Illustration: Is There Life After Meds?, © 2014 created by Billiam James DD in this case stands for Drug Damaged. AA for Alcoholics Anonymous. Some of the material in this post is likely to disturb some readers. Reading it in conjunction with Here We Stand We Can Do No Other and Dos Centavos - Veinte Euros
- [No Room at the Inn](https://rxisk.org/no-room-at-the-inn/) - This post continues the Silencing Safety, Lonesome Heroines, and Uterine Roulette theme of Consent. It is a twin birth with In Secula Seculorum. The original Xmas was not a peaceful event, nor is this Xmas, and this is not a peaceful post. It hinges on the work of Peter Selley - who is not responsible
- [Facts About FACS (Fetal Anti-Convulsant Syndrome)](https://rxisk.org/facts-about-facs/) - Janet's story I was diagnosed with epilepsy at the age of 14. After trying different drugs my seizures were controlled by a combination of Phenytoin (Epanutin) and Sodium Valproate (Epilim). What they didn’t tell me was that Sodium Valproate carried the highest incidence of birth defects to the unborn baby. In my ignorance I continued
- [DRESS Syndrome: No Way to Treat a Lady](https://rxisk.org/dress-syndrome-no-way-to-treat-a-lady/) - Black out Five minutes into yoga class, my sixteen year old daughter Hannah blacked out. Her face, white as a ghost. When she came to, she said she couldn’t see. Her pulse was almost nothing, and panic set in. I ran to my car to grab my phone and dial the infectious disease doctor Hannah
- [Kidnapped: Natalie's Story](https://rxisk.org/kidnapped-natalies-story/) - Editorial Note: Natalie's story parts 1 and 2 are by her mother Kristina. Natalie, celebrating her tenth birthday in 2003, shortly after being prescribed Prozac. Her left eye was starting to show signs of amblyopia, more commonly called “lazy eye.” This adverse drug reaction worsened and was one of many Natalie suffered from unnecessary prescribing. We
- [Changing a Medical Record 3](https://rxisk.org/changing-a-medical-record-3/) - Editorial Note: This is the third in Krista Hartmann’s 4 parter on changing her medical records. See part 1 and part 2. In the midst of chaos there is opportunity” Sun Tzu By June 2013, during the usual fail-replace-repeat treatment ‘plan’ of the state behavioral health providers, I found myself in the perfect storm of
- [Changing a Medical Record 4](https://rxisk.org/changing-a-medical-record-4/) - Editorial Note: This is the fourth in Krista Hartmann’s 4 parter on changing her medical records. See part 1, part 2 and part 3. On Becoming an Articulate Hand-Grenade Psychiatric strategy and tactics are based on faith-healing, replete with speaking in tongues (language), fortune telling (promises of happiness), and snake oil (drugs). Their model is
- [Changing a Medical Record 2](https://rxisk.org/changing-a-medical-record-2/) - Editorial Note: This is the second in Krista Hartmann's 4 parter on changing her medical records. See part 1, Unicorn. "What the mind doesn’t understand, it worships or fears”. Alice Walker When I encountered the psychiatric industry in 2004, I was a 53- year-old, sun-surf-beach chasing artist with a solid education and middle-class origins. I
- [Changing your Record](https://rxisk.org/changing-your-record/) - If your doctor wrote in your medical record in the 1940s that you were mentally ill or had a neuropsychiatric disorder, this could have led to sterilization across most of the Western world, or in Germany to elimination. Long before a single Jew was gassed, tens of thousands of lives not worth living were eliminated
- [A Unicorn: Changing a Medical Record](https://rxisk.org/a-unicorn-changing-a-medical-record/) - Editorial: This is the first of four posts by Krista Hartmann I am a real Unicorn, something whose existence is suspect, rarely sighted, and discussed even less…by the psychiatric industry, who are, ironically, my creators. My existence throws a wrench into their meta-narrative; truths inscribed on everlasting stone tablets.... until the next edition of tablets
- [Becoming Suicidal on an Antibiotic](https://rxisk.org/becoming-suicidal-on-an-antibiotic/) - Editorial Note: The last post on Lariam and suicide mentioned an alternate treatment for malaria prophylaxis - doxycycline. Doxycycline is not without its problems. It can cause suicide - Suicide is Painless. It and other tetracycline antibiotics can also cause sexual dysfunction including enduring post-treatment sexual dysfunction - makes you wonder if they also inhibit
- [New Study of Antidepressants and Vision Problems](https://rxisk.org/new-study-of-antidepressants-and-vision-problems/) - The printed version of our new paper “Development and persistence of patient-reported visual problems associated with serotonin reuptake inhibiting antidepressants” has just been published. We couldn’t afford open access, so it would normally only be available to purchase or for subscribers of the journal. However, we've paid a fee of $200 USD which allows us
- [Your skin on drugs – new tool from RxISK.org](https://rxisk.org/your-skin-on-drugs-new-tool-from-rxisk-org/) - [Note: The current version of the Skin and Nails Zone works differently than described below.] Free online tool to research and report prescription drug side effects on skin and nails Toronto, Ontario — RxISK.org, the first free independent website for researching and reporting prescription drug side effects, has just added a Skin Zone to highlight and
- [Is your hair on drugs?](https://rxisk.org/is-your-hair-on-drugs/) - [Note: The current version of the Hair Zone works differently than described below.] Bad hair day — could it be your drugs? Free online tool to check prescription drugs effects on hair RxISK.org, the first free independent website for researching and reporting prescription drug side effects, has just added a Hair Zone to both highlight
- [Could your meds affect your sex life?](https://rxisk.org/could-your-meds-affect-your-sex-life/) - [Note: The current version of the Sex and Relationships Zone works differently than described below.] Free online tool shows possible links between prescription drugs and sex Toronto, Ontario (December 3, 2012) — RxISK.org, the first free independent website for researching and reporting prescription drug side effects, has added a Sex and Relationships Zone to demonstrate
- [Prescription-drug-induced violence medicine's best kept secret?](https://rxisk.org/prescription-drug-induced-violence-medicines-best-kept-secret/) - [Note: The current version of the Violence Zone works differently than described below.] Free online tool shows possible links between prescription drugs and violence Toronto, Ontario (November 12, 2012) — RxISK.org, the first free independent website for researching and reporting prescription drug side effects, has added a Violence Zone to demonstrate and collect data on
- [Could your meds make you suicidal?](https://rxisk.org/could-your-meds-make-you-suicidal/) - [Note: The current version of the Suicide Zone works differently than described below.] Free online tool shows possible links between prescription drugs and suicide Toronto, Ontario (November 19, 2012) — RxISK.org, the first free independent website for researching and reporting prescription drug side effects, has added a Suicide Zone to demonstrate and collect data on
- [RxISK.org – A Megaphone For Patients and Their Doctors to Help Change Drug Safety](https://rxisk.org/rxisk-org-a-megaphone-for-patients-and-their-doctors-to-help-change-drug-safety/) - Free online tool empowers as it informs users about drug side effects Toronto, Ontario (November 5, 2012) — RxISK.org, the first free independent website for researching and reporting drug side effects, is now live. RxISK layers an easy-to-use interface over data from FDA’s MedWatch system, allowing users to search the 4.1 million drug side effect reports
- [Make sure your prescription drug doesn't "spike" your holiday cocktail](https://rxisk.org/make-sure-your-prescription-drug-doesnt-spike-your-holiday-cocktail/) - Website warns revelers about little known drug side effect RxISK.org, the first free independent website for researching and reporting prescription drug side effects, issued a holiday caution today on the use of alcohol and prescription drugs. Did you know that combining an FDA-approved prescription drug with alcohol can put you over the legal limit even though
- [RxISK Forum on Rx drug-induced violence (NYC)](https://rxisk.org/rxisk-forum-on-rx-drug-induced-violence-nyc/) - Are common US prescription medications linked to violence? On Friday January 18, 2013 from 2 to 3pm at the Still Mind Zendo* center in New York City, RxISK.org will be hosting a free public discussion about links between school shootings, other violent acts, and common prescription medications with Dr. David Healy, MD, a world-renowned psychiatrist
- [RxISK asks: Are prescription drugs to blame for school shootings?](https://rxisk.org/rxisk-asks-are-prescription-drugs-to-blame-for-school-shootings/) - Dr. Healy explains how prescription drugs can lead to school shootings RxISK.org, the first free independent website for researching and reporting prescription drug side effects, interviewed Dr. David Healy, co-founder of RxISK.org, on the connection between school shootings and prescription drugs. In the video, Dr. Healy explains how prescription drugs can lead to school shootings,
- [RxISK.org’s Dr. Healy coming to talk to U.S. audiences about deadly prescription drug side effects](https://rxisk.org/rxisk-orgs-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
- [RxISK Announces New Tools to Decipher Drug Company Speak](https://rxisk.org/rxisk-announces-new-tools-to-decipher-drug-company-speak/) - RxISK.org, the first free independent website for researching and reporting prescription drug side effects, is adding two enhancements in the first week of June. Researchers will be able to access patient stories and the official assessment of side effect causality. RxISK stories Narratives shared by patients with their permission and without personal identifiers, will now
- [RxISK Establishes Charitable Funds in US, UK, & Canada](https://rxisk.org/rxisk-establishes-rxisk-charitable-funds-in-us-uk-canada/) - RxISK.org, the first free independent website for researching and reporting prescription drug side effects, has established RxISK Funds in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. Each RxISK Fund is used to support global prescription drug safety. Receipts for US tax purposes, UK, or Canadian purposes are issued for donations. These funds have been established
- [RxISK on track for world record for patient reported side effects](https://rxisk.org/rxisk-on-track-for-world-record-for-patient-reported-side-effects/) - No one knows a drug’s side effects like the person taking it and that's why RxISK.org has been created to provide a place where patients can research, report, and share their stories with others. More patients are now reporting side effects to RxISK than to country regulators. News release RxISK.org, the first free independent website
- [RxISK Seeks Reports from AbbVie Customers](https://rxisk.org/abbvie/) - Are you taking any AbbVie drugs? David Healy & team want a report from you at RxISK.org Toronto, Ontario — July 15, 2013 – RxISK.org, the first free independent website for researching and reporting prescription drug side effects, is helping a campaign to capture patient reported side effects of a range of drugs sold by
- [RxISK drug safety petition asks AbbVie and InterMune to stop blocking access to drug clinical trial data](https://rxisk.org/rxisk-drug-safety-petition-asks-abbvie-and-intermune-to-stop-blocking-access-to-drug-clinical-trial-data/) - Toronto, Ontario — September 13, 2013 – RxISK.org, the first free, independent website for researching and reporting prescription drug side effects, has launched a drug safety petition asking two pharmaceutical giants to stop blocking the European Medicines Agency (EMA) from releasing prescription drug clinical trial data. In 2010, the EMA began releasing patient-level data from the clinical
- [RxISK adds 320,172 Health Canada reports of adverse events to its drug safety database](https://rxisk.org/rxisk-adds-320172-health-canada-reports-of-adverse-events-to-its-drug-safety-database/) - Toronto, Ontario — September 26, 2013 – RxISK.org, the first free, independent website for researching and reporting prescription drug side effects, has added to its drug safety database more than 320,000 adverse drug events reported to Health Canada from 1965 to March 31, 2013. The RxISK database now has more than 4.8 million reports of suspected adverse drug
- [RxISK founder Dr. David Healy makes Maclean’s list of 2012 best non-fiction books with Pharmageddon](https://rxisk.org/rxisk-founder-dr-david-healy-makes-macleans-list-of-2012-best-non-fiction-books-with-pharmageddon/) - RxISK is pleased to announce that Dr. David Healy’s latest book, Pharmageddon, was named by Maclean’s magazine as one of the best non-fiction books of 2012. “David Healy’s exposé of the pharmaceutical industry’s control of modern medicine is a chilling, essential read,” says Maclean’s on Pharmageddon. Pharmageddon was the philosophical underpinning of the RxISK.org website,
- [RxISK founder Dr. David Healy: Side Effects - The True Story](https://rxisk.org/rxisk-founder-dr-david-healy-side-effects-the-true-story/) - Side Effects, the film, may well feature some great actors but in the real world of side effects, you the public, take centre stage. Bangor, Wales — Today’s UK release of the movie Side Effects should remind us of the real world drug side effect problem. Drug side effects are now a leading cause of
- [Dr. David Healy reviews Bad Pharma](https://rxisk.org/dr-david-healy-reviews-bad-pharma/) - RxISK founder Dr. David Healy reviews Ben Goldacre’s Bad Pharma Toronto, Ontario — Psychopharmacologist and world-renowned drug safety expert Dr. David Healy of RxISK.org reviews Dr. Ben Goldacre’s best seller Bad Pharma. Healy praises many aspects of the book: “It will be accessible to anyone interested in health and its politics. It strikes the right
- [RxISK's SoS Zone: Symptoms on Stopping](https://rxisk.org/rxisks-sos-zone-symptoms-on-stopping/) - [Note: The current version of the Withdrawal Zone works differently than described below.] Birth of the SoS zone Backed into a corner by Panorama's Shelley Jofre in 2003, GSK's Alastair Benbow was faced with an accusation that GSK's Paxil - Seroxat was addictive. No it's not he said. He had a snag though, he couldn't
- [RxISK asks: Are prescription drugs causing suicides?](https://rxisk.org/rxisk-asks-are-prescription-drugs-causing-suicides/) - Dr. Healy explains how prescription drugs can lead to suicide RxISK.org, the first free independent website for researching and reporting prescription drug side effects, interviews Dr. David Healy, co-founder of RxISK, on the connection between suicide and prescription drugs. In the video, Dr. Healy explains how prescription drugs can lead to suicide, and what can
- [Trouble stopping your meds? New tool from RxISK can help](https://rxisk.org/trouble-stopping-your-meds-new-tool-from-rxisk-can-help/) - Editorial Note: Following a redesign of the website in 2015, the Symptoms on Stopping Zone mentioned in this article now works differently. You can search for withdrawal related side effects in the Drugs A-Z section. Side effects can be reported using the main “Report a Side Effect” function. Free online tool to research and report
- [Caught in the Firing Line: Nurse Prescribers](https://rxisk.org/caught-in-the-firing-line-nurse-prescribers/) - Back in early Covid times, I was asked by Cecile aan de Stegge to talk at a meeting: Suicide and its Prevention. Contemporary and Historical Perspectives in Nursing, 1880–2020 This finally happened in May 2022. Cecile asked me to talk on the issues around suicide and antidepressants, which seemed particularly pertinent as an increasing number
- [Driven To Drink: Antidepressants and Cravings for Alcohol](https://rxisk.org/driven-to-drink-antidepressants-and-cravings-for-alcohol/) - Author: Anne-Marie (This story was first posted on davidhealy.org. It has been the most commented on post there. It epitomizes what RxISK.org is all about - one woman getting to grips with a problem she has on treatment.) I have been asked to write this story to raise awareness about a strange side effect of
- [Freeing Teresa: The Quality of Care](https://rxisk.org/freeing-teresa/) - Samizdat is co-publishing Freeing Teresa with Franke and Bill James. There is a complementary Freeing Teresa: Human Rights Should not be Disabled post on davidhealy.org. There has also been a prior RxISK post about Teresa - Human Rights Should be for Everyone. Today we will also add a Human Rights Category to RxISK posts. Freeing
- [When the Personal becomes Political](https://rxisk.org/when-the-personal-becomes-political/) - This short talk was delivered 10 days ago. The video is Healy - Post SSRI Sexual Dysfunction is here. Slide 1: One of these two is on an antidepressant and unable to make love. Like SSRIs and Homicide, the sexual effect of SSRIs impacts significantly on people not on a drug. Or one of
- [PSSD and Small Fibre Neuropathy Investigation Runs Into Problems](https://rxisk.org/pssd-and-small-fibre-neuropathy-investigation-runs-into-problems/) - In October 2022, we ran a blog post called “PSSD Patients Needed for Small Fibre Neuropathy Investigation”. It’s worth reading to get some background on the situation before continuing with this post. We had connected with a neurology department in Sheffield, UK, with the aim of recruiting several patients with post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD) who
- [Enduring Sexual Dysfunction: 300 Cases](https://rxisk.org/enduring-sexual-dysfunction-300-cases/) - New publications After a great deal of work, we are pleased to announce details of two new publications in the International Journal of Risk & Safety in Medicine. The pre-print versions are currently available. [Now updated with printed versions - June 11, 2018.] The first is our new paper – Enduring sexual dysfunction after treatment
- [PSSD Patient Experiences](https://rxisk.org/pssd-patient-experiences/) - New paper "If you wish to have such “syndrome” continue what you are doing ... read obscure studies and reviews in obscure databases and I can guarantee to you that you will have it till the end of your life!" Anyone who has experienced a serious side effect from a medication will know how difficult
- [PSSD Patients Needed for CCM Investigation](https://rxisk.org/pssd-patients-needed-for-ccm-investigation/) - A brief recap In October 2022, we ran a blog post aimed at recruiting patients in the UK with post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD) who could be tested for small fibre neuropathy. This was to be done by skin biopsy which is the standard method for investigating the condition. The project was in response to information
- [From The Little Mermaid to Buffy the Vampire Slayer](https://rxisk.org/from-the-little-mermaid-to-buffy-the-vampire-slayer/) - This post was triggered by the reactions of women to recent posts here and here. It has a partner in Escape from a Prescription Drug Maze. It fits with a relaunch of the RxISK Facebook Page, where the theme of how do we stop ourselves being silenced is one that will be developed. Tracey whose
- [Could Journalists be Doctors in Disguise](https://rxisk.org/could-journalists-be-doctors-in-disguise/) - I had to give some workshops a few years ago to media students and either while thinking about what to say or in the middle of saying it, or soon after, it hit me that good doctoring has a lot in common with good journalism. Both hinge on getting the story right and key to
- [Covid and the Market in Research](https://rxisk.org/covid-and-the-market-in-research/) - There are 3 bits to this post - an interview with Joan-Ramon Laporte. An article by Ariane Denoyel and a Q and A with Laporte and Healy. Laporte Interview As part of a series for ROAR Magazine, Frank Barat has run some striking interviews about aspects of the Covid pandemic not usually mentioned. Here
- [Podcasts, YouTube Channels, Blogs and Related](https://rxisk.org/podcasts-youtube-channels-blogs-and-related/) - In some of the comments after the last post, POGO mentioned that Josef Witt-Doerring has done two interviews with me so far and posted them on his site. The Risks of Antidepressants and Antidepressants and Mass Shootings/Murder Suicide: An interview has also appeared on Demystifying Science podcast with Anastasia & Michael Shilo The Podcast called
- [Clinical Trial Fraud](https://rxisk.org/clinical-trial-fraud/) - This is part two of Johanna Ryan's posts on Ghosts in the Clinical Trial Machine or Clinical Trial Fraud. Last weeks post reported on how doctors in three states have been convicted of handing in fake clinical-trial results from fake patients. This week we’ll examine how small-time crooks like these ended up doing world-class medical
- [RxISK Manifesto](https://rxisk.org/rxisk-manifesto/) - This post is close to identical to an article that has just appeared in the BMJ - Clinical Judgments, not Algorithms, are key to Patient Safety. Immediately on taking a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), most people have some genital anaesthesia.1 This may be aggravated on withdrawal of the drug and can remain for years
- [Not the RxISK Manifesto](https://rxisk.org/not-the-rxisk-manifesto/) - Last week's RxISK Manifesto post featured an article then just published in BMJ. The BMJ picture that went with the article looked like this. This gives entirely the opposite message to the article. The article says a doctors job would be a lot more interesting if they listened and encouraged anyone consulting them to become
- [PSSD and Hancock's Half Brexit](https://rxisk.org/pssd-and-hancocks-half-brexit/) - Editorial Note: The photograph is of Matt Hancock, England's Health Secretary. The photograph below is of Guido Rasi, the director of EMA. The title echoes a famous British TV program - Hancock's Half Hour, which over 50 years ago was must watch comedy on the BBC. This letter was emailed and posted yesterday. There is
- [Diagnostic Criteria for Enduring Sexual Dysfunction](https://rxisk.org/diagnostic-criteria-for-enduring-sexual-dysfunction/) - Background We noticed that a lack of diagnostic criteria was increasingly being mentioned in the published literature on post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD). The condition was being described as difficult to diagnose because there was no commonly accepted definition. At the same time, a number of new websites and online discussions were appearing, many of which
- [EMA Acknowledges Persistent Sexual Dysfunction After SSRIs & SNRIs](https://rxisk.org/ema-acknowledges-persistent-sexual-dysfunction-after-ssris-snris/) - The European Medicines Agency has just concluded a review into sexual dysfunction after the discontinuation of SSRIs and SNRIs. Before we discuss their findings, it's worth looking back over the events of the past year. RxISK petition In 2018, we put together a petition requesting changes to SSRI and SNRI product labels to warn about
- [Health Canada warns about Persistent Sexual Dysfunction after SSRIs & SNRIs](https://rxisk.org/health-canada-warns-about-persistent-sexual-dysfunction-after-ssris-snris/) - Health Canada has just concluded its review of persistent sexual dysfunction after stopping SSRIs and SNRIs. Let’s look at some of the background. January 2019 On 25 January 2019, we were contacted by the Marketed Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Bureau at Health Canada. They had become aware of our 2018 paper, “Enduring sexual dysfunction after
- [The Wild Doctor - Le Médecin Sauvage](https://rxisk.org/the-wild-doctor-le-medecin-sauvage/) - The French playwright Moliere loved poking fun at pomposity especially when it involved doctors. In Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, he pokes fun at Monsieur Jourdain, a pompous upstart, who has come into money and is taking on airs and graces. Translating gentilhomme into gentleman misses what the word meant around 1660, which was more like civilized,
- [Greg's Dilemma: Riding a Backwards Bike](https://rxisk.org/gregs-dilemma-riding-a-backwards-bike/) - Greg’s dilemma is one we all share – even John Junig. The easy bit of the dilemma has to do with dependence and withdrawal. Dr Junig’s line that he’s trained in neuroscience and behavior and can confidently say that Greg’s – or anyone else’s – difficulties on treatment with benzodiazepines, antidepressants or mood stabilizers, are
- [Kicking Lyrica](https://rxisk.org/kicking-lyrica/) - Editorial Note: This post was put together by Johanna Ryan from reports to RxISK on Lyrica - Pregabalin. Lyrica is closely related to Neurontin. Many anticonvulsants such as carbamazepine have been used for forty years for pain syndromes such as trigeminal neuralgia. Neurontin but especially Lyrica have been promoted heavily for this. Both cause dependence
- [RxISK Prize Closing the Gap](https://rxisk.org/rxisk-prize-closing-the-gap/) - We introduced an innovation to the RxISK Prize Fund recently - an opportunity to pledge money rather than just hand it over. This has resulted in a major jump in the fund, thanks to two generous donors. It is worth visiting the Prize Page to see how these donations have changed the race to be
- [RxISK 2.0](https://rxisk.org/rxisk-2-0/) - After months of thought and effort, we are pleased to introduce RxISK 2.0 to replace the website we launched in 2012. Our goal was to make RxISK easier-to-use, friendlier, and to remove the requirement to log in for certain functionality. We freshened up our RxISK logo and tagline and added new tools and resources, such as: Drugs A-Z list
- [You are not alone: Fill out a side effect report](https://rxisk.org/maria-bradshaw/) - [The video is no longer available at https://player.vimeo.com/video/41421379] Maria Bradshaw lost her only child to SSRI induced suicide in 2008. She is the co-founder and CEO of CASPER (Community Action on Suicide Prevention Education & Research). Maria wants everyone using prescription drugs to file their own RxISK Reports, because it is the only way we are
- [Accutane: 30 Years of Trading our Sex Lives for Clear Skin](https://rxisk.org/accutane-30-years-of-trading-our-sex-lives-for-clear-skin/) - Editorial: Bill G. Sex and skin There are an ever-increasing and disturbing number of young people claiming their sex lives have been permanently ruined from taking the acne drug, isotretinoin, commonly referred to by its former brand-name, Accutane. Often these affected young men and women, many in their teens and early 20s, cannot overcome their
- [Sarah's Tourette Syndrome Story](https://rxisk.org/sarahs-tourette-syndrome-story/) - Editorial Note: This post by DG follows up on last week's Robbie's Tourette Syndrome Story and continues a series begun a year ago looking at the effects of aripiprazole on Tourette Syndrome Abilify, Tourette Syndrome and Me. As mentioned last week, the key point is not just drug induced adverse effects but the ability of
- [Love in a Time of Covid](https://rxisk.org/love-in-a-time-of-covid/) - President Joseph E Biden The White House Washington D.C September 28th 2021 Dear Dr Joe We have a lot in common – Irish, Catholic backgrounds and perhaps one or two other bits mixed in, and a concern for those injured or killed in a War. Your addition of the role of doctor to your portfolio
- [A Time for Post SSRI Sexual Dysfunction?](https://rxisk.org/a-time-for-post-ssri-sexual-dysfunction/) - This post has been put together by L who in the last few years has been an inspiration to many people suffering the ill-effects of a number of different drugs. Like mythical heroines she has many different aliases. When it comes to the harms done to us, behind heroes like Zorro or the Scarlet Pimpernel,
- [Is Recovery from Medication Possible?](https://rxisk.org/is-recovery-from-medication-possible/) - In response to recent posts, especially A Time for PSSD, Laurie Oakley got in touch with the following thoughts. Laurie has had a series of six posts on Pharmaceutical Rape on davidhealy.org starting in February 2015 but mostly from early January 2016. These outline her own difficulties recovering from medication induced injury and the equal
- [Sanctuary Trauma and Lariam Toxicity](https://rxisk.org/sanctuary-trauma-and-lariam-toxicity/) - Illustration: Lost on the Sea of Medicine, © 2014 created by Billiam James This is the first of 4 posts on the idea of Sanctuary Trauma. Some weeks ago, Trixie Foster got in touch. Trixie is an extraordinary campaigner on behalf of those injured by Lariam (mefloquine) - see the Strange History and Lariam Hell.
- [Black Robe, White Coat](https://rxisk.org/black-robe-white-coat/) - Black Robe, White Coat spirals out from Sanctuary Trauma, The Invisible Doctor and Strangers in the Room. Black Robe, a book by Brian Moore, was published in 1985. It centred on a Jesuit (Black Robe) Mission to convert the People of what is now called Quebec in the 1630s. Movie here. An early scene from
- [Marilyn Lemak: When the Music Stops](https://rxisk.org/marilyn-lemak-when-the-music-stops/) - Judith and the Head of .. © Nina Otulakowski July 2022 “I’m glad I didn’t know the way it all would end. The way it all would go. Our lives are better left to chance. I could have missed the pain but I’d have had to miss the dance.” - Garth Brooks This post by
- [Montelukast, Fluoroquinolone, Psychotropic Withdrawal & Toxicity](https://rxisk.org/montelukast-fluoroquinolone-psychotropic-withdrawal-toxicity/) - Last week's post on Montelukast Withdrawal Syndrome has attracted comments at a higher rate than any prior post in 7 years of RxISK posts. It followed a post on Asthma causing Suicide and Homicide two weeks previously, which had links to the QuarterWatch 2015 report of adverse events in children fingering montelukast and suicidality as
- [Montelukast: Beyond the Black Box](https://rxisk.org/montelukast-beyond-the-black-box/) - Dozens of these buttons flooded the United States Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) headquarters at a meeting for the widely prescribed asthma/allergy medication, montelukast (brand name, Singulair). The message was simple: “The benefits did not outweigh the risks.” As each button approached the podium, the panel of experts heard gut-wrenching testimonials about the unimaginable psychiatric
- [RxISK Prize: Campaign & Challenge](https://rxisk.org/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
- [New Fundraising Initiative for RxISK.org](https://rxisk.org/new-fundraising-initiative-for-rxisk-org/) - News Release New fundraising initiative launches this weekend in Hastings to highlight deadly anti-depressant drug side effects A new fundraising initiative is launching on Sunday March 23, 2014 to raise awareness of the potentially deadly side effects of anti-depressant drugs. RxISK.org is the first organisation of its kind to gather and disseminate information on the side
- [Get Involved with Team RxISK](https://rxisk.org/get-involved-with-team-rxisk/) - Team RxISK takes first big step in England: Get involved With millions of people throughout the world participating in sporting events to raise money for many different causes, who would ever think that prescription drug safety could become a cause worth supporting? Katinka Newman did. Katinka Newman As the first fundraiser in the world for
- [International Society of Sexual Medicine](https://rxisk.org/international-society-of-sexual-medicine/) - This weeks post was supposed to be just about Sexual Mysteries. What's in a Touch? As it was waiting to be posted, a controversy blew up about the International Society of Sexual Medicine and claims by Dr Anita Clayton that there is no such thing as PSSD. There did not seem to be enough for
- [There was a Young Woman who Swallowed a Lie](https://rxisk.org/there-was-a-young-woman-who-swallowed-a-lie/) - This post is the partner of The Eclipse of Health Care. See also Warning re Health. Before reading (and after finishing) it's worth listening to Peter Seeger's There was a Young Woman. Mandating Unproven Technologies Governments are considering mandating, or already have mandated an unproven technology, against a background of vaccine approval and pharmacovigilance processes
- [Calling All ADHD Influencers](https://rxisk.org/calling-all-adhd-influencers/) - Obedience Pills has put Patrick Hahn, Bill James and myself in a bit of a spot. We’ve had feedback that we might be contributing to the stigma against ADHD. Our contact gave us a Video to orient us. At the same time, the Guardian in the UK - Tik-Tok and the Rise of ADHD -
- [Heather Roberts: Heroine for our Times](https://rxisk.org/heather-roberts-heroine-for-our-times/) - This post is to honor the life, work, and words of our dear friend and regular blog contributor, Heather Roberts, who sadly we have learned died peacefully at her home on 20th October after a short illness. Heather campaigned alongside us in memory of her son, Olly, who had a severe adverse reaction to the
- [Sex, No Sex, Sex, No Sex....](https://rxisk.org/sex-no-sex-sex-no-sex/) - Accessible New Resource RxISK has a new resource - a literature resource. PSSD Literature. You can download any of these articles and take them to any doctor, lawyer or other person you see. While in this area on RxISK, have a look at the other material under Tools. Anyone who becomes aware of any other
- [Benzodiazepine Facebook and Other Groups](https://rxisk.org/benzodiazepine-facebook-and-other-groups/) - Nicole Lamberson who will be familiar to many from Medicating Normal asked Barbara Connolly from Benzo Warrior to write a piece on Benzo Support Groups especially linked to Facebook. This was to fill a benzodiazepine shapeed hole in the DD and AA group post. Nicole Lamberson asked me to write something about what a
- [Mandates for Vaccines](https://rxisk.org/mandates-for-vaccines/) - Vaccine mandates feature prominently in the news at the moment. These are contentious for some health personnel, nurses and doctors among others, who are refusing to be vaccinated and willing to lose jobs if need be. France and the United States, countries not typically associated with an authoritarian approach, have made Covid vaccines compulsory. Some
- [Preventing Precaution](https://rxisk.org/preventing-precaution/) - Editorial Note: This post by Harriet Rosenberg aims at getting some debate going about medication and birth defects. We will run a survey early next week on this issue Right-to-Know (R2K). A recent post on RxISK, The dark is for mushrooms not for women features responses on Mumsnet to the issue of prescribing SSRIs during pregnancy. Johanna Ryan comments
- [Medication and Withdrawal](https://rxisk.org/medication-and-withdrawal/) - The RxISK website has been undergoing major renovation. There is still a great deal of work going on behind the scenes to look at new ideas and better ways to make available the best tools and information about prescription drug side effects. The old site had a Symptoms on Stopping Zone – a Withdrawal Zone.
- [Transgender Meds: A Call for Reports](https://rxisk.org/transgender-meds-a-call-for-reports/) - This post is an invitation to report on drugs prescribed to transgender people. These include cross-sex hormones - testosterone for women, estrogen and progesterone for men, hormone-blocking agents like Lupron given to children with gender dysphoria to stop the physical changes of puberty, and other drugs like finasteride, spironolactone and birth-control pills prescribed to manage
- [Clinical Details Confuse Expert Doctors](https://rxisk.org/clinical-details-confuse-expert-doctors/) - Following the death of their 16-year-old son Romain, who had been put on paroxetine with Tercian later added, Yoko Motohama and Vincent Schmitt began asking questions of GSK, Sanofi, the French ANSM (Agence nationale de sécurité du medicament), and others. They set up two websites Antidepeffects.wordpress.com and Romainschmitt.wordpress.com. Romain’s case features on Qu’ils mangent des
- [How the Safety of Drugs was Destroyed](https://rxisk.org/how-the-safety-of-drugs-was-destroyed/) - Emer Cooke, the CEO of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is Irish. This is Dublin's famous Halfpenny Bridge which for some reason features in an article outlining the history of the phrase Tail wags Dog which seems appropriate for what followed. I wrote to Emer recently about a bizarre letter I received from Kinapse -
- [The Myth of the Magic Bullet: Flox Tox](https://rxisk.org/flox-tox/) - In July this year, Antimicrobrial Agents & Chemotherapy had an article - Fluoxetine is a Potent Inhibitor of Coxsackievirus Replication by Zuo J, Quinn KK and colleagues. "No antiviral drugs currently exist for the treatment of enterovirus infections, which are often severe and potentially life-threatening. Molecular screening of small molecule libraries identified fluoxetine, a selective serotonin
- [Weight Gain on Thyroxine](https://rxisk.org/weight-gain-on-thyroxine/) - If there is one thing most doctors think they know it's that weight gain can be caused by an underactive thyroid and having an overactive thyroid leads to weight loss. So the thyroid hormone, thyroxine, will lead to weight loss. And magazines, newspapers and websites, especially in the United States openly invite anyone who is
- [Birth of a Statinista; Prescribing Cascades](https://rxisk.org/birth-of-a-statinista-prescribing-cascades/) - Khaya was 54 in 2000. She had developed unstable angina possibly from being on HRT for two years, or a high stress university job, or family history, or exposure to vehicle exhaust in her long daily commute or some combination of all of the above. She was prescribed nitro spray and later a nitro patch. With
- [Doctor Experiences Antidepressant Withdrawal](https://rxisk.org/doctor-experiences-antidepressant-withdrawal/) - Editorial Note: Sven Ternov, a doctor working in Sweden, recently wrote this article which appeared in DagensMedicin in January 2013. He has translated it for RxISK. Several other doctors have written about their difficulties in withdrawing from antidepressants - mostly men which is interesting. Posts to RxISK on the topic of withdrawal, Antidepressant Withdrawal: V's story and Monica's
- [RxISK says Doxycycline causes Suicide](https://rxisk.org/rxisk-says-doxycycline-causes-suicide/) - There have been several reports to RxISK of young men committing suicide on doxycycline. This led us to investigate further. The evidence seems clear - doxycycline can cause someone to commit suicide. We have no idea how often this happens but that it happens is certain. Given for a skin rash The first report came from
- [Buried Alive: Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD)](https://rxisk.org/buried-alive-post-ssri-sexual-dysfunction-pssd/) - Editorial Note: I saw my first case of Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD) 15 years ago and since then have met 10 or more people with it and corresponded with many more. There is a striking consistency to the clinical picture across sufferers caught in the account below. There is no doubt that serotonin reuptake inhibiting drugs
- [Dopamine Agonist Withdrawal Syndrome (DAWS)](https://rxisk.org/sos-dopamine-agonist-withdrawal-syndrome/) - Editorial note: Renny's story chillingly outlines the misery of Dopamine Agonist Withdrawal Syndrome (DAWS). Below this we present data from RxISK's SoS Zone showing rates of Symptoms on Stopping and related problems on Dopamine Agonists which fully bear out her personal experience. I was prescribed Mirapex (Pramipexole), a ‘Dopamine Agonist’, in early 2012 for ‘Restless
- [Suicide on Pain-Killers: John's Story](https://rxisk.org/suicide-on-pain-killers-johns-story/) - Editorial note: Nearly 20 years ago I put someone on sodium valproate for a mental health problem. She was likely the first person in North Wales put on this drug for this reason. I was the person who knew most about psychotropic drugs in North Wales. She had left school before finishing and at the time
- [Great White Lies](https://rxisk.org/great-white-lies/) - Editorial note: this post is by Dee Mangin .... just when you were looking at pancreatic cancer on Januvia and Byetta. Sugar sugar: Less is not more Most people with diabetes now have type 2 diabetes. But for most people the high blood sugar called type 2 diabetes is not a disease. It is a
- [Herding Women](https://rxisk.org/herding-women/) - Since 2005, Paroxetine, first marketed by GlaxoSmithKline as Seroxat/Paxil, has carried warnings of birth defect risks. These risks led to litigation in the US – but not elsewhere. In the first case that went to court in the US in 2009, the Kilker case, the lawyers for Lyam Kilker argued that, even before Paxil was launched, there was good
- [Low Dose Naltrexone](https://rxisk.org/low-dose-naltrexone/) - Editorial Note: RxISK can sometimes seem to be all about the horrors of treatment. It's not. It's about people making the best use of drugs to make their lives better. Central to this is finding a doctor who will believe you when you tell him that something good or bad is happening. The horror arises when people are not
- [Nobel Prize, Jackpot Winner or just Savior?](https://rxisk.org/nobel-prize-jackpot-winner-or-just-savior/) - RxISK is not all about bad news. We ask anyone who is having a problem on a drug to think of a possible use to which this problem could be put. We also want people to keep alert to anything they notice after starting a new treatment. It is entirely possible that the right set
- [A PSSD Story](https://rxisk.org/a-pssd-story/) - Editorial Note: This is the fourth of five posts running over two weeks, about Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD). The first was Wikipedia Editor inserts Foot in Mouth, followed by 120 cases of PSSD, and Recovering from PSSD. I first took citalopram in November 2007, at the age of 22. I had quite bad OCD and because
- [Chantix and Violence](https://rxisk.org/chantix-and-violence/) - Editorial Note: On October 16, there is an FDA hearing about Chantix and violence which is widely expected to feature an effort by Pfizer to roll back the warnings on the drug. One of the fascinating things about the Chantix story has been to see perfectly normal friends who use it to stop smoking become
- [The Destruction Statins Leave After Them](https://rxisk.org/the-destruction-statins-leave-after-them/) - Editorial Note: This post is taken with permission from an article authored by Hazel Summers that first appeared in Canyon News - The Secret Danger of Statin Drugs, on December 28th. Moyra Peyralta, who wrote one of the key RxISK stories - Nearly Invisible - drew it to our attention. There is a Nearly Invisible
- [His Chemicals, My Imbalance: A Story about Love](https://rxisk.org/his-chemicals-my-imbalance-a-story-about-love/) - Editorial Note: This is a post by the partner of someone going through the persistent sexual dysfunction that isotretinoin can cause. It could be caused by an SSRI or it could be caused by finasteride. It could be a man supporting a woman, or a woman supporting a woman or any partnership. In June 2013
- [We should talk about Brintellix: Antidepressants and Suicide](https://rxisk.org/we-should-talk-about-brintellix-antidepressants-and-suicide/) - My father was born in 1955. He is medium height, loves his family, fishing and hunting. In 1980 he came to America with his wife and two children to pursue a better life. In the 1980s he would say he drank too much. He stopped because he knew he had a problem. In late 1993
- [The Year of My Life that was Stolen](https://rxisk.org/the-year-of-my-life-that-was-stolen/) - This post is by Katinka Blackford-Newman, who can be seen here running a half-marathon to raise money for RxISK but who also since the events described here has been involved in several criminal trials, believing that it is important that juries get to hear stories like hers when faced with the challenge of assessing what
- [Withdrawal Research Forum: Relief at Last?](https://rxisk.org/withdrawal-research-forum-relief-at-last/) - Editorial Note: There are tens of thousands of people affected by dependence on and protracted withdrawal from antidepressants, antipsychotics, benzodiazepines, dopamine agonists and other drugs. We will be opening up a Complex Withdrawal and PSSD research section in the very near future aimed at solving what is going on. This post by DA who has a
- [Is FSM a treatment for Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD)?](https://rxisk.org/is-fsm-a-treatment-for-post-ssri-sexual-dysfunction-pssd/) - Editorial note: Towards the end of 2015, we launched a new Complex Withdrawal section dedicated to exploring protracted withdrawal and Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD). We presented a new hypothesis about the underlying physiology of withdrawal and persisting side effects, and we asked for others to help explore and research the issues. Someone who has been
- [It's alright Ma, I'm only Punding: Stimulants and Compulsions](https://rxisk.org/its-alright-ma-im-only-punding-stimulants-and-compulsions/) - This post by Johanna Ryan touches on the problems of compulsive gambling and other compulsive behaviors that are linked to Abilify, SSRIs and Dopamine Agonists and also to Dopamine Agonist Withdrawal Syndrome (DAWS). It was Lester Grinspoon’s 1975 book The Speed Culture that introduced me to the concept of “punding”: a drug-induced compulsion for repetitive,
- [Three Weeks To Prescripticide](https://rxisk.org/three-weeks-to-prescripticide/) - Editorial Note: The post is by David Carmichael, who has coined the terms "Prescripticide" for a death that is caused by an adverse reaction to a prescription drug. In October and November 2015, Julie Wood published a 5-part RxISK.org series of blog posts about SSRI antidepressants and violence. It was based on the biomedical model developed
- [Touch Fibres, Autonomic Fibres and Kissing](https://rxisk.org/touch-fibres-autonomic-fibres-and-kissing/) - Someone, who regularly emails breaking research that I haven't spotted or don't have time to spot, got in touch recently with great insights on an article about Kisspeptin that I had seen. But I had managed to miss several things he spotted that may be important to anyone thinking about PSSD. A Kiss Before Sex
- [Sexual Mysteries. What is in a Touch?](https://rxisk.org/sexual-mysteries-what-is-in-a-touch/) - This is an important post for anyone hunting for a test for PSSD. If the CT fibres mentioned here are not fibres that show up distinctly on either skin biopsy or CCM, then these tests may not pick up a very real problem. We need some research on whether CT fibres show around the ankle
- [Pyridoxal-5-Phosphate and Akathisia](https://rxisk.org/pyridoxal-5-phosphate-and-akathisia/) - This post came from a regular contributor to RxISK and DH posts. An earlier comment pointed to something interesting and has developed into this post which should be of interest to anyone who has a withdrawal problem that entails some kind of akathisia. When I came out of a psychiatric hospital in Summer 2019, I
- [Could Doctors be Journalists in Disguise](https://rxisk.org/could-doctors-be-journalists-in-disguise/) - The bravery and dogged persistence of one woman, Rosie Tilli, was in the background to the last RxISK post - Could Journalists be Doctors in Disguise. Her story featured the same day in Antidepressants can Cause Chemical Castration, an article by Maryanne Demasi, a rather exceptional journalist. Lest anyone think there is a cosy club
- [PPPD - Persistent Postural Perceptual Dizziness](https://rxisk.org/pppd-persistent-postural-perceptual-dizziness/) - This post is from R, whom I came into contact with at least a decade ago. She had significant SSRI dependence and withdrawal issues. And was very discombobulated by the difficulties she was having. Back in 1997 after a difficult and stressful house move I went to see my Family Doctor because I was getting
- [The Once and Future Abilify: Depot Injections for Everyone?](https://rxisk.org/the-once-and-future-abilify-depot-injections-for-everyone/) - Written by Johanna Ryan, May 9, 2015 This column is partly a report on the marketing of Abilify, the atypical antipsychotic that has become America’s best-selling drug. It’s also an appeal for advice and feedback from the RxISK and Mad in America communities, and a call for some brainstorming about strategy. The plans laid out
- [Abilify, Tourette Syndrome and Me](https://rxisk.org/abilify-tourette-syndrome-and-me/) - Editorial Note: This post is by DG. It's number three in the Abilify series, following Dodging Abilify and Abilify from the Inside Out. I was diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome (TS) as a child. It was always manageable. I did well in school and was actively involved with music programs at church and school. At 17,
- [Dodging Abilify](https://rxisk.org/dodging-abilify/) - Editorial Note: This post is by Johanna Ryan, who has a unique ability to capture the American Nightmare. The best-selling drug in the United States isn’t a blood pressure pill, a painkiller or even an antidepressant. It’s Abilify, an antipsychotic agent with $6.3 billion in 2013 sales. Granted, Abilify isn’t the most prescribed pill, but
- [My Doctor thinks I'm Faking It; SSRI Movement Disorders](https://rxisk.org/my-doctor-thinks-im-faking-it-ssri-movement-disorders/) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PjOewDFIaI Editorial Note: This post by Stevie Lewis raises a very tricky area. There is no doubt that SSRIs cause movement disorders and not just temporary disorders but permanent problems like atypical Motor Neurone Disorder (ALS), Steele-Richardson Syndrome, Osmotic Demyelination Sydrome (Pontine Myelinolysis) and Multiple System Atrophy. There is also little doubt that most neurologists
- [Sensory Receptors, Small Fibres and Neuropathy](https://rxisk.org/sensory-receptors-small-fibres-and-neuropathy/) - RxISK began in 2012. One of its main goals was to offer people an opportunity to report problems they had on treatments – any treatment – and generate a report they could take to a doctor in the hope this might get the doctor to take their problem seriously. I had seen my first cases
- [Bait and Switch: the Great Ketamine “Breakthrough”](https://rxisk.org/bait-and-switch-the-great-ketamine-breakthrough/) - Post by Johanna Ryan Maybe you heard the exciting news last month about a game-changing new treatment for depression. It offered new hope to millions who were not helped by existing drugs, the headlines said – the first real breakthrough in depression treatment since Prozac, some thirty years ago. The product was Janssen’s esketamine
- [Smoke & Pfizer Get In Your Eyes](https://rxisk.org/smoke-pfizer-get-in-your-eyes/) - On March 15, Out of My Mind was published on davidhealy.org. This was one of the first RxISK stories. At the moment it is the blog post that has attracted the most comments. The comments are worth reading - there is close to universal recognition of something that applies to the person commenting that they haven't
- [Dopamine Antagonist Withdrawal Syndrome - Carole's Story](https://rxisk.org/sos-dopamine-antagonist-withdrawal-syndrome-caroles-story/) - The last post outlined the horrors of dopamine agonist withdrawal syndrome (DAWS). This week's features the equally grim horror of dopamine antagonist withdrawal syndrome (DAAWS). The dopamine antagonists include the antipsychotic, anti-nausea, anti-itch and other groups of drugs. The antipsychotics were the first of the modern psychotropic drugs to be linked to severe withdrawal, but
- [SoS: Anti-clotting drugs - Fiona's story](https://rxisk.org/sos-anti-clotting-drugs-fionas-story/) - Editorial note: Fiona's story (FB) was the first RxISK story filed. It is reproduced here. Data from FDA's MedWatch system noting withdrawal problems on clopidogrel and Plavix are laid out in the Table at the bottom. Fiona's story I had a heart attack two years ago and was prescribed Clopidogrel and low dose Aspirin as my
- [Keeping an Eye on the Ball: Visual Problems on SSRIs](https://rxisk.org/keeping-an-eye-on-the-ball-visual-problems-on-ssris/) - Editorial Note: The author of this report wants to remain anonymous for important reasons not contained in this report. He comes from the Newcastle area, where if you are a fan of sports and think of someone who was good at keeping his eye on the ball and scoring extraordinary goals, you are likely to think of
- [Night of the Living Cymbalta: B's Story](https://rxisk.org/night-of-the-living-cymbalta-bs-story/) - I myself had been on and off a long series of antidepressants, but never had really dramatic withdrawal symptoms until I stopped the SNRI inhibitor Cymbalta. It started when I tried to step down from 120 mg per day, back to the standard 60 mg dose. From simply feeling depressed and tired, I shifted into full
- [Managing SSRI Withdrawal: Another Way](https://rxisk.org/managing-ssri-withdrawal-one-way/) - This post by J is about his withdrawal. He takes a different approach to the ones outlined in Side Effexor Withdrawal through to Helping H - an engineering approach rather than a therapy one. Next week we will feature a post about some of the TRP (Transient Receptor Potential) Channels he mentions. I usually work
- [Dear Abby:  Antidepressants and Marriage](https://rxisk.org/dear-abby-antidepressants-and-marriage/) - News flash: A big-city American newspaper (the Chicago Sun-Times) has written about the side effects of antidepressants, and how they can destroy marriages. It wasn’t on the Health page, or on the Business page where most of the important drug news appears. It was in Dear Abby’s advice column. You’ll find the letter from the
- [Xarelto and Sex](https://rxisk.org/xarelto-and-sex/) - Editorial Note: This extraordinary post from Spiros might help explain the very similar problems that follow SSRIs, Finasteride, and Isotretinoin. There have been several other reports to RxISK of comparable problems on rivaroxaban - Xarelto. This drug causes many more problems than the sexual one described here. We would be interested to hear from anyone
- [Post Finasteride Syndrome: PFS](https://rxisk.org/post-finasteride-syndrome-pfs/) - Editorial Note: Wikipedia astonishingly removed their post on Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction on January 27th (see this week's previous posts: Sexual DEATH, Wikipedia Stumbles and Wikipedia Falls). This was a huge mistake. PSSD and related conditions like Post-Finasteride and Post-Isotretinoin Syndromes are very real, probably holding the key to a number of physiological and psychological mysteries, and have mobilized
- [Fifty Shades of Mirtazapine](https://rxisk.org/fifty-shades-of-mirtazapine-2/) - EL's story I have been taking Mirtazapine now for several years and have noticed two major changes since taking it, one my menstrual cycle has been effected and secondly my libido has increased. My menstrual cycle has been quite erratic since starting Mirtazapine sometimes being completely absent one month to the next month being extremely
- [Withdrawal from Sertraline](https://rxisk.org/withdrawal-from-sertraline/) - This is the story of Anna. My first encounter with psychiatry and the “mental health” system was in the summer of 2008. A beautiful; warm summer indeed. But unfortunately I will recall this summer for other, less glorious, reasons. I was 20 years old at the time and had moved eight times in my short
- [Coming off Depakote](https://rxisk.org/coming-off-depakote/) - I stopped Depakote - See Going on Depakote. First Try This was a nightmare to cold turkey off. I felt crazy, like my brain was going to explode and was on fire. I kept an ice pack on my head for days and listened to meditation tapes. I am not sure how I managed to
- [Suicide is Painless: Sylvia's Story](https://rxisk.org/suicide-is-painless-sylvias-story/) - Editorial note: In 1962, Sylvia Plath committed suicide a week after going on phenelzine, an antidepressant. She had two young children, making her death close to inexplicable - unless the medication she was put on disturbed the balance of her mind. But what does 'disturb the balance of your mind' mean? In this account, another Sylvia
- [Lupron: a Nightmare produced in Abbvie](https://rxisk.org/lupron-a-nightmare-produced-in-abbvie/) - Editorial Note: This post is by Lynne Millican, the founder of Lupron Victims Hub. Lupron is leuporelin - one of several Relins. Lynne's story which dates from the late 1980s is still being repeated today with drugs like Goserelin - Zoladex. This group of drugs can cause seriously bad outcomes for some women. But it
- [Clopidogrel Withdrawal](https://rxisk.org/clopidogrel-withdrawal/) - This is a first in a series of RxISK stories. We want any accounts of adverse or interesting events on drugs or new uses for drugs from people on them or doctors, pharmacists or others trying to manage the effects of drugs. We would be very interested in accounts of what happens when people take
- [Montelukast Withdrawal Syndrome](https://rxisk.org/montelukast-withdrawal-syndrome/) - When my happy, full-of-life, adventure-seeking 11-year-old son experienced severe, debilitating neuropsychiatric symptoms after stopping his asthma medication, I embarked on a journey in a desperate search for answers. How could a medication that acts on the respiratory system reduce my healthy child to a lifeless shell? How could our beloved doctor not discuss the potential
- [Back in Olanzapine Waters](https://rxisk.org/back-in-olanzapine-waters/) - Editorial Note: Courtesy of Fast Forward, here is a 12 month follow up to Olanzapine Withdrawal: Sally’s Story; some good, some OK and some awful. Sounds and speech Twelve months later, I continue to have problems with my hearing. The serious sensitivity to sounds has settled a bit - so I don't jump out of my
- [Olanzapine Withdrawal: Sally's Story](https://rxisk.org/olanzapine-withdrawal-sallys-story/) - Editorial Note: How long does withdrawal last? How much overlap is there between antipsychotic, benzodiazepine and antidepressant withdrawal? This is the first of two posts covering these issues. All answers later this week in part two. For Antipsychotic Withdrawal - see also Carole's Story. I was prescribed olanzapine 20 mg in 2001, as a mood
- [Abilify from the Inside Out](https://rxisk.org/abilify-from-the-inside-out/) - Editorial Note: This is part 2 of Johanna Ryan's series that started with Dodging Abilify. Abilify is at present the best-selling drug in North America - how come? In last week’s column, Dodging Abilify, I described the fan-club enthusiasm for this drug among doctors I’ve met, my own reluctance to try it, and what I’d
- [What Counts? A Tale of Good and Evil](https://rxisk.org/what-counts-a-tale-of-good-and-evil/) - This title plays on words. Counting suggests numbers but also hints at values. This talk hinges on a clash between a worldview centred on numbers and one centred on values. The slides and text are below. A video record of the talk is here - What Counts? Slide 2: One of these two is
- [A Brush with the European Medicines' Agency](https://rxisk.org/a-brush-with-the-european-medicines-agency/) - This post should be read in conjunction with Are Journalists the Answer to Clinical Medicines Cause and Effect Problem which is on davidhealy.org, or will be, and last weeks Clinical Details Confuse Expert Doctors along with Royal College of Psychiatrist's Suicide Note. Several months ago, I agreed to review an article by John Read analyzing
- [Insomnia the Royal Road to Pills and Nightmares](https://rxisk.org/insomnia-the-royal-road-to-pills-and-nightmares/) - This post links to Bob Fiddaman's Forty Winks last week. Insomnia is one of our all time biggest problems. We all need Kind Nature's Chief Restorer to knit up the ravelled sleeve of care. There is all sorts of health advice out there about how you owe it to yourself to get a good nights
- [Drugs and Smell: Smells of SHIT](https://rxisk.org/drugs-and-smell-smells-of-shit/) - Medication can mess up your sense of Smell. This post links to the Magna Farta post on david healy, which tells the story of Zicam and Matrixx Pharmaceuticals. For anyone interested in adverse events, this is one of the most important stories in medicine. It also links to the SHIT Happens and SHIT happens 2
- [Antidepressants and Violence: The Numbers](https://rxisk.org/antidepressants-and-violence-the-numbers/) - How on earth could an antidepressant drug drive someone to murder? In the past two columns RxISK has heard from two people who know they can. In The Man Who Thought He Was A Monster, Steindor Erlingsson shared his own story of being tormented with urges to stab his wife and young children while on
- [SoS: Benzodiazepine Withdrawal](https://rxisk.org/sos-benzodiazepine-withdrawal/) - The first benzodiazepine, Librium, came on the market in 1960, followed three years later by Valium. By the late 1960s the benzos were selling in vast amounts. In the 1970s Valium became the best selling drug on Earth. While Leo Hollister and others put forward suggestions that you could get hooked to them as early as
- [Withdrawal Mysteries. Jon and Justin's Journeys](https://rxisk.org/withdrawal-mysteries-jon-and-justins-journeys/) - Being Hooked to and having to Withdraw from Antidepressants, especially any that act on the serotonin system, is one of the greatest public health issues of our day. Close to 15 per cent of the population of most Western countries are affected. Peter Groot and colleagues in the Netherlands have done more than anyone to
- [The Window to the Body and perhaps the Soul](https://rxisk.org/the-window-to-the-body-and-perhaps-the-soul/) - It might sound corny but it has long been said that our Eyes are the Window to our Soul. Whatever about the soul, every medical student gets told by ophthalmologists that the Eyes are the Window to the Body. They claim to be able to detect almost every possible disease by looking at our eyes.
- [The Day the Science Died](https://rxisk.org/the-day-the-science-died/) - Back in October 2021, I was talking to Patrick about ADHD and his book Obedience Pills. ADHD has since become a very big and polarizing issue in the UK. Katinka Newman has had a prominent and hard-hitting article in the Daily Mail two weeks ago on these issues. There have been earlier RxISK posts on
- [What Twitter doesn't Want you to Know about Sex](https://rxisk.org/what-twitter-doesnt-want-you-to-know-about-sex/) - 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
- [Everything You Want to Know about Sex *](https://rxisk.org/everything-you-want-to-know-about-sex/) - Lost in Medication. Ask your doctor about the sexual side-effects of your meds. Based on Adam and Eve painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder in 1526. © Billiam James 2014 The title for the post comes from the W Allen movie Everything you Wanted to Know about Sex * But were Afraid to Ask. Not
- [Charles Dickens and Red Tape, Alive and Well in 2023](https://rxisk.org/charles-dickens-and-red-tape-alive-and-well-in-2023/) - This post is a follow up to Great Treatment, Patient Dead and to last weeks 'Twas the Nice before Christmas. This image is almost unreadable but worth presenting as it's the first mention of Red Tape - short for Red Tapeworm. The full, readable text can be found here The Circumlocution Office. Red Tape is
- [A Cure for PSSD, PFS and Post-Isotretinoin Syndrome](https://rxisk.org/a-cure-for-pssd-pfs-and-post-isotretinoin-syndrome/) - The Holy Grail © Nina Otulakowski June 2022 You need to click on the image to get the full effects. In recent months, RxISK has been working closely with Luisa Guerrini in Milan, whose background is in research on regulatory proteins like p 63 and p 53, on which Thalidomide works. This discovery led to
- [Our Unequal Struggle with Health Systems](https://rxisk.org/grappling-with-health-systems/) - This is Lacoon, a Trojan priest, and his sons being engulfed and killed by snakes from the deep as he tried to warn the Trojans about the Horse they were planning to pull inside their walls. Gordon Hughes case, outlined last week in Treatment Great, Patient Died, shares a lot in common with Evelyn, Kafka,
- [The Treatment was Great, The Patient Died](https://rxisk.org/the-treatment-was-great-the-patient-died/) - This post contains a letter sent on October 31, 2022 to the Minister for Mental Health in Scotland about Gordon Hughes pictured here with his mother a few weeks before the events outlined below. Pictures and headings have been added. Kevin Stewart MSP, Minister for Mental Wellbeing and Social Care, MinisterMWSC@gov.scot Dear Mr. Stewart, I
- [Science, Kansas and the Wizard of Washington](https://rxisk.org/science-kansas-and-the-wizard-of-washington/) - This post follows on from Science, Kansas and Pancakes. Peter is doing a good job spreading word of this article on the Prozac studies in children and featuring other aspects of this extraordinary story. This post focusses in on one revelatory feature. Reviewer #3: A window with the view on the details of how drug
- [Science, Kansas and Pancakes](https://rxisk.org/science-kansas-and-pancakes/) - A long time ago, following work on the Restoration of Study 329, I was approached by Peter Goetzsche, featured above, to work on restoring the two trials that had got Prozac (fluoxetine) approved for children for depression. I may have suggested this idea to Peter in that from 2004 or so I was aware that
- [PSSD Patients Needed for Small Fibre Neuropathy Investigation](https://rxisk.org/pssd-patients-needed-for-small-fibre-neuropathy-investigation/) - We recently ran a couple of blog posts about the possibility of a link between post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD) and small fibre neuropathy: Sensory Receptors, Small Fibres and Neuropathy Antidepressant Neuropathy and the Color of Life The posts recapped some of the things we had previously discussed on the blog and also included new information
- [Remind Your Sister to get Vaccinated](https://rxisk.org/remind-your-sister-to-get-vaccinated/) - The European Pharmaceutical Industry, in the guise of EFPIA, has a stranglehold on the European Commission in terms of policies for vaccination promotion and acquisition of healthcare data. Healthcare data is essential for Pharma to collect commercially useful realworld evidence of clinical illnesses and prescribing habits and trends. Both campaigns are supported directly or indirectly
- [ADHD and Polypharmacy. American Conditions?](https://rxisk.org/adhd-and-polypharmacy-american-conditions/) - This post tackles two RxISK themes - ADHD and Polypharmacy. While working through Pfizer's Serious Adverse Event narrative file, see The Fog of a Special Medical Operation, the term ADHD - attention deficit hyperactive cropped up quite often. There was one predictable feature to this - all cases came from the United States with none
- [Antidepressants and Premature Death](https://rxisk.org/antidepressants-and-premature-death/) - An article appeared in the British Journal of Psychiatry some weeks ago, by Narinder Bansal and colleagues from Bristol University. Having met Narinder I can tell readers she is a very impressive woman, with an impressive husband, Petros, who are both in one way or another working on population health. She had been working in
- [Marilyn Lemak: Trial or Clemency?](https://rxisk.org/marilyn-lemak-trial-or-clemency/) - A few weeks ago, an original set of four posts about Marilyn Lemak - Trial and Punishment, Then and Now, Clemency, When the Music Stops elicited mostly supportive comments from those who comment regularly on RxISK. The three posts last week, Eric Zorn and Marilyn Lemak, People Respond and Janet Lagerloef responds, drew a very
- [Janet Lagerloef Responds to Eric Zorn](https://rxisk.org/janet-lagerloef-responds-to-eric-zorn/) - The following was written by Janet Lagerloef, a writer from Sugar Grove who is finishing up a book about her 10-year friendship with Marilyn Lemak, who is serving a sentence of life without parole for killing her three children in their Naperville home in March,1999. In last week’s issue, I covered the details of that crime
- [People Respond to Eric Zorn and Marilyn Lemak](https://rxisk.org/people-respond-to-eric-zorn-and-marilyn-lemak/) - Does Marilyn Lemak deserve mercy? Readers weigh in These messages are in reference to items in last week’s issues of the Picayune Sentinel. On my interview with Marilyn Lemak Julie S. Marilyn Lemak may have been a model citizen before and after her appalling crime. But the idea of "clemency" for her makes me queasy. I
- [Eric Zorn and Marilyn Lemak](https://rxisk.org/eric-zorn-and-marilyn-lemak/) - Rxisk has featured four posts on Marilyn Lemak, Trial and Punishment, Then and Now, Clemency Hearing and When the Music Stops. Eric Zorn is a former opinion columnist for the Chicago Tribune. His bio and contact information is here. He now writes the Picayune Sentinel, where Marilyn Lemak speaks out about her bid for clemency first
- [New Sex and Drugs Research Forum](https://rxisk.org/new-sex-and-drugs-research-forum/) - RxISK Research Forum for Enduring Sexual Dysfunction RxISK is pleased to announce a new Research Forum. This was trailed in a recent post Our Love Life Needs you to be Wi(c)ked. Since this post we have had a lot of input from many folk offering to help out - mostly advising us to keep it
- [All DRESSed Up With Nowhere To Go](https://rxisk.org/all-dressed-up-with-nowhere-to-go/) - This post was written by several members of the RxISK Team drawing on the work of Jorge Carrasco - see below. There is a prior RxISK post on DRESS Syndrome - No Way to Treat a Lady. María Elisa Rangel was 38 and a mother of four children when she signed up for a phase
- [Human Rights Should Be For Everyone](https://rxisk.org/human-rights-should-be-for-everyone/) - Editorial Note: This post is by Franke James, Teresa's sister. The reaction in the US or UK is that things like this couldn't happen here. Part of the reason no one can believe that treatment is being forced on people who don't need it is that many of us have the experience of not being
- [Marilyn Lemak Clemency Hearing](https://rxisk.org/marilyn-lemak-clemency-hearing/) - This post follows Janet Lagerloef's Marilyn Lemak's Trial and Punishment and Johanna Ryan's Marilyn Lemak Then and Now. Jo was the first person I ever heard talk about this case. Janet has done more than anyone to get Marilyn's case to a Clemency Hearing. She prevailed on several lawyers to pick up the case and
- [Marilyn Lemak Then and Now](https://rxisk.org/marilyn-lemak-then-and-now/) - Haven, House, Horror © Nina Otulakowski July 2022 This post is by Johanna Ryan for whom, like many in Chicago in 1999, the Lemak case was like knowing where you were when Challenger blew up. It is part two of a four part series on Marilyn Lemak and follows Janet Lagerloef's opening post last week.
- [Marilyn Lemak's Trial and Punishment](https://rxisk.org/marilyn-lemaks-trial-and-punishment/) - In 1999 Marilyn Lemak killed her three children and tried to kill herself. She has spent over 22 years in jail since. People in Chicago and beyond can still remember when the news broke. Janet Lagerloef did more. She said there but for the grace of God go I and made it her mission to
- [RxISK Research Fund and Prize](https://rxisk.org/rxisk-research-fund-and-prize/) - We need to clarify some things about the RxISK Prize and Research Fund. The Prize was established RxISK Prize in 2017 - see The Golden Rule, RxISK No-Nos, Relationships, Stigma and Recovery, Campaign and Challenge. Some of us in RxISK have had a difficult few months attempting to set up a Research Fund for PSSD
- [The Holy Grail: Searching for a Cure for PSSD](https://rxisk.org/the-holy-grail-searching-for-a-cure-for-pssd/) - The Holy Grail © Nina Otulakowski June 2022 You need to click on the image to get the full effects. Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD) is a debilitating consequence of taking serotonin reuptake inhibiting drugs (SSRIs, SNRIs, some antihistamines, some antibiotics, some analgesics and other medicines) that can leave people of all ages, and from all countries
- [The Best Books on Medical Treatments Gone Wrong](https://rxisk.org/the-best-books-on-medical-treatments-gone-wrong/) - A month ago I had an email from Ben Fox of forauthors@shepherd.com - a new venture looking to promote books in a new way. See Shepherd.com. The idea is to feature a book by an author and then get her or him to list five books that have particularly influenced them - centered on a
- [Tsang/Shidlofsky Visual Snow Protocol](https://rxisk.org/tsang-shidlofsky-visual-snow-protocol/) - Visual snow describes the appearance of flickering dots or “static” in the field of vision. It’s thought to be a problem with visual processing rather than a structural issue within the eyes. This can cause difficulties for patients when trying to report visual snow to their doctor, as standard eye examinations typically find no abnormalities
- [Launching the RxISK Prize](https://rxisk.org/launching-the-rxisk-prize/) - This Prize is part of a two-pronged attack on the unwillingness of the medical and regulatory establishments to listen to people with adverse events in general - not just the sexual dysfunctions mentioned here. The second front in the attack will be unveiled in a few weeks' time. The problem The idea for a RxISK
- [Strangers in the Room: Vaccine Mandates](https://rxisk.org/strangers-in-the-room/) - When Kate and William went to their doctor to ask about a medical exemption for him following the brain haemorrhage he had had two days after his second vaccination (See Thinking Fast and Slow), Kate was bewildered at a disconnect between her and the doctor in the room with them, a doctor she normally thought
- [$100K and a List of Doctors](https://rxisk.org/100k-and-a-list-of-doctors/) - $100,000 target reached We are pleased to announce that the RxISK Prize, which was launched on 12 September 2017, has reached it’s goal of $100,000. This consists of money that has been donated as well as pledges from two generous donors who have provided written agreement to hand over money in the event that a
- [RxISK Prize: How you can help](https://rxisk.org/rxisk-prize-how-you-can-help/) - As will be clear from some of the helpful comments on the first post about a RxISK Prize, you are going to have to work with us to make this work. Your input can take several forms. The greatest need The biggest block to making the Prize work is the same block everyone suffering from
- [The Invisible Doctor](https://rxisk.org/the-invisible-doctor/) - From her first email M seemed completely believable. Everything since has added to her believability. So why is she not believed? This post offers another example of repeated Sanctuary Trauma, outlined in last week's post, in earlier Kidnapped Daughter posts and in all posts tagged Medical Kidnap. In The Beginning Thirteen years ago, this spring
- [Brain Fog: What is it? How to Treat it.](https://rxisk.org/brain-fog-what-is-it-how-to-treat-it/) - Lots of people complain of cognitive problems on or after taking medications, whether psychotropic drugs, cholesterol lowering statins, asthma drugs like montelukast, or fluoroquinolone antibiotics. They often use the word “Brain Fog” to cover this. Women get Brain Fog in pregnancy that can linger afterwards. People with Long Covid complain of Brain Fog as do
- [Welcome to Mondor, Frodo](https://rxisk.org/welcome-to-mondor-frodo/) - Quarantined Last October one of the key researchers on PSSD noticed a thread on Reddit about sexual dysfunction post vaccine. Apparently the thread has been quarantined and you have to join the Reddit group to access it - this is likely true about a lot of vaccine related threads. Here are two testimonies that appear.
- [New England Journal of Medicine: Baden et al](https://rxisk.org/new-england-journal-of-medicine-baden-et-al/) - This post, a twin to the New England Journal of Misinformation post, has been created for its hyperlink. It does however play into the current post about cholecystitis following vaccination - in this case with the Moderna vaccine - which features in Tales of an Unexpected Gallbladder. It also seems to show that NEJM are
- [Leader with a Mandate to Eliminate Contagion](https://rxisk.org/leader-with-a-mandate-to-eliminate-contagion/) - Breaking News Jorge Mario Moves with the Times Having been the first Head of State to introduce Mandates, Jorge Mario Bergoglio appears to have gotten the bit between his teeth and is now embracing (perhaps the wrong word) modern medicine rather completely. While one will surely come, there is not at present an mRNA gene
- [Sex Please but We Are on Antidepressants](https://rxisk.org/sex-please-but-we-are-on-antidepressants/) - This anonymous post stemmed from a RxISK report, which came in following A Time for PSSD last week. If anyone else, female or male, has started an antidepressant before or early in puberty with things not working quite as a result - anything from being asexual through to intrusive uncontrollable orgasms - you can file
- [Warning re Health](https://rxisk.org/warning-re-health/) - This is a warning about two linked posts - with two more next week. The Eclipse of Health Care features on davidhealy.org. It has a partner There was a Young Woman who Swallowed a Lie on RxISK.org These were combined in one document - Mandating Unproven Technologies, which along with a set of appendices was
- [Helping H: SSRI Withdrawal](https://rxisk.org/helping-h-ssri-withdrawal/) - The expert inputs Managing Efexor and SSRI Withdrawal and Protracted Antidepressant Withdrawal to and comments on H’s case Side Effexor Withdrawal have been wonderful to get and hopefully will be a resource for others. Helping H H’s original problem and the idea of a commentary came about because 3 of us considered her case in
- [Albert's Algorithm: Be Very Afraid](https://rxisk.org/alberts-algorithm-be-very-afraid/) - Last week in Washington a meeting was convened to look at Vaccine Harms - the harms suffered post-vaccine by some pro-vaccine people, some so much pro that they enrolled for vaccine clinical trials. See Mandated Harms. The meeting heard testimony from ten people, eight of whom I had interviewed, all of whom in my opinion
- [The Nature and Meaning of Psychiatry](https://rxisk.org/the-nature-and-meaning-of-psychiatry/) - This post links intimately with The Standardization of Psychiatry - you might even call it A Necessary Shadow. Standardization was a lecture on psychiatry given in the Royal Society of Medicine on October 5. To find out what's going on you need to read the Back Story to Standardization. Back in 2013, I was asked
- [Prescribed Harms and Vaccine Hesitancy](https://rxisk.org/prescribed-harms-and-vaccine-hesitancy/) - In 2015, there was a series of posts on davidhealy.org Pharmaceutical Rape, Pharmaceutical Rape is not a Metaphor, Pharmaceutical Rape: Cast of Characters, Pharmaceutical Rape: The Good Patient, Pharmaceutical Rape: Doctors Still Know Best, Pharmaceutical Rape: Discrimination, Pharmaceutical Rape: Ending our Tolerance. The following year GlaxoSmithKline lawyers deposed me in the Dolin case, spending hours
- [Regula(to)r Woman or Mother: Wright as Raine](https://rxisk.org/regulator-woman-or-mother-wright-as-raine/) - This post needs to be read in conjunction with Companies and Mothers on davidhealy.org. Most people think pharmaceutical companies are evil and regulators are on our side. Both are intensely bureaucratic. They hide behind procedures. Judge for yourself which has the most humanity. June Raine CEO, MHRA 10 South Colonnade Canary Wharf London E14 4PU
- [Cipro will do the Trick: FDA, FAD and You](https://rxisk.org/cipro-will-do-the-trick-fda-fad-and-you/) - There are many RxISK posts on antibiotics - look under antibiotics - with 6 or so dealing with Fluoroquinolones from the original Flox-Tox to Fluoroquinolones: Not so Carte Blanche. Miriam Knight has written this one. Doctor: “I’ll give you an antibiotic to clear that up”. Me: “Thanks very much”. I imagine just about everyone reading
- [Mind Softens Warning about Sexual Side Effects of Antidepressants](https://rxisk.org/mind-softens-warning-about-sexual-side-effects-of-antidepressants/) - Mind is a mental health charity based in England and Wales. For several years, their information on antidepressants has included a warning that sexual side effects may continue after stopping an SSRI or SNRI - Post SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD). We recently contacted Mind after noticing a change to the wording. See the emails below.
- [A Birth to Announce](https://rxisk.org/a-birth-to-announce/) - Samizdat is proud to announce the imminent birth of El Naufragio de lo Singular – a transformation into Spanish of Shipwreck of the Singular. The birth will be before the end of September. As the expectant parents wait - they invite you this post as the equivalent of a baby shower party. Baby showers may
- [Once We Were Warriors Tackling Prescription Drugs](https://rxisk.org/once-we-were-warriors-tackling-prescription-drugs/) - The title of this echoes We Were Warriors but also Once Were Warriors. The post dovetails with What's a Life Worth, Morgan vs Morgan, and next weeks Escaping the Prescription Drug Maze. All will be on the Politics of Care Forum. The post copies a letter sent to J Mercer MP last week, with images
- [What’s a life worth?  Is anyone listening?](https://rxisk.org/whats-a-life-worth-is-anyone-listening/) - This post is by Tracey G. Tracey approached me and as you'll see others in October 2020 for materials on antidepressants to give her Member of Parliament, Johnny Mercer. She had been in touch in 2018 - "lost in the world of not being taken seriously or believed with regards to a possible protracted withdrawal".
- [What Happened to Britney Spears can Happen to You](https://rxisk.org/what-happened-britney-spears-can-happen-you/) - Britney Spears has eloquently put an issue on the plate for all of us - listen Here - an issue that can affect all of us. Jim Gottstein has devoted a lifetime to grappling with this issue and recently wrote The Zyprexa Papers a book that features Bill Bigley, who was in a very similar
- [Forty Winks: Insomnia and Antidepressants](https://rxisk.org/forty-winks-insomnia-and-antidepressants/) - This post is by Bob Fiddaman. The phrase "forty winks" can be traced back to Dr. William Kitchiner’s 1821 self-help guide, The Art of Invigorating and Prolonging Life. The title is ironic given many users of antidepressants really don't find that their medication invigorates or, indeed prolongs their lives, although many will argue that they prolong
- [Sleep Problems After Stopping Antidepressants?](https://rxisk.org/sleep-problems-after-stopping-antidepressants/) - It is well known that antidepressants can interfere with a person's sleep, but it's less clear what happens after they stop taking the drug. One of our earliest blog posts from 2012 was written by someone experiencing terrifying nightmares while withdrawing from Cymbalta. The post received a number of comments from other people reporting the
- [A Public Service or A Lethal Scam?](https://rxisk.org/a-public-service-or-a-lethal-scam/) - RxISK was emailed about a post on SSRI Stories recently. Julie Wood runs SSRI stories, which features newspaper or related public domain material about suicides, homicides or other events linked to SSRI or other psychotropic drug intake. The email read as follows: Your using an article about my family members suicide as a propaganda piece and
- [Coercion, Zyprexa and Psychiatry](https://rxisk.org/coercion-zyprexa-and-psychiatry/) - Imagine this. Someone in your life finds you inordinately eccentric, annoying or alarming, and decides you have a “mental illness,” whatever that is. Soon, you are being apprehended, sometimes violently, and locked up on a psych ward, despite your clear statements that you do not agree to being detained or to being medicated against your
- [A Roadmap for Fighting Corporate Giants](https://rxisk.org/a-roadmap-for-fighting-corporate-giants/) - To me, The Zyprexa Papers reads like a combination between a Stephen King horror tale and a John Grisham legal thriller. I have met the author Jim Gottstein once, and I remember him as an unassuming low-key individual not prone to self-promotion. After reading this book, I now realize what a heroic figure he actually is. Not
- [A Legal System for Drug Companies not Patients](https://rxisk.org/a-legal-system-for-drug-companies-not-patients/) - On November 28, 2006, attorney Jim Gottstein received a phone call that would change his life. It would propel Gottstein into a legal war against the giant pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, who would retaliate against him for his release of Lilly’s own documents about its drug Zyprexa. A U.S. District Court would rule that Gottstein
- [The Bestselling Zyprexa Papers](https://rxisk.org/the-bestselling-zyprexa-papers/) - Book sales are strange things. Depending on how you cut the cake, it can take relatively few buys to make a book the number one selling book in a particular category. It may be that there aren't a huge number of mental health law books and this explains how early orders of the new hardback
- [The Zyprexa Papers: Outing drug company corruption](https://rxisk.org/the-zyprexa-papers-outing-drug-company-corruption/) - This Review by Maryanne Demasi first appeared in the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics Online December 29, 2020 Harvard-trained lawyer Jim Gottstein is the author of the new book, The Zyprexa Papers. It is a compelling, first-hand account of how a humble attorney from Alaska manages to expose the rot inside one of the biggest
- [Remember Those Condemned to Swallow](https://rxisk.org/remember-those-condemned-to-swallow/) - Prescription for Sorrow: Antidepressants, Suicide and Violence Patrick D. Hahn Samizdat Writer’s Co-operative, 2020 A book review by Mira de Vries, MeTZelf Has your doctor prescribed you an antidepressant? Are you planning to have the prescription filled? Read this book first. SSRIs, falsely called antidepressants, are poisons. They do not relieve depression but do have grave
- [A Story of Iatrogenic Insanity: Prescription for Sorrow](https://rxisk.org/a-story-of-iatrogenic-insanity-prescription-for-sorrow/) - There are quite a few books published about the lack of benefit and harm caused by so-called “anti-depressants.” The fact that so many people have felt compelled to write such books is interesting in itself. Prescription for Sorrow, by Patrick Hahn, is simply the best one I have read. It is the most engaging and readable. This
- [Malcharist: A Spellbinding Thriller 2](https://rxisk.org/malcharist-a-spellbinding-thriller-2/) - This review by Kevin Miller was posted on Amazon under the heading The Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction As one who has had the fortune/misfortune of reporting on the “science” behind prescription psychiatric drugs for 20+ years, I was thrilled to find MALCHARIST, the new novel by Paul John Scott. Mr. Scott’s writing is engrossing
- [Malcharist: A Spellbinding Thriller](https://rxisk.org/malcharist-a-spellbinding-thriller/) - This review of Malcharist is by Patrick D. Hahn, author of Prescription for Sorrow and Madness and Genetic Determinism with a further review below by Annie Bevan. What Paddy Chayefsky’s Network was to the Twentieth Century, Paul John Scott’s Malcharist is to the Twenty-First. This is a novel that takes the reader deep inside the Pharmaceutical Empire which invents
- [The Hemingway Effect](https://rxisk.org/the-hemingway-effect/) - Malcharist began life as The Hemingway Effect, and possibly other things before that. For a long time it was The Placebo Suicides before Paul John Scott decided to experiment and see if people would buy a book with a title that didn’t conjure up images they might identify with – other than something vaguely
- [Malcharist: Fact or Fiction?](https://rxisk.org/malcharist-fact-or-fiction/) - Yesterday we had a review of Malcharist by Gary Schwitzer. Today's review is by Leemon McHenry - see below. Malcharist, by Paul John Scott, is a fictional account of one of psychiatry’s most influential key opinion leaders (KOLs), his ghostwriter, and a journalist on the trail of a big scandal in the world of Big Pharma.
- [Fiction that captures reality: Malcharist](https://rxisk.org/fiction-that-captures-reality-malcharist/) - Malcharist… warns, educates, inspires. Malcharist tells stories mirroring the ugliness and craziness of health care Review by Gary Schwitzer I don’t read much fiction. Never have. As a journalist for 48 years, my mind and my eyes are focused on learning from history and reflecting on current events. But I’ve crossed paths with Paul
- [Farewell Marchino](https://rxisk.org/farewell-marchino/) - Nearly a week ago a group of Italians sent this post written after one of their number gave up his struggle with PSSD and the system. We've been very slow posting it - partly because of the emotions it stirs. Its quiet beginning and contained fury at the end conjured up Marc Antony's speech after
- [Medical Assistance in Dying: A Personal Perspective](https://rxisk.org/medical-assistance-in-dying-a-personal-perspective/) - I have personal experience of seeking help with Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD). I also have personal experience of considering taking my own life by suicide. These instances have been as a result of feeling physically and mentally distraught, and with a fear that there may be no realistic potential for improvement in my
- [Gripped by and Discarded by GlaxoSmithKline](https://rxisk.org/gripped-by-and-discarded-by-glaxosmithkline/) - Paroxetine, aka Seroxat in the UK and Paxil in the US, SSRIs, adverse reactions, rage attacks – words to which I wish I had been introduced without so much hurt attached. Late in 2001, aged 21, one of our sons, Shane – one of a family of five placed in long-term foster care with us
- [MAiD in Canada: Treatment Resistant Depression](https://rxisk.org/maid-in-canada-treatment-resistant-depression/) - See accompanying MAiD in Canada and Sex. Illustration: Meds © created by Billiam James The provision of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) is under review in Canada with debate about access for patients with mental illness. An amendment to the draft legislation eliminating the exclusion of people with mental illness was proposed by Senator Stan
- [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; Courageous, Charismatic, Attractive?](https://rxisk.org/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-courageous-charismatic-attractive/) - Although last weeks post on RxISK portrayed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a Socialist when the times call for something more than this, she does seem to offer a lot more than any other politician, almost anywhere else. Targeted by the Capitol Hill mob, she has since drawn a compelling analogy between what happened and what happens
- [Healthcare's Castaways: Shipwreck of the Singular](https://rxisk.org/healthcares-castaways-shipwreck-of-the-singular/) - Shipwreck of the Singular, which Samizdat has just published, took more time to write than all my other books combined. The others tumbled out - often in just a few weeks. Unpublishable Pharmageddon took 3 weeks. But it then took 4 years to find a publisher. I took on an agent to help get a
- [Starship Corona: Captain's Log](https://rxisk.org/starship-corona-captains-log/) - The use of psychiatric meds in the U.S., already sky-high, is on the rise as a result of Covid-19. That’s not surprising – it happened after the 9-11 attacks, the 2008 crash and other crises. This graph comes from “America’s State of Mind,” an April 2020 report from Express Scripts. In the month from February
- [Medications compromising Covid Infections](https://rxisk.org/medications-compromising-covid-infections/) - IN THE MIDST OF THE SARS-CoV-2 PANDEMIA, CAUTION IS NEEDED WITH COMMONLY USED DRUGS THAT INCREASE THE RISK OF PNEUMONIA. Joan-Ramon Laporte, M.D. Emeritus Professor of Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Pharmacology, Therapeutics and Toxicology Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Fundació Institut Català de Farmacologia. WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Pharmacoepidemiology. jrl@icf.uab.cat David Healy
- [Report Covid Vaccine Effects to RxISK](https://rxisk.org/report-covid-vaccine-effects-to-rxisk/) - This post asks anyone taking any Covid vaccine to report to RxISK using a RxISK Report if an event or condition occurs soon or some time after a jab that might be linked to the jab. You will need to specify just which vaccine you have been given and the dates of the first and
- [Colchicine and Covid and Google](https://rxisk.org/colchicine-and-covid-and-google/) - Perhaps linked to this January 23rd news: MONTREAL -- A team of researchers from the Montreal Heart Institute believe they have found an effective weapon against COVID-19: colchicine, an oral tablet already known and used for other diseases. Full Article HERE We had an enquiry from a reader - can we let him know the
- [I Am Your Patient Too](https://rxisk.org/i-am-your-patient-too/) - This 2020 closes in the middle of Covid19 and with the package leaflets of SSRI and SNRI antidepressants just updated in Europe with a new but evasive Warning: 'Cases have been observed where symptoms of sexual dysfunction have persisted after discontinuation of treatment'. Doctors, did you notice? Here I am. My sexual symptoms caused by
- [Daffodils and Withdrawal?](https://rxisk.org/daffodils-and-withdrawal/) - Stimulated by the recent Transient Receptor Potential (TRP) discussion, the following began as a comment from one of RxISK's background activists but grew into a post. RxISK is not about to desert orthodox medicine and turn to herbalism but herbalism may well have a lot to offer. It looks like many traditional remedies actually do
- [TRP Drugs and Herbs for Withdrawal and PSSD](https://rxisk.org/trp-drugs-and-herbs-for-withdrawal-and-pssd/) - We first mentioned Transient Receptor Potential (TRP) Channels/ Receptors in several RxISK posts about withdrawal and they feature on the RxISK Complex Withdrawal Page under Ion Channels. The table on that page gives a fascinating list of herbs and other compounds that could conceivably play a part in stabilizing people who are having withdrawal problems.
- [PIMsPlus: Resources for Safer Medications](https://rxisk.org/pimsplus-resources-for-safer-medications/) - Today Taper MD launch PIMsPlus.org, a new free searchable resource for safer medication use which is focused on Potentially Inappropriate Medications (PIMs): medications that should be used with caution in older adults because research and clinical experience with these medications have shown that the risk of adverse effects can outweigh the benefits. The aim of
- [Functional Neurological Disorder?](https://rxisk.org/functional-neurological-disorder/) - A recent RxISK post on SSRI triggered Movement Disorders - My Doctor Thinks I'm Faking It - put together by Stevie Lewis, attracted less attention than we expected. This may be because it featured strange movements and few of us figure we are in a good position to make sense of strange movements. The movements
- [Where's Anonymous?](https://rxisk.org/wheres-anonymous/) - The following email arrived last week from someone who is unknown to me – has never filed a RxISK report about PSSD, never contributed to the RxISK Prize, never previously been in touch that I know of – at least under the name offered - doesn’t sign off, and is unwilling to engage in a
- [Medication Errors resulting in CNS Damage from Contrast Agent Overdose](https://rxisk.org/medication-errors-resulting-in-cns-damage-from-contrast-agent-overdose/)
- [RxISK and Sharks](https://rxisk.org/rxisk-and-sharks/) - Two posts last week on RxISK Biohacking and david healy Stormy Weather raised issues about the Enduring Sexual Dysfunctions (ESD) linked to SSRIs and related drugs (PSSD and PGAD), finasteride and related drugs (PFS), and isotretinoin (PRSD). In the biohacking post both sides of the “debate” were concerned about the people with these conditions
- [Bio Rip-off, Bio Delusions, Bio Hack?](https://rxisk.org/bio-rip-off-bio-delusions-bio-hack/) - This ambiguous picture comes up when you search under grave robbing - nothing you can make money out of is sacred. But its entitled grave digger. Digger, robber, it can be hard to tell. We had an email a few days ago about a young man desperately seeking help who had in good faith took
- [Protracted Antidepressant Withdrawal](https://rxisk.org/protracted-antidepressant-withdrawal/) - Following H's report of difficulties with Effexor, we asked Will Hall, Altostrata, Bob Fiddaman and Josef Witt-Doerring, all experienced in this area, how they would Manage her Withdrawal. We also asked Peter Groot who helped develop the first Tapering Strips for Antidepressant withdrawal - who with colleagues has demonstrated that this can help many people
- [Managing Effexor and SSRI Withdrawal](https://rxisk.org/managing-effexor-and-ssri-withdrawal/) - H's nightmare with Effexor withdrawal was laid out in last week's post. Experts on antidepressant withdrawal were asked to comment - Will Hall, Altostrata, Peter C Groot, Bob Fiddaman, Josef Witt-Doerring have generously given time to do so. James Moore, Stevie Lewis and Ed White, administrator for a Facebook venlafaxine withdrawal group, who have substantial
- [The Lancet, The BMJ, The NEJM and RxISK](https://rxisk.org/the-lancet-the-bmj-the-nejm-and-rxisk/) - .. The RxISK post on Medications Compromising Covid Infections resonated with many. Its basic premise that many of the drugs we are on might compromise our ability to fight the infection seems close to self-evident. It made a call to the powers that be to ensure that data was collected on the meds that people
- [Children of the Cure: Fear of Lying](https://rxisk.org/children-of-the-cure-fear-of-lying/) - Samizdat has just published Children of the Cure - the Preface of which is here This Book is not a Game. Quotes from the text are in Hand of History on davidhealy.org. Most of the first chapter is below. Flying to Philadelphia Shelley Jofre was 32 when she got on a plane to Philadelphia in
- [Sexually Confused or Chemically Imbalanced Cosmopolitan](https://rxisk.org/sexually-confused-or-chemically-imbalanced-cosmopolitan/) - April's Cosmopolitan features How Depression Stole my Orgasm - an article on Sex for sure... but Sex and Depression or Sex and Antidepressants? It's worth downloading the full article and telling us what you think the message is. It opens with some pretty clear examples of how SSRIs have immediate effects on sex and can
- [Snakes in a Love Drug 2](https://rxisk.org/snakes-in-a-love-drug-2/) - This image is widely viewed as a symbol of medicine. Many, particularly in America, owing to a bad mistake by the American Medical Association, would identify it as the Rod of Aesclepius, a healer in Ancient Greece. But its not a symbol of medicine - as it used to be at least - its the
- [Snakes in a Love Drug on St Patricks Day](https://rxisk.org/snakes-in-a-love-drug-on-st-patricks-day/) - IJME In recent years the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics has been to the forefront in grappling with tricky issues in medical ethics and politics - topics that the best known medical journals and authorities should deal with but steer clear of. One of us (DH) had a growing awareness of IJME's lead on tricky
- [Diane and Diana: Carly's Story](https://rxisk.org/diane-and-diana-carlys-story/) - Carly’s story: I was referred to a psychiatrist for adult ADD when I started my first year at university. I made a passing complaint to my aunt, who is also a GP, over the summer about some occasional acne around my period. She suggested that I try Diane-35. I was also taking dexedrine at the time,
- [Cis- and Trans-Drug Wrecks](https://rxisk.org/cis-and-trans-drug-wrecks/) - After a Montelukast Withdrawal Syndrome post two weeks back, we had more comments than after any previous post - so much so that this seemed worth noting in a Post in its own right. After last weeks Transgender Meds, we have had fewer comments than after any previous post. This also seems worth noting in
- [Lupron: Homicide of a Husband](https://rxisk.org/lupron-homicide-of-a-husband/) - Editorial Note: This post starts with Michelle Millikan's report to FDA of the night she killed her husband. The event Several days after my 6th injection of Lupron Depot, in some kind of an impossible-to-understand and difficult-to-explain 'fugue state', I killed my husband with a gunshot to the head while he was sleeping. I have
- [Causes Sexual Dysfunction, Suicide and Birth Defects?](https://rxisk.org/causes-sexual-dysfunction-suicide-and-birth-defects/) - Everyone who reads RxISK posts will know that SSRI and related drugs (some antibiotics, painkillers, antihistamines and most antidepressants) can cause sexual dysfunction. This has been known since 1961. And that they can cause suicide. This has been known since 1959. And that they can cause birth defects. The first publication by an Australian obstetrician,
- [The Politics of PSSD](https://rxisk.org/the-politics-of-pssd/) - Members of the British parliament In October 2019, we were contacted by a British PSSD sufferer who had done some excellent work in getting his Member of Parliament (MP), Steve McCabe, interested in the condition. We were informed that Mr. McCabe wanted to get a large group of MPs together to try and get some
- [Sex, Withdrawal and Boundaries](https://rxisk.org/sex-withdrawal-and-boundaries/) - “Do you think studying monolayers of cells will tell you why you fall in love with a girl?" The quote comes from Rudolf Hess, who won the Nobel Prize for physiology in 1949. His students remembered him as telling them never to study a neurotransmitter or even a cell without thinking about where this bit
- [Gateway to the Soul](https://rxisk.org/gateway-to-the-soul/) - Read the accompanying Sex, Withdrawal and Boundaries post first. We are looking for anyone interested in the material raised there to comment on or add to the set of questions below. We are so insensitive to the fact that our skin and gut principally, but also bladder and maybe the inner linings of our lungs,
- [The Banality of Health Service Evil](https://rxisk.org/the-banality-of-health-service-evil/) - In the early 1960s, the American social psychologist, Stanley Milgram, ran now famous experiments using university students - then largely white and middle-class - as his subjects . His research interest lay in the Nazi concentration camps and the defence used by Adolf Eichmann (featured image) in his trial in Israel in 1962 - that
- [Healthcare or Health Service?](https://rxisk.org/healthcare-or-health-service/) - Up to 1800, no-one went near a doctor if they could avoid it. At best doctors might amuse the patient while nature cured the disease - the doctor's business was to take as much of the credit and the money as possible. The best was rare. In an effort to get the money, doctors liked
- [Trust Withdrawal and Antidepressants](https://rxisk.org/trust-withdrawal-and-antidepressants/) - The images, which are a wonderful metaphor for the coming back to life, the restoration of emotions and senses that stopping an antidepressant can bring, comes from this news item - its worth clicking on the video link There have probably been more posts about withdrawal from antidepressants - especially if PSSD is included as
- [Antidepressant Withdrawal - The Enemy Within](https://rxisk.org/antidepressant-withdrawal-the-enemy-within/) - National Horror Show It goes completely against the grain for almost everyone in the UK to say anything bad about the NHS. But in the case of the antidepressant group of drugs, with the brief note the NHS has just issued alerting people to the effect that antidepressants may be difficult to stop puts
- [Business Opportunity courtesy of Impeto Medical](https://rxisk.org/business-opportunity-courtesy-of-impeto-medical/) - Some months ago we had organised for 6 volunteers with PSSD to get tested for peripheral neuropathy, using a Sudoscan, made by Impeto Medical, who are based in Paris. By chance we found that there is a genital adaptor for the Sudoscan that has been in use for several years in Paris, leading to a
- [Device Wrecks & Regulators?](https://rxisk.org/device-wrecks-regulators/) - RxISK is powered by people working behind the scenes - picking at threads and sometimes finding something rather different to what they expected. One of those who can't resist a loose thread is Suzanne Stevens, who has been interested in our Sudoscan problem. Many of you suffering with PSSD or related PRS, PRSD and PGAD
- [Ecclesiastical and Pharmaceutical Risk Benefit Calculations](https://rxisk.org/ecclesiastical-and-pharmaceutical-risk-benefit-calculations/) - The Catholic Church has been convulsed in recent years by sexual abuse scandals. There are two aspects to this. One has been the harm inflicted on children from the abuse but in many instances as much if not more damage has arisen from the secondary harms these children and later adults have incurred in their
- [Extinction Revolt?](https://rxisk.org/extinction-revolt/) - Editorial Note: Following the Montelukast, Fluoroquinolone and Psychotropic post, there is a comment from Heather Roberts to which David Healy responded. The edited comments are here. This led to an email exchange between HR and DH which follows. Along with Wendy Dolin and her MISSD website (see above) and Billiam James' Akathisia Anthem, Heather and
- [Antidepressant Withdrawal Welsh Senedd Debate](https://rxisk.org/antidepressant-withdrawal-welsh-senedd-debate/) - Editorial Note: For context see Welsh Government Response to Withdrawal Petition. The image is of Janet Finch-Saunders. The cover image is of the Senedd building. Debate on the Petitions Committee Report: Petition P-05-784 Prescription drug dependence and withdrawal—recognition and support Motion NDM7053 Janet Finch-Saunders To propose that the National Assembly for Wales: Notes the report
- [Welsh Government Response to Withdrawal Petition](https://rxisk.org/welsh-government-response-to-withdrawal-petition/) - For Context to this post - See Welsh Senedd Withdrawal Seminar and Welsh and Scottish Petitions on Antidepressant Dependence. From Stevie Lewis Dear All, At the back end of last week I received the Welsh Government's response to the Petitions Committee's recommendations - see HERE. As you'll see from the attached, they have accepted
- [RxISK Rorschach: Do not Go Gentle](https://rxisk.org/rxisk-rorschach-do-not-go-gentle/) - Last week's RxISK post on Assisted Dying proved something of a Rorschach test. People read diametrically opposite messages into it. It was written at the same time as Something Stupid This Way Comes and cross-referenced this. This I thought made it clear that there is no such thing as Treatment Resistant Depression (TRD). TRD is
- [Welsh and Scottish Petitions on Antidepressant Dependence](https://rxisk.org/welsh-and-scottish-petitions-on-antidepressant-dependence/) - Scottish and Welsh Parliaments Debate Psychiatric Drug Dependence and Withdrawal Over the last decade, the UK has seen dramatic increases in the number of people prescribed psychiatric drugs. In the British National Formulary, the prescribers bible, Chapter 4 represents Central Nervous System drugs including antidepressants, antipsychotics, anxiolytics, antiepileptics and sedatives. The total numbers prescribed have increased
- [Encountering Doctors](https://rxisk.org/encountering-doctors/) - Editorial Note: The image goes with a study headlined Doctors stop listening to patients several seconds into a conversation. This post is from one of the many PSSD sufferers who behind the scenes has been helping push research on this awful condition forward. It would be a lot easier if doctors did listen. Just as
- [Emotionally Unstable Brand Disorder](https://rxisk.org/emotionally-unstable-brand-disorder/) - Editorial: James Moore on his Let's Talk Withdrawal site has recently posted the following. The reason to reproduce here is that it seems to overlap so much with the Peter Goetzsche Affair - see below. In both instances we have an ex-Collaboration in one case and almost ex-College in another more concerned with their brand
- [Emotionally Unstable Society Disorder](https://rxisk.org/emotionally-unstable-society-disorder/) - The news today in the UK is that nearly a quarter of young women have mental health problems - Here. A similar message appeared in this article from New Zealand a few days ago - Demand for university counselling services grows 25 per cent in two years - the text without photos and videos is below.
- [Is there such a thing as Adult ADHD?](https://rxisk.org/is-there-such-a-thing-as-adult-adhd/) - After a variety of incarnations - Minimal Brain Damage - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) came on the radar in the 1970s in the US and exploded with its codification in DSM-III in 1980. The general sense in most of the world in the 1980s - aside from a developing ADHD-mania in the US -
- [Fluoroquinolones: Not so Carte-Blanche](https://rxisk.org/fluoroquinolones-not-so-carte-blanche/) - Last June, in “Historic Summit: Flox and Tox Get Together”, I told you about the European Medicines Agency's Review and Public Hearing into the side effects of Fluoroquinolones. It was only the second time in the EMA's history that they'd decided to hold a Public Hearing (because of the amount of public interest in this
- [Serotonin Syndrome](https://rxisk.org/serotonin-syndrome/) - It is commonly recognized that certain medications should not be administered with some others. What is not well known is that several over the counter (OTC) medications and herbal supplements can be lethal if taken with SSRIs. I have a patient who was taking fluoxetine and, experiencing some difficulty with sleep, decided to take one
- [RxISK's Ten Threats to Global Health 2019](https://rxisk.org/rxisks-ten-threats-to-global-health-2019/) - WHO's Ten Threats to Global Health in 2019 have been much in the news lately - a kind of collective New Year's Resolution list. The 10 resolutions can be seen below. They have prompted an alternate RxISK list of threats. These are not listed in order of importance. RxISK's Threat List Sequestration of Clinical Trial Data.
- [Silent Night - in the Vatican](https://rxisk.org/silent-night-in-the-vatican/) - There is no intention in this piece to cause offence. But there seems to be no point in being anything other than blunt. Two thousand years ago, Aristotle could argue that politics should be moral - that we should govern the polis in a manner that fostered virtue in its citizens. There wasn’t then the
- [Welsh Senate Withdrawal Seminar](https://rxisk.org/welsh-senate-withdrawal-seminar/) - Last week a seminar on dependence on and withdrawal from antidepressants took place in the Welsh Senedd, overlooking Cardiff Bay. It was the initiative of and organised by Aled Jones of Prescription Drug Awareness, Support and Treatment, under the auspices of Mark Drakeford - the First Minister. The Senedd building was a stunning setting for
- [Lawyer Needed](https://rxisk.org/lawyer-needed/) - Lawyer Needed For a job that will offer no pay. The case will be in the family courts and involves a divorce petition but its not clear that the lawyer needs to have any family law experience as this will be like no prior family law case. A number of posts on RxISK and davidhealy.org
- [My PGAD Nightmare](https://rxisk.org/my-pgad-nightmare/) - Editorial Point: This post is both an extraordinary account of PGAD (Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder) but also an extraordinary account of what many people have to put up with from psychiatry. For some of the history of PGAD see our Citizen's Petition to FDA. See also the video clip on PGAD. At the beginning of
- [Post-Retinoid Sexual Dysfunction (PRSD) Petition](https://rxisk.org/petition-about-isotretinoin-sexual-side-effects/) - There are long-standing reports of sexual dysfunction linked to the use of isotretinoin, a retinoid drug used in the treatment of acne. FDA and MHRA received the first reports of sexual dysfunction involving isotretinoin in 1983 and 1985 respectively, and according to a publication in The Lancet, Roche had received 150 reports of problems affecting the
- [Post-Finasteride Syndrome & Amino Acids](https://rxisk.org/post-finasteride-syndrome-amino-acids/) - Editorial Note: This post has just arrived. We need to know if the treatment outlined makes any difference to others with PFS, PSSD and PRSD. It looks safe to test. You can help us by testing it if you have one of these conditions. We'd also like to know if you are aware of any
- [Akathisia, Depression & Suicide: The List](https://rxisk.org/akathisia-depression-suicide-the-list/) - This post closes our series on akathisia. Along with posts on davidhealy.org, the other posts were: Akathisia Anthem 500+ Drugs that Cause Depression and Suicide – AKA Akathisia Akathisia Challenge Even Politicians get killed by Akathisia In 500 drugs that cause depression and suicide, we mentioned building a new list of drugs that can cause
- [Even Politicians get killed by Akathisia](https://rxisk.org/even-politicians-get-killed-by-akathisia/) - Editorial Note: - This continues our series of the lethal effects of akathisia running on RxISK and davidhealy.org - with special reference to Little Red SSRIding Hood and Even Docs get killed by Akathisia. Akathisia and treatment induced suicide took a political turn over the weekend, along with the issue of whether teenagers should be informed
- [500+ Drugs that Cause Depression and Suicide - AKA Akathisia](https://rxisk.org/500-drugs-that-cause-depression-and-suicide-aka-akathisia/) - Billiam James' Akathisia Anthem released last week and available HERE is timely. Since this headline in Newsweek in May 2013, things have got worse. In America since 2015, life expectancy has been falling and in other developed countries it has stopped rising. Recent American studies have fingered rising suicide rates as one factor in this
- [SSRIs & Loss of Identity](https://rxisk.org/ssris-loss-of-identity/) - Editorial Note: This post reflects a probably not uncommon reality. There is no doubt people can be left with permanent dysfunction after a short course of SSRIs, or permanent depersonalization, so a permanent change of identity is possible and even likely for some - but features nowhere in the books. The author initially figured his
- [A Blast from the Past: Amphetamines for Weight Loss](https://rxisk.org/a-blast-from-the-past-amphetamines-for-weight-loss/) - Author: Johanna Ryan The story below, a first-person account of life on (and off) amphetamine “diet pills,” was written over forty years ago. It couldn’t be more relevant. Under the cover of a public-health crusade against obesity, drug companies are bringing back old-fashioned “speed” in brand-new packages. Last week’s post described the newly-approved weight loss pill Contrave,
- [Sudden Cardiac Death: Vanessa's Story](https://rxisk.org/sudden-cardiac-death-vanessas-story/) - Editorial Note: This post is excerpted from After the Error: Speaking Out About Patient Safety to Save Lives by Susan McIver, Ph.D. and Robin Wyndham. © 2013 Susan McIver and Robin Wyndham. Published by ECW Press Ltd. ecwpress.com Special recognition The day after Terence Young’s 15-year-old daughter, Vanessa, suddenly died on March 19, 2000, he began his journey to
- [The Tooth Fairy](https://rxisk.org/the-tooth-fairy/) - Editorial note: While many people in the UK make it a point of honor to say they never read The Mail, when it comes to its health and femail pages The Mail can be quite astonishing. For some of us who have followed the stories on RxISK linking SSRI use to alcoholism, the Mail's pages
- [Antidepressants and Compulsive Shopping](https://rxisk.org/rxisk-stories-antidepressants-and-compulsive-shopping/) - Introduction by David Healy RxISK is being built by the efforts of people affected by medicines - for good and bad. One of the most extraordinary of all RxISK stories originally appeared on davidhealy.org - Driven to Drink. This was not only written by but was researched by Anne-Marie Kelly who had solved her own
- [A Kidnapped Daughter](https://rxisk.org/a-kidnapped-daughter/) - Editorial Note: This is the first of a two-part post by a father and daughter who want to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals - a very real and realistic fear. This is about how my daughter was “led away” (the literal meaning of abduction), in a cruel and calculated act undertaken by people to whom
- [PSSD In The Guardian, U.S. News & Lyon Capitale](https://rxisk.org/pssd-in-the-guardian-u-s-news-lyon-capitale/) - The Guardian The Guardian, a British newspaper, runs a weekly feature called “My life in sex”, in which readers can write in and talk about their sex life. On June 8, 2018, they ran a piece called “After taking antidepressants, my genitals felt numb”. A 30 year old women described how she had been left
- [How Common is Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD)?](https://rxisk.org/how-common-is-post-ssri-sexual-dysfunction-pssd/) - The level of risk of developing Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD) from using an SSRI or SNRI antidepressant is currently unknown. Patients are never warned about persisting sexual side effects when these drugs are prescribed. Calls for informed consent are often met with the response that PSSD appears to be quite rare. Given the huge number of antidepressants
- [Recovering from PSSD](https://rxisk.org/recovering-from-pssd/) - Some weeks ago, a number of people linked to Paxil Progress got in touch. They were concerned that RxISK was putting out a message that there was no recovery from Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD) and that if people got this message they might go on to commit suicide. This post tackles the issue of recovery, first
- [Treating PSSD](https://rxisk.org/treating-pssd/) - Editorial Note: This is the fourth in a series of posts about PSSD (Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction), with more to come. The earliest was Buried Alive, but in this recent series the first was Drugs and Sex Don't Go, followed by PSSD: If a Drug Caused Blindness and then No Sex and the City. Possible treatments In
- [Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction: Getting a Diagnosis](https://rxisk.org/post-ssri-sexual-dysfunction-getting-a-diagnosis/) - When reading about the experiences of people with Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD), one of the common themes is the difficulty that some sufferers have faced in trying to obtain a formal diagnosis. However, this isn't always the case. There seems to be a disparity between the experiences of different PSSD sufferers when engaging with the
- [The WARM Network: Withdrawal and Recovery Meetings](https://rxisk.org/the-warm-network-withdrawal-and-recovery-meetings/) - New Initiative: The Withdrawal and Recovery Meeting (WARM) Network of Groups By Jennifer Bryant and Laurie Oakley This is a new initiative to give anyone who would like to start an in-person withdrawal group in their community a way to get started. We have created a free "toolkit" that contains a Guide for Facilitators, Suggested
- [Antidepressants, Sex and Thermal Thresholds](https://rxisk.org/antidepressants-sex-and-thermal-thresholds/) - Last month, we announced details of two new publications about enduring sexual dysfunction after the use of medications. We hope you found them interesting. In both articles, we discussed a couple of studies from 1991 and 1999, in which neurophysiological testing showed that taking a serotonin reuptake inhibitor reduces genital sensation. We have previously mentioned
- [What to do about Sex](https://rxisk.org/what-to-do-about-sex/) - The recent RxISK post on PSSD and Thermal Thresholds led to a lot of comments about what should "we" - those with PSSD or related conditions - do. There was a looking out to FDA or other regulators, doctors or politicians to do something. Coincidentally on davidhealy at the same time a pair of posts
- [Historic Summit: Flox and Tox Get Together](https://rxisk.org/historic-summit-flox-and-tox-get-together/) - Editorial Note: The European Medicines' Agency are holding a public meeting today about Fluoroquinolone antibiotics and the problems they can cause. They invited submissions. RxISK submitted. But was not selected for a presentation so we will not be there. Miriam Knight who has been a vigorous campaigner on the need to warn about the
- [The Woman Who Was: Looking back from Prescription Cascade](https://rxisk.org/the-woman-who-was-looking-back-from-prescription-cascade/) - Editorial Note: This is M's story. She outlines a Prescribing Cascade. In an email she also asks a question: does anyone have any evidence of SSRI withdrawal causing Vit D deficiency? HRT HRT started it all. Peri menopausal at 45, my GP did a FSH test and prescribed Climagest – oral oestrogen and progesterone.
- [Antidepressant Withdrawal: What's in a Name](https://rxisk.org/antidepressant-withdrawal-whats-in-a-name/) - Editorial: a recent email to RxISK on the topic of antidepressant withdrawal brings out the fact that bupropion withdrawal is very different from SSRI withdrawal and both are very different to mirtazapine withdrawal. For all RxISK posts on withdrawal see Here Email from Edge My name is A. I'm 28. I was prescribed to Wellbutrin
- [Dependence on Antidepressants and The New York Times](https://rxisk.org/dependence-on-antidepressants-and-the-new-york-times/) - Editorial note - for all RxISK posts on withdrawal see Here A feature article in the New York Times recently by Ben Carey covered dependence on and withdrawal from antidepressants. Here. It led to over a thousand comments within 48 hours including a predictable set of comments from doctors claiming that antidepressants don’t cause dependence
- [PSSD, Withdrawal & Small Fiber Neuropathy?](https://rxisk.org/pssd-withdrawal-small-fiber-neuropathy/) - The picture here shows the before and after feet of a person who has erythromelalgia. After exercise or in response to other triggers, sometimes just lying in bed, the feet or other body parts can become hot and burning, possibly painfully so. The condition is linked to sodium channels. Those who get it may have
- [Venus Not Rising](https://rxisk.org/venus-not-rising/) - Editorial Note: Returning to the theme of the RxISK Prize... Reading the weekend newspaper, some months back, my eye was caught by a flame red haired women in a turquoise dress who said her occupation involved testing sex toys. The article was impossible to ignore and there was nothing for it but to contact Venus
- [Introducing Taper MD](https://rxisk.org/introducing-taper-md/) - Do you think you or someone you love are on too many meds? Did you know that reducing your medication burden may be the single best thing you can do to improve your quality of life? Adverse drug events are now a leading cause of hospitalization, disability, and death, all at great human and financial cost.
- [Psychotropic Drug Dependence in Scotland: Petition PE01651](https://rxisk.org/psychotropic-drug-dependence-in-scotland-petition-pe01651/) - Email from Marion Brown PE01651 – Prescribed drug dependence and withdrawal I wanted to let you know that our Scottish petition seems to be gathering a very remarkable and powerful collection of published ‘evidence’ of patient experiences especially – and from all over the world! The petitions clerks are being kept busy with ‘processing’ these
- [Bladder and Bowel Problems After Antidepressants](https://rxisk.org/bladder-and-bowel-problems-after-antidepressants/) - In addition to sexual problems such as post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD) and persistent genital arousal disorder (PGAD), a range of other urological problems linked to antidepressants are increasingly coming into view, and can sometimes be long-lasting after the drugs are stopped. They are likely to be significantly more common than is generally thought, and it's
- [Better Times Will Return](https://rxisk.org/better-times-will-return/) - The following blog post comes from Mary Hennessey. It's a wonderful example of the generosity we have seen in response to our RxISK Prize campaign, in support of men and women who have been left with permanent sexual dysfunction after using antidepressants, finasteride, or isotretinoin. Commissioned textile art piece - to be sold I commissioned
- [PGAD: Clitoridectomy or ECT?](https://rxisk.org/pgad-clitoridectomy-or-ect/) - Editorial Note: Following on from The Princess and the Frozen Pea, this is a second post in a PGAD series. There will be one more on the range of conditions mentioned here that are often linked to PGAD - interstitial cystitis, pelvic floor dysnergia, prostatitis and others. See also PGAD Video Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder
- [The Princess and the Frozen Pea: PGAD](https://rxisk.org/the-princess-and-the-frozen-pea/) - 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
- [What a Surprise: RxISK taking entrepreneurs](https://rxisk.org/what-a-surprise-rxisk-taking-entrepreneurs/) - It is worth wading through some slow moving stuff at the start of this post to get to the juicy bits. The Things Drugs Do Drugs do things. Company marketing divides these things into the one good thing the company wants you to focus on - good for a company bottom-line and the ninety-nine other
- [POIS: A Whole New Meaning to Man Flu](https://rxisk.org/pois-a-whole-new-meaning-to-man-flu/) - The following article about Post-Orgasmic Illness Syndrome (POIS) by Andrea Downey appeared in The Sun on November 29, 2017. (Keep reading after the article). COMING DOWN WITH SOMETHING? BOYS, do you get a stuffy nose, fatigue and the sweats after you've had sex? No, it's not because your performance was so mind blowing your body
- [Here We Stand, We Can Do No Other](https://rxisk.org/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
- [RxISK Prize: Stigma and Recovery](https://rxisk.org/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
- [RxISK Prize: Global Impact](https://rxisk.org/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
- [RxISK Reformation Day](https://rxisk.org/rxisk-reformation-day/) - Five hundred years ago, Martin Luther nailed a set of theses to a Church door calling time on a scam. A scam that had the backing of the political and religious authorities of the day. When challenged his response was “Here I stand, I can do no other”. Today is Reformation Day. The drama in
- [RxISK Prize: Relationships](https://rxisk.org/rxisk-prize-relationships/) - The RxISK Prize campaign has now had over $10,000 from 51 donations coming from 48 donors in 12 different countries. People from Korea to Argentina are engaging with the issue. We will give more details later in the week. It seems clear that Adverse Events - Drug Wrecks - are a Global Disorder, the greatest single source
- [RxISK Prize: No Nos](https://rxisk.org/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
- [RxISK Prize: The Golden Rule](https://rxisk.org/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
- [Extreme Petitioning](https://rxisk.org/extreme-petitioning/) - Thank you to everyone who signed RxISK's Drug Safety Petition asking pharmaceutical giants AbbVie and Intermune to stop blocking the European Medicines Agency (EMA) from releasing prescription drug clinical trial data. Only one person signed the United States Declaration of Independence – but this made a difference. The RxISK Drug Safety Petition now has 6000+ signatures
- [After the Rot Sets In: Teeth on Treatment](https://rxisk.org/after-the-rot-sets-in-teeth-on-treatment/) - Editorial Note: In the midst of recent posts about SSRIs and homicide and other events, there has been a continuing input of reports of changes in hair on drugs or skin and this one on teeth. All of these can have an impact on confidence but there is another worry - the treatment is
- [I Took Antidepressants and I Still Feel Medicated](https://rxisk.org/i-took-antidepressants-and-i-still-feel-medicated/) - I suffered from a pretty bad biological anxiety that runs in my family and was very difficult to control without medication. Prior to the timeline of events below, I have taken other medications (Paxil, Effexor, Cymbalta) each causing sexual dysfunction at the lowest possible dose and genital numbness almost immediately upon taking them. I stopped them
- [The Pills That Steal Sex](https://rxisk.org/the-pills-that-steal-sex/) - This post is the original piece written by Katinka Newman, author of The Pill That Steals Lives: One Woman’s Terrifying Journey to Discover the Truth about Antidepressants, by Katinka Blackford Newman (John Blake £8.99), thepillthatsteals.com. A slimmed down version appeared in the Daily Mail. Its unusual for a day to go past when I don’t utter
- [Sexual Dysfunction Enduring After Treatment Halts: Sexual-DEATH](https://rxisk.org/sexual-dysfunction-enduring-after-treatment-halts-sexual-death/) - Editorial note: This post is written in the first person but there are a lot of voices in here. Wikipedia stumbles and falls Wikipedia used to host a valued page on Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD), a condition which can result from the previous use of SSRI antidepressants. On January 27th this was taken down. A Post-Finasteride
- [Drugs and Sex Don't Go](https://rxisk.org/drugs-and-sex-dont-go/) - Most doctors are told headaches or nausea are the commonest side effects of drugs. Nausea for instance is very common on SSRIs – not surprising as there is a lot of serotonin in the gut. But an immediate change in sexual functioning is a lot more common than nausea. Close to everyone taking an SSRI will feel some
- [Prescription for Murder ABCD](https://rxisk.org/prescription-for-murder-abcd/) - If you look at the adverse events section of the sertraline - Zoloft - label you will see in small print that sertraline has been linked to psychosis, hallucinations and aggressive reactions. Its there in small print. These links have been there since the mid-1990s. Vanishingly few doctors understand what is going on here.
- [Prescription for Murder](https://rxisk.org/prescription-for-murder/) - Editorial: This evening a Panorama program aired on the issue of antidepressants and violence. The driving forces behind this were Andy Bell and Shelley Jofre, prompted in the first instance by Katinka Newman. The story is to my mind compelling. There have been considerable efforts to cloud the picture - see Honey I Shrunk the
- [Withdrawal & PSSD: Terminal Diagnoses?](https://rxisk.org/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
- [Malignant Alienation](https://rxisk.org/malignant-alienation/) - Gaming is becoming one of the biggest areas of human activity on the planet - bigger than movie-making, newspapers and most other media. Its power to shape the way we view things is clearly huge and likely to increase with Virtual Reality. Some weeks ago, a group released a new Escape from the Asylum game.
- [Drug Wrecked: Where Does Change Come From?](https://rxisk.org/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
- [An Irish Epidemic: Suicide and Homicide on Antidepressants](https://rxisk.org/an-irish-epidemic/) - Editorial Note: This post is by Leonie Fennel. Ireland is currently in the midst of an unprecedented suicide/homicide epidemic. Parents are uncharacteristically killing their children; husbands are killing their wives; brothers are killing their brothers; mothers are killing themselves and their babies, all at an alarming rate. Dr Michael Curtis, Deputy State Pathologist, recently said
- [Doctor faces Marriage-Buster: What should s/he do?](https://rxisk.org/doctor-faces-marriage-buster-what-should-she-do/) - Editorial Note: This post is about an issue covered before - the effects of antidepressants on relationships - see My Wife Has Left Me. This post had thirty-four follow-up comments which show that this issue gets at the heart of doctoring - what do you do when a wife or husband tells you the SSRI
- [A 329 Story](https://rxisk.org/a-329-story/) - Editorial: This is an account from someone who went on paroxetine - Paxil - Seroxat - soon after Study 329 came out. She didn't commit suicide. But it would be difficult to describe these effects of the drug as good. And it is also difficult to view the culture in which the drug was given
- [Otezla: Birth Defects and Suicide](https://rxisk.org/otezla-birth-defects-and-suicide/) - We've been here before - a woman in come hither mode or able to plunge into come hither mode at a moment's notice without the worry of being compromised by a minor skin blemish just below her hairline. See Stacy London and Welcome to Troy. AbbVie pioneered advertising like this for Humira, a hugely costly
- [You'll Come a Taltzing Matilda with Me](https://rxisk.org/youll-come-a-taltzing-matilda-with-me/) - Editorial Note: This post links to Are you Aware that Siliq causes Suicide and Otezla: Birth Defects and Suicide. Pharma companies have a great deal of skin in the dermatology game at the moment - perhaps more than in any other area of medicine. Taltz, aka ixekizumab, is yet another new drug for psoriasis. Others
- [Medical Kidnap: Withdrawal & Non-Compliance](https://rxisk.org/medical-kidnap-withdrawal-non-compliance/) - Editorial Note: This post is by Wendy Murray. It comes from a chapter in her new book that deals with the problems many of us have with prescribers of all kinds for medications of all kinds when we question their judgment. Their attitudes can kidnap us just as much as a detention can. I had reached
- [Medical Kidnap: Get Out of Jail Free Report](https://rxisk.org/medical-kidnap-get-out-of-jail-free-report/) - The examples given in the Kidnapped series of posts are dramatic. They point to growing abuses in healthcare systems. The idea that in every way we are making more and more progress leads people to cut corners to bring the benefits of treatments they know will work to others. Those whose lives have been affected
- [Kidnapped: Arthur Hippe](https://rxisk.org/kidnapped-arthur-hippe/) - Editorial Note: This post by Lois Sampson, an Elders' Rights Advocate with the Seniors At Risk Coalition, is the first of several on this theme. The message for readers who think that neither they nor their relatives have been or are likely to be in the position that Arthur Hippe was in is that Arthur's
- [Down These Mean Streets](https://rxisk.org/down-these-mean-streets/) - Editorial Note: This post that neatly ties together drug induced violence and dependence and withdrawal, the theme of the next few posts, is by Mickey Nardo. It featured on OneBoringOldMan a few weeks ago. It has a ring of a Raymond Chandler novel. Hence the image and the postscript. It was towards the end of
- [The Mysteries of Love](https://rxisk.org/the-mysteries-of-love/) - RxISK has had twenty-two stories and features on sex and drugs over the last two years - more than on any other topic. While we have a Sex Zone on the RxISK front page because we thought the topic might be of some interest, we didn't expect sex to take over quite like this. There
- [Nearly Invisible: Drug Traffic Accidents](https://rxisk.org/nearly-invisible-drug-traffic-accidents/) - Editorial Note: Many years ago, Moyra Peralta lost her eldest son in a Road Traffic Accident. As she put it, she flipped out. She spent several years afterwards working with homeless people on the streets of London. Out of this she created an extraordinary "book", Nearly Invisible - see Worldly Goods - covering lives lived on the street.
- [Let's Do The AbbVie Again](https://rxisk.org/lets-do-the-abbvie-again/) - Slightly over three months ago, the idea of an AbbVie was born. She was named after the pharmaceutical company AbbVie - until recently Abbott Laboratories. She was born from the union of a legal action taken by AbbVie in the European Court against the European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) data access policy. As a result of Peter Gøtzsche’s efforts in
- [Addicted to Sex: Venus in Lycra](https://rxisk.org/addicted-to-sex-venus-in-lycra/) - It was Matt Miller’s case that started the ball rolling. The 13 year old had just changed school and was taking time to settle. He was referred to a Dr Geenens, who diagnosed Zoloft. A week later he hung himself in the bathroom between his and his parents’ bedrooms. Zoloft didn’t cause suicide Pfizer’s lawyers argued,
- [Brian's Story: Raising Awareness among the Police](https://rxisk.org/leos-story-raising-awareness-among-the-police/) - This was first posted on Leonie Fennell's blog. Antidepressants, irrational behaviour and “out of the blue” suicides – raising awareness among UK police officers In 2009 my son, who had never been depressed in his life, went to see a doctor over insomnia caused by temporary work-related stress. He was prescribed Citalopram, and within days
- [The Sheriff of Nottingham](https://rxisk.org/the-sheriff-of-nottingham/) - On Friday March 31st, British airwaves were full of news about a significant change in Britain's National Health Service. Bleeding Obvious? After its 8 AM news headlines, Radio 4’s flagship news program, Today, featured the boss of the National Health Service, Simon Stevens, explaining how the new system would be better even though long-established targets
- [The Girl Who Was Not Heard When She Cried Wolf](https://rxisk.org/the-girl-who-was-not-heard-when-she-cried-wolf/) - Crusoe was called to see Lisbeth. The girl - young woman was mute and catatonic by day but after she fell asleep she had nightmares when she wailed piteously, rent her nightdress, walked in her sleep muttering ‘the children, the children’ or other such phrases. It was a similar pattern each night, the parents said.
- [Are You Aware Siliq Can Cause Suicide?](https://rxisk.org/are-you-aware-siliq-can-cause-suicide/) - There are a host of new drugs coming to market for respiratory and skin problems. These include Brodalumab, aka Siliq, Apremilast, aka Otezla, and Daliresp. Prepare to hear a lot more about Phosphodiesterase antagonists and drugs acting on Interleukin 17 or 23. These drugs can cause suicide. The companies have made strenuous efforts to hide
- [Illnesses Worse than Side Effects?](https://rxisk.org/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
- [United States of Adderall](https://rxisk.org/united-states-of-adderall/) - Ed Note: This post is by Johanna Ryan who covers most of our stimulant related topics. Dr. Larry Diller is a pediatrician who specializes in children’s behavioral problems, especially Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). He’s by no means anti-medication; he has prescribed stimulants to kids for decades. But twenty years ago he was already concerned
- [Massacre of the Innocents](https://rxisk.org/massacre-of-the-innocents/) - Editorial Note: This post is by Adam Urato. There are other Adam Urato posts on RxISK (see Antidepressants and Autism and Autism Awareness Day) about the use of antidepressants in pregnancy and by women of child-bearing years. This post appeared first on Mad in America. The image is from an article by Gideon Koren that seriously
- [ADHD Nation](https://rxisk.org/adhd-nation/) - Editorial Note: This post is a review by Johanna Ryan of Alan Schwarz's just released ADHD NATION: Children, Doctors, Big Pharma, and the Making of an American Epidemic. Watching the triumphant final chapter of Michael Phelps’ Olympic swimming career last month, you couldn’t help admiring certain strengths that went beyond the merely muscular. The rigorous
- [Come Back When You Have a Medical Degree](https://rxisk.org/come-back-when-you-have-a-medical-degree/) - From Johanna Ryan: Who among us has not heard that at least once during a doctor’s appointment? Say you report a problem with the prescription drug the doctor put you on. Or, perhaps, that the drug is just not working. Maybe you even give him a RxISK Report, created on this website, or an article
- [The Early History of PSSD](https://rxisk.org/the-early-history-of-pssd/) - When did it begin? Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD) officially made its debut in the peer-reviewed medical literature in 2006. Case reports were published that identified treatment-emergent sexual dysfunction that persisted after the antidepressant was stopped. The condition was given a name and its features were defined. This new literature also noted the significance of a
- [Greg's Dilemma: Feeling Blue](https://rxisk.org/gregs-dilemma-feeling-blue/) - Magic bullet In Greg's Dilemma 1 and Dilemma 2, Greg outlined more than one dilemma linked to getting hooked to antidepressants and benzodiazepines. The responses to these posts were all over the shop - from pull yourself together, to entrust your life to God, to support for descriptions of positions others find themselves in. The
- [Better to Die RxISKing It](https://rxisk.org/better-to-die-rxisking-it/) - Editorial Note: This post continues from last week's Persecution of Heretics. It's about how only a Popular Movement with those suffering adverse effects on drugs speaking up can save us now. It adapts a talk given a month ago to the International Society for Ethical Psychology and Psychiatry in Los Angeles. It loses something without
- [Antidepressant Withdrawal: V's Story](https://rxisk.org/antidepressant-withdrawal-vs-story/) - Question from V This is what V wrote on filing a RxISK report. I quit taking Prozac using a step-down method. Started in Sept. 2011 and finally off in January 2012. I experienced severe loss of balance early on, which progressed into full-blown ataxia & parasthesia. Have had extensive blood-testing & MRIs of brain & cervical
- [RoAccutane and the Perfect Circle](https://rxisk.org/roaccutane-and-the-perfect-circle/) - Editorial Note: This post by Heather and David Roberts is about their son Olly and the struggles he and they had with the health system, acne and its treatments. Our son Olly had RoAccutane prescribed for him aged 21, getting ready to celebrate his birthday at Bristol University and wanting to look his best. He
- [Kidnapped: Natalie's Story 2](https://rxisk.org/kidnapped-natalies-story-2/) - Editorial Note: This is part 2 of Natalie's story written by her mother Kristina. The photo shows Natalie aged 18 at her graduation. Abductor number three: 2010 Natalie’s tardive dysphoria remained undiagnosed, and the counselor recommended that Natalie see her colleague, a psychiatrist. The counselor’s records reflected Natalie’s fears about taking drugs. Natalie shared, “I’m
- [Girl on a Hot Tin Roof: Drug Withdrawal Syndrome](https://rxisk.org/girl-on-a-hot-tin-roof-drug-withdrawal-syndrome/) - Editorial Note: There are two reasons to run Katie B-T's story here. One is the phenomenon of burning feet she reports. This seems common with benzodiazepine like drugs, including gabapentin and pregabalin. We would love to hear from others who have had problems like this - how long did the problem last, what helped if
- [Abilify, Tourette Syndrome and You](https://rxisk.org/abilify-tourette-syndrome-and-you/) - Editorial Note: This post follows on from one of the most compelling RxISK stories ever - Abilify, Tourette Syndrome and Me, posted last week. It comes in two parts. The first by last week's author and the second by the series editor, Johanna Ryan. In our efforts to get our story told, raise awareness about
- [Transgender, Asexuality and SSRIs](https://rxisk.org/transgender-asexuality-and-ssris/) - Last week, there was a post Asexual, Transgender and SSRIs about possible links between antidepressant use in pregnancy or early childhood and a later development of asexuality. In recent weeks RxISK has had several emails asking about possible links between transgender issues or Gender Dysphoria and antidepressants. In one a woman wondered about a brother
- [Asexual, Transgender & SSRIs](https://rxisk.org/asexual-transgender-ssris/) - Last week's post about Antidepressants and Autistic Spectrum Disorder came with an article attached. This article was first sent to and first turned down by BMJ Open because it contained references to a set of animal studies. BMJ Open it turns out is a human studies only journal. The interest in the animal studies listed
- [Stopping Antidepressants: Kenny's Dilemma](https://rxisk.org/stopping-antidepressants-kennys-dilemma/) - Editorial Note: This request came to RxISK through Contact Us, last week. It went out to several of the panel who contribute to our responses, some of whom have qualified in medicine and some who have qualified by going through the medical system. There was no consensus among us about how to respond. Beneath the
- [Robbie's Tourette Syndrome Story](https://rxisk.org/robbies-tourette-syndrome-story/) - Editorial Note: This post by DG continues a series begun a year ago looking at the effects of aripiprazole on Tourette Syndrome Abilify, Tourette Syndrome and Me. The key point here is not just the effect of a drug to trigger effects but the ability of someone who has the disorder and takes the treatment
- [A Kidnapped Daughter 2](https://rxisk.org/a-kidnapped-daughter-2/) - Continued from Part 1. Put on mirtazepine my daughter deteriorated rapidly. The crisis intervention team descended. They started by counting pills. When they found the number correct, they assumed I had destroyed the pills. They seemed perplexed. One of the team would take her out for some one–to-one. They would visit the local park, go to
- [The Devil Doesn't Have All The Best Tunes](https://rxisk.org/the-devil-doesnt-have-all-the-best-tunes/) - This weeks Observer Review contains an interview (below) with Mikey Argy (above) to link up with the release of Attacking the Devil, a movie about the thalidomide story. The photo of Mikey here doesn't show what the photo in the print edition shows. Almost two years ago RxISK featured the thalidomiders behind this movie in Thalidomide:
- [Kidnapped: In England](https://rxisk.org/kidnapped-in-england/) - Editorial Note: The post below is by Simon Hattenstone and appeared in the Guardian on April 2nd. It fits into the Kidnapped sequence and allows us to draw attention to the #JusticeforLB campaign (Laughing Boy). Once again the point is this could be you or me, could be cardiac or orthopedic or any branch of
- [The Wise List?](https://rxisk.org/the-wise-list/) - Editorial: There is a wonderful listserve Essential Drugs on E-Drugs@healthnet.org. It's an information service rather than a discussion forum. Recent mail E-DRUG: Swedish essential medicines list now in English This is an interesting development having a Swedish document translated to English! The list “Kloka listan” is a list of essential medicines for common diseases. When
- [Study 329](https://rxisk.org/study-329/) - RxISK's last story featured a young woman who went on Paxil soon after the Keller et al version of Study 329 was published. We would love to hear more from anyone who was put on an SSRI during this period or who was recruited into an SSRI trial. What were you told about the risks and
- [Doctors and Withdrawal from Antidepressants](https://rxisk.org/doctors-and-withdrawal-from-antidepressants/) - This is a follow-up to Katie's post, Girl on a Hot Tin Roof, about drug withdrawal and burning feet. I have been profoundly affected by adverse events from medications. I attempted repeatedly to talk to my psychiatrist about my concerns and hoped he would believe what had occurred so that he could partner with me.
- [The Maintenance Man: Fata-nomics the cancer plaguing healthcare](https://rxisk.org/the-maintenance-man-fata-nomics-the-cancer-plaguing-healthcare/) - Editorial Note: This post is from Johanna Ryan "You murdered my dad. You poisoned him. You tortured and murdered my dad." The sentencing hearing for Farid T. Fata, M.D. at the federal courthouse in Detroit last week did not lack for drama – and Piero Zanotti’s daughter was not the only victim to accuse him
- [Antibiotics: Suicide & Psychosis](https://rxisk.org/antibiotics-suicide-psychosis/) - Editorial Note: This is the transcript of a program broadcast as The Lariam Legacy on BBC Radio on March 31 2015. The narrator is Victoria Derbyshire. The featured drug is the anti-microbial Lariam, mefloquine. Mefloquine is closely related to the Fluoroquinolone's Levaquin and Cipro. See previous RxISK posts on Lariam History, Lariam Hell and Flox-Tox. Atabrine
- [Pilots and Antidepressants](https://rxisk.org/pilots-and-antidepressants-2/) - Editorial Note: This post is by Julie Wood, the central figure behind SSRI Stories in its current incarnation. SSRI Stories has collected and posted 47 stories about pilots flying and crashing while on antidepressants. The majority are airplanes but several of the crashes involve helicopters. With the current focus on the possible contribution of psychoactive drugs
- [The Show Ain't Over Till the Fat Lady Sings](https://rxisk.org/the-show-aint-over-till-the-fat-lady-sings/) - By Johanna Ryan As 2015 dawns, the specter of Corporate Personhood, sanctified by trade treaties which put patents and profits above the needs of us humans, seems to be drawing ever closer. Our latest wake-up call came from the respected French drug safety journal Prescrire. They’re sounding the alarm about a December 19 vote by
- [Doctors Writing Scary Scripts... Saving Grace](https://rxisk.org/doctors-writing-scary-scripts-saving-grace/) - By Joanna Le Noury Saving Grace is the latest romantic novel by Jane Green. It tells the story of the perfect life of the beautiful, elegant Grace Chapman, married for 25 years to the very successful and respected author, Ted. Graces juggles stylish literary events, glamorous magazine galas, helps run Harmont House, a refuge for
- [Femininity and Drugs?](https://rxisk.org/femininity-and-drugs/) - Just as the concepts of Recovery, Citizen Scientists and pretty well everything else can be captured by pharmaceutical industry, so also feminism and claims of sexism are now being hijacked by industry as marketing tools. FDA are accused of being sexist in not licensing a ‘female Viagra’. This claim is being used to mobilize pressure
- [When is a Drug Guilty?](https://rxisk.org/when-is-a-drug-guilty/) - Editorial Note: We desperately need you to undertake some jury duty - we need you to explore why we react so strangely when it comes to changes on behavior linked to prescription drugs? In the last two posts Doctor Faces Marriage-Buster and Homicide of a Husband, there were two scenarios where drugs were involved and
- [Why You Should Report to RxISK rather than Health Canada or FDA](https://rxisk.org/why-you-should-report-to-rxisk-rather-than-health-canada-or-fda/) - Editorial Note: This post by John Scheel follow on his Sticks in the Throat and Sticks in the Throat: Boxology posts. The driving force behind these posts - a demand that people should be accountable - can be seen in greater detail in his book Someone gives a S**t (www.johnscheel.com). What John outlines here can
- [Is it the Drugs, or the War? Yes.](https://rxisk.org/is-it-the-drugs-or-the-war-yes/) - Author: Johanna Ryan, Labor Activist with Illinois Workers Compensation Lawyers (Chicago) & RxISK Community Advisory Board Member, April 15, 2014 Within hours of Spec. Ivan Lopez’ deadly shooting spree and subsequent suicide in Fort Hood, Texas, the denials started to flow. We learned that yes, he had been to Iraq, but only for four months.
- [“We ask you to put the public’s health ahead of industry interests”](https://rxisk.org/we-ask-you-to-put-the-publics-health-ahead-of-industry-interests/) - From Johanna Ryan: Last week, RxISK joined with forty-one other organizations from across the U.S. and Canada to urge the FDA to withdraw its approval for a new drug. Zohydro ER is actually not so “new” – it’s pure hydrocodone, a synthetic opiate which has been widely prescribed for many years in the U.S. However, Zohydro will
- [Low Dose Naltrexone: Can It Work?](https://rxisk.org/low-dose-naltrexone-can-it-work/) - Editorial Note: The Low Dose Naltrexone post from Osama Mustafa earlier this week is quite striking. Many will read it and be persuaded. Others will read it and think such low doses of a drug cannot do anything. And yet others will read the following few words and begin to doubt where they may have
- [At First a Lifeline, Then a Noose](https://rxisk.org/at-first-a-lifeline-then-a-noose/) - Editorial Note: The death of Philip Seymour Hoffman featured heavily in early news bulletins this week. It seems highly likely that Hoffman's death originated from a prescription drug problem. As it happens Johanna Ryan from RxISK's Community Board had been liaising with the parents of Steve Rummler and others concerned about the licensing of yet another
- [Fragile Doctors: Iatroporosis](https://rxisk.org/fragile-doctors-iatroporosis/) - Editorial Note: This post is from Sara Bostock, who was one of the originators of the SSRI Stories concept and a key player in putting pressure on FDA to put in place Suicide Warnings on Antidepressants. So she is far from the average in her determination - although to look at her she looks just
- [The Dark is for Mushrooms, Not for Women](https://rxisk.org/the-dark-is-for-mushrooms-not-for-women/) - The pre-pregnancy puzzle This post contains a comment by Neil Gorman on Humira in Ulcerative Colitis backed up by material criticising a BBC Panorama program on antidepressants in pregnancy retrieved from the link to Mumsnet mentioned by Neil. This link illustrates beautifully why Pharma has such an easy ride. There is a mythic element here. Where
- [Swimming with Great Whites? If you’ve got “Diabetes” look away now.](https://rxisk.org/swimming-with-great-whites-if-youve-got-diabetes-look-away-now/) - After its launch in the late 1950s, Upjohn’s Orinase (tolbutamide) became the first blockbuster hypoglycemic (blood sugar lowering) drug. Its success was born of failure. It wasn’t a replacement for insulin. Even if used early, it didn’t stop people from becoming insulin dependent. But attempts to create an early use market led to a focus on
- [RxISK and the RIAT Act](https://rxisk.org/rxisk-and-the-riat-act/) - Editorial Note: Below is the press release for a potentially significant development in clinical trial publishing - the RIAT Act. Doshi and colleagues are aiming to publish studies that companies have buried or to correct studies that are published but grossly misleading. The main reason for non-publication or misleading publication is that companies do not
- [Beware Regulators Bearing Gifts](https://rxisk.org/beware-regulators-bearing-gifts/) - All of a sudden, regulators seem to be trying to step up their game. The Canadian regulator, Health Canada, is placing notices in 22 professional journals explaining the process of and the importance of adverse event reporting. They claim to be hoping to develop a reporting standard among healthcare professionals rather than make reporting mandatory. Are they
- [If You're Going To Look After Patients, Man Up](https://rxisk.org/if-youre-going-to-look-after-patients-man-up/) - Pharmalot has just posted a piece - 'Controversial FDA official, Tom Laughren, retires.' [It is no longer at http://www.pharmalot.com/2012/12/controversial-fda-official-tom-laughren-retires/] This is a must read for anyone with anything to do with mental health - both the post and the comments afterwards where some have posted that they still believe the Black Box warnings on antidepressants arose
- [Monica's Story: The Aftermath of Polypsychopharmacology](https://rxisk.org/monicas-story-the-aftermath-of-polypsychopharmacology/) - I recently contacted the doctor who is responsible for my iatrogenesis — the doctor who grossly over-medicated me and made me ill. I’ve been corresponding with him for several years now, but this was the first telephone conversation I’ve had with him since telling him what his drug cocktail did to me. He rarely says much in
- [Listening to Parents](https://rxisk.org/listening-to-parents/) - Anonymous When you lose a child or a partner from a rare illness, everyone is supportive, no-one denies you. They listen. But if a child dies from suicide or a complication of treatment with a drug especially a psychotropic drug no-one listens. Our culture has no place for this kind of death. They say maybe
- [Is Your Mom on Drugs? Ours was and here's what we did about it.](https://rxisk.org/is-your-mom-on-drugs-ours-was-and-heres-what-we-did-about-it/) - This story illustrates the issues described in Polypharmacy: when is enough, enough? It also illustrates how important the voice of the patients and, when they can’t advocate for themselves, their family. The experience of this family has motivated Johanna Trimble to become an advocate to help others avoid a similar situation. We hope stories like this
- [The Sexual Heatmap](https://rxisk.org/the-sexual-heatmap-2/) - When RxISK launched a Sex Zone, we press released it. We wanted as many people as possible to go to the Zone, explore what was there among the 4.3 million FDA reports we give away for free, and get word out about the site and especially that here was a site that could be used to
- [Shooters on Prescription Drugs](https://rxisk.org/shooters-on-prescription-drugs/) - The news from Washington this week (September 17 - See Scientific American) of another shooting where the shooter has been on psychotropic medication - this time trazodone - raises once again questions about the interaction between violence and medication. The data points absolutely convincingly to the fact that the drugs can and do cause violence. Some
- [Better to Die RxISKing It 2](https://rxisk.org/better-to-die-rxisking-it-2/) - Editorial Note: This post continues from Better to Die RxISKing It. This plea for a Peoples' Movement with those suffering adverse effects on drugs reporting them was the substance of a talk given a month ago to the International Society for Ethical Psychology and Psychiatry in Los Angeles. Venus in furs Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's Venus
- [The Strange History of Lariam](https://rxisk.org/the-strange-history-of-lariam/) - Editorial Note: This is the second part of a Lariam Odyssey by Dr Sam Ramsay Smith. The first part ran last week - Lariam Hell. Like most good stories this one involves expediency, hegemony, immorality, greed and even scientific bias, blindness and dishonesty all in the quest for power and money at the national and
- [Lariam Hell](https://rxisk.org/lariam-hell/) - Editorial Note: This post and the following one on the strange story of the Birth of Lariam come from Dr Sam Ramsay-Smith who has some questions he wants answered. In October, ‘The Independent’ printed the news that the US Armed Forces had banned the use of the anti-malarial drug mefloquine, otherwise known as Lariam. To
- [Autistic Spectrum Disorder and SSRIs](https://rxisk.org/autistic-spectrum-disorder-and-ssris/) - Five years ago, the Croen et al article in the Figure above appeared suggesting that antidepressant use in pregnancy can cause Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Pharmaceutical companies rushed to manage the risks - to them. What you do is you convene your experts and you put them in boxes, a teratology box, an animal studies
- [Greg's Dilemma](https://rxisk.org/gregs-dilemma/) - Editorial Note: This post on the difficulties of withdrawal comes from Greg. There will be 3 parts to it. In Part 2 Greg gets some standard psychiatric advice and in Part 3, we offer a response to the advice. Way, way down in a hole, there is no feeling Because when you're so far below
- [Wikipedia Falls: Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction](https://rxisk.org/post-ssri-sexual-dysfunction-wikipedia-falls/) - Editorial Note: This is the debate among Wikipedia referees about whether the PSSD post should be retained. The lead person in having it removed goes under the nom de plume of 'Formerly 98'. It is the third post in a Post Drug Sexual Dysfunction (PDSD) series that started with Sexual Death and went on to Wikipedia
- [This Present Madness](https://rxisk.org/this-present-madness/) - This Present Madness was published in November. During the rehearsal of an all-star high school band near Dallas, Texas, a gunman enters the practice hall and starts firing with a semi-automatic shotgun. His attack is deadly. It is the worst mass shooting in US history. The blame for it, as usual, is attributed to the
- [Life on Drugs](https://rxisk.org/life-on-drugs/) - Editorial Note: This extraordinary account of what it can be like to live on psychotropic drugs came by email out of the blue from Jim Seko. For the record, it looks from here that Jim cannot have had schizophrenia. His original problem almost has to be an acute and transient psychosis. The tragedy of these
- [Lipitor from 1997](https://rxisk.org/lipitor-from-1997/) - Editorial note: This post is by Dr. Duane Graveline, Author of Lipitor Thief of Memory (referred to in an earlier post), and other books. The original of this post is on his website. Dr. Graveline has sent this account of what can be found in FDA's Medwatch system for Lipitor. RxISK makes data like this
- [The Legacy Effects of Statins: A Role for RxISK](https://rxisk.org/the-legacy-effects-of-statins-a-role-for-rxisk/) - Editorial Note: This chilling account of the effects of statin drugs brings out a key role for reporters to RxISK.org - we need good data on how long the after-effects of drug treatment can last. This data is rarely collected but is of critical importance when it comes to insurance and disability assessments. A statin
- [Antidepressants and Autism: Time to Worry?](https://rxisk.org/antidepressants-and-autism-time-to-worry/) - Editorial Note: This post by Adam Urato from Boston picks up one of the most important issues of our time. It touches on one of the most sensitive issues of all - should anyone tell a mother-to-be what to do about medications like the Antidepressants. See The Dark is for Mushrooms. Does antidepressant use during pregnancy
- [E-Patients: No Free Lunch?](https://rxisk.org/e-patients-no-free-lunch/) - Editorial Note: Ken Spriggs is one of our regular contributors. This is cross-posted from his blog where he takes on all issues Crohns. The original post comes complete with all references mentioned here. [It's no longer available at http://diyehr.com/e-patient-boundaries-and-the-publishing-profiteers/] In recent months, the BMJ have trumpeted the patient power revolution and featured a contribution from e-Patient
- [Mother's Little Poisoner](https://rxisk.org/mothers-little-poisoner/) - Editorial: There have been some high profile cases recently that may reflect the effects of drugs. A classic modus operandi On March 17th L’Wren Scott hung herself in her Manhattan apartment. She hung herself from a door handle. Hanging with your feet or body on the ground is a classic antidepressant MO when it comes to suicide.
- [I Get By With a Little Help from my Friends](https://rxisk.org/i-get-by-with-a-little-help-from-my-friends/) - This post is written by Dr Richard A. Lawhern Ph.D., site moderator, content author and Resident Research Analyst with “Living With TN”, an online community among Ben's Friends. He is the spouse of a trigeminal neuralgia (TN) patient who has symptoms of both typical and atypical forms of this disorder, with pain on both sides of her
- [Sticks in the Throat: Boxology](https://rxisk.org/sticks-in-the-throat-boxology/) - Editorial Note: This is a follow up post from John Scheel to his Sticks in the Throat piece earlier in the week. The theme here fits very well with two posts in the last week on davidhealy.org - Guilty and Psychiatry Gone Astray by Peter Gøtzsche. Often in life it is the very simple things we
- [We Have a Dream: Getting Engaged to a Doctor](https://rxisk.org/we-have-a-dream-getting-engaged-to-a-doctor/) - Still, you take the medication as prescribed. At first you imagine your body may adjust or the pills will come to understand you. It is no use. From Virginia Chase Sutton: Lithium and the Absence of Desire. Patient engagement Patient engagement is one of the mantras of current healthcare improvement efforts. Medical students and junior doctors
- [AbbVie Petition Signers with a Story to Tell](https://rxisk.org/abbvie-petition-signers-with-a-story-to-tell/) - This selection of quotes abbreviates in many cases what was written. The contributions come from all the continents who have signed. On statins (10) ES: Memory loss, couldn't walk very far. came off statins and back pain went within a few days. DG: My body has been damaged by the statin drug simvastatin. If I had know about
- [Sticks in the Throat](https://rxisk.org/sticks-in-the-throat/) - Editorial Note: This post by John Scheel from Ontario brings out how medication and devices can lead to what we've lately been calling Drug Traffic Accidents. The concept seems a better fit to what happened here than either side effects or adverse reactions. John has a wider ranging book "Someone Gives a S**t” (see www.johnscheel.com) which gives
- [Ten Drugs Seek Ten Conditions](https://rxisk.org/ten-drugs-seek-ten-conditions/) - Editorial Note: There will be a post next week on RxISK and DavidHealy.org challenging you to take 'The Macbeth Test' and see whether you should stay in the United Kingdom or not. This is a prequel. Is there a drug for this? Do you need a Statin? Is your heart still beating? Does your child
- [GSK and Catch 22](https://rxisk.org/gsk-and-catch-22/) - Editorial: This post by Johanna Ryan notes a significant legal development for anyone taking a generic drug. It's also a testament to the ability of motivated women to make a difference to the landscape. We’re posting this interview with Wendy Dolin to draw attention to a victory – a possible break in the terrible legal
- [Medicines are not just a commodity](https://rxisk.org/medicines-are-not-just-a-commodity/) - Editorial Note: This is not a RxISK Story - it's about preventing RxISK Stories. Those who read RxISK Stories are well aware of the economic might of the pharmaceutical industry (and the medical device industry) and their growing political clout with the government agencies that are supposed to regulate them. Their capture of the U.S. FDA,
- [Pink Viagra or Pink Elephant?](https://rxisk.org/pink-viagra-or-pink-elephant/) - On October 27 – 28 the FDA held a “Patient Focused Drug Development Meeting” on the issue of Female Sexual Dysfunction (FSD). It’s one of about of a dozen such meetings they’re hosting over the next two years in what’s billed as an effort to be more responsive to patients. Most will focus on conditions
- [If Anxious Check Drugs: PPIs and Diuretics](https://rxisk.org/if-anxious-check-drugs-ppis-and-diuretics/) - Editorial Note: One of us had a very successful colleague who over time became more and more anxious and sought advice. It was difficult to see why this person should become anxious suggesting there was a physical factor involved. Repeated physical investigations showed nothing, except low magnesium. The only possibility left seemed to be the
- [Collateral Damage](https://rxisk.org/collateral-damage/) - Anonymous There is a war going on over truth in drug marketing. There have been many victims of drugs that made it to market with deadly and damaging side effects. Increasingly, drug companies have sought to expand their markets by targeting children and young people. Many young people have died and many more have been
- [Lullaby](https://rxisk.org/lullaby/) - Editorial Note: A study published this week suggests that the issue of birth defects on antidepressants rather than suicide or homicide may yet end up as the Mark of Cain by which these drugs are remembered. Hush, little baby, don't say a word, Mama's gonna buy you a mockingbird. If that mockingbird won't sing, Mama's
- [Autism Awareness Day: Antidepressants in Pregnancy](https://rxisk.org/autism-awareness-day-antidepressants-in-pregnancy/) - Editorial Note: This post is by Adam Urato MD, the Chairman of Obstetrics and Gynecology at MetroWest Medical Center in Framingham, Massachusetts, as well as a Maternal-Fetal Medicine specialist at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts. He cares for pregnant women on a daily basis. Autism rates are on the rise, with the latest report from
- [Mumsnet](https://rxisk.org/mumsnet/) - Editorial Note: Two comments from Johanna and Neil in response to The Dark is for Mushrooms and Preventing Precaution. Johanna I didn’t see the BBC Panorama show (not available in the US) and don’t know if the outrage expressed by the Mumsnet blogger is sincere. It hardly sounds like Dr. Pilling was against using SSRI’s
- [Roche and The Perfect Circle](https://rxisk.org/roche-and-the-perfect-circle/) - Editorial Note: This is part 2 of the post by Heather and David Roberts - See RoAccutane and The Perfect Circle. Ever since in 2012 our son Olly died after using it, we have tried to learn what it does to the body and the mind. For the most terrifying thing about it, apart from
- [The Shipwreck of the Singular](https://rxisk.org/the-shipwreck-of-the-singular/) - Crusoe’s first appearance was in The Creation of Psychopharmacology, where in recognition of the tensions inherent in medicine between the numerous who enter clinical trials and the single person being treated by a doctor, the book opened with a quote from George Oppen’s Of Being Numerous, in which he notes that: “Crusoe we say was rescued”.
- [Marketing CoPilot recognized for helping RxISK.org achieve exemplary marketing results in email marketing](https://rxisk.org/marketing-copilot-recognized-for-helping-rxisk-org-achieve-exemplary-marketing-results-in-email-marketing/) - TORONTO, ON — April 29, 2014 – Marketing CoPilot® Inc., a leader in Canada for digital marketing strategy and execution, has received the 2013 All Star Award from Constant Contact® Inc., the trusted marketing advisor to more than half a million small organizations worldwide. Each year, Constant Contact bestows the All Star Award to a
- [Dr Healy's interview with Andy Oudman 1290 AM CJBK, London](https://rxisk.org/dr-healys-interview-with-andy-oudman-1290-am-cjbk-london/) - Andy Oudman (1290 AM CJBK, London ON) interviews Dr. David Healy, author of "Pharmageddon," about an extremely important upcoming panel discussion regarding the risks associated with medications to be held on January 15 in Toronto at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Currently, this event is sold out. The next day, the video should be uploaded
- [Cardiff University: Time to Abandon Evidence Based Medicine?](https://rxisk.org/cardiff-university/) - A talk by Prof David Healy from the Institute of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences at Cardiff University. The talk was presented at the Cardiff University School of Psychology on 26th November 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3YB59EKMKw
- [Mercola.com](https://rxisk.org/mercola-com/) - How the pharmaceutical industry profits from false claims, and a brand new online tool that can help you get better health care Dr. Mercola interviews Dr. David Healy Story at a glance: Evidence shows drug companies frequently hide vital information about their drugs in order to get it on the market and keep it there
- [New Guide to Stopping Antidepressants](https://rxisk.org/new-guide-to-stopping-antidepressants/) - The RxISK Medical Team has posted a “final” copy of the RxISK Guide to Stopping Antidepressants. Thanks to all for your feedback on the Guide (originally published as a draft paper) and please continue to provide input for the next version.
- [The Right Stuff - The RxISK Stuff](https://rxisk.org/the-right-stuff-the-rxisk-stuff/) - Editorial Note: The RxISK Report function on RxISK has been streamlined. We want you and everyone who can to fill reports, take them to your doctor pharmacist or nurse prescriber and report back to us. There are two reasons to do so. First, you are getting $150.00 worth of RxISK Report for free - it
- [Daily Mail Online: What is wrong with randomised trials Part 2](https://rxisk.org/daily-mail-online-what-is-wrong-with-randomised-trials-part-2/) - May 5, 2013 By Jerome Burne Could alcohol get a licence as a drug for depression? How do you test for the safety of a drug that causes the same side effects as the disease it is used to treat? These are just two of the points I didn’t have room for in my post last
- [Daily Mail Online:  Why randomised controlled trials don’t tell you what you want to know](https://rxisk.org/daily-mail-online-why-randomised-controlled-trials-dont-tell-you-what-you-want-to-know/) - April 28, 2013 by Jerome Burne Earlier this week the Daily Mail published my feature on side-effects and how patients aren’t properly warned about them. Antidepressants, for instance, can cause compulsive heavy drinking but you wouldn’t know it from the drug information leaflet. The article is about campaigning psychiatrist Dr David Healy, who believes patients need a
- [Daily Mail Online: Could your medicine give you a drink problem?](https://rxisk.org/daily-mail-online-could-your-medicine-give-you-a-drink-problem/) - The disturbing side-effects even the manufacturers don't know about By Jerome Burne Published: 23:50 GMT, 22 April 2013 | Updated: 06:41 GMT, 23 April 2013 Several years ago, Anne-Marie Cook, a 40-year-old health care assistant from Surrey, was prescribed the antidepressant Seroxat after she’d become anxious and withdrawn following the death of her father. Within a few months she began
- [Psychology Today: Interview with David Healy](https://rxisk.org/psychology-today/) - Drug Trials and Data-Based Medicine: An Interview with David Healy How can patients get better, more-reliable data about Rx drugs?
- [Heartattack and Vine - and Plavix](https://rxisk.org/heartattack-and-vine-and-plavix/) - Editorial Note: The first RxISK story was about Plavix - Fiona's Story. This anonymous account has striking overlaps with that. Plavix is clopidogrel. The grel group of drugs include 1tazigrel, dimetagrel and others. They function like expensive aspirins. They cause problems on withdrawal and can be lethal. But medics and nurses will bat the problems
- [Doctors: What do they know?](https://rxisk.org/doctors-what-do-they-know/) - Editorial Note: This is an anonymous guest post. I started teaching in the early 1970’s, when to be a teacher was to be a professional, like a solicitor or a doctor. A few years later the Minister for Education, Margaret Thatcher, managed in one short speech to downgrade the status of teachers. At the time,
- [Dilemmas: advising others](https://rxisk.org/dilemmas-advising-others/) - Editorial Note: This post is by Sally Macgregor. I left a comment on: Stopping Antidepressants: Kenny’s dilemma, which contained this statement: ‘I think acknowledging that coming off the pills can end badly is absolutely crucial. For one thing it’s honest, and without honestly how can people begin to cope with the situation they find themselves
- [Bruce Springsteen: Born with an Inner Restlessness](https://rxisk.org/bruce-springsteen-born-with-an-inner-restlessness/) - Further excerpts from Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run. Bruce looks like he had a dependence syndrome and perhaps even organic damage or dysfunction linked to an antidepressant - See Born to Withdraw. Did he also have akathisia? Akathisia (restlessness, agitation & turmoil): A disorder characterized by an uncomfortable feeling of inner restlessness and inability to
- [Bruce Springsteen: Born to Withdraw?](https://rxisk.org/bruce-springsteen-born-to-withdraw/) - Editorial Note: These excerpts from Bruce Springsteen's new book Born To Run were picked out for us by a colleague who is a lifetime Bruce fan. Zero to sixty in nothing flat The blues don’t jump right on you. They come creeping. Shortly after my sixtieth I slipped into a depression like I hadn’t experienced since that
- [The Pill that Causes you to Steal Someone Else's Life](https://rxisk.org/the-pill-that-causes-you-to-steal-someone-elses-life/) - Katinka Newman's The Pill that Steals Lives brings out the hazards of being put on a treatment that then becomes the problem that other treatments are used to treat. In her case she could have easily killed herself - or her children. The website 100Families.org lists 1250+ cases where mental health is linked to homicides.
- [Olanzapine: Still Treading Water](https://rxisk.org/olanzapine-still-treading-water/) - Editorial Note: Ages back, Sally MacGregor wrote this piece to follow up to her Olanzapine experience - Olanzapine Withdrawal: Sally's Story. The original piece has routinely been among the top ten RxISK blog posts visited. This update slipped between the cracks. But here it is. Time for a progress report. I was in feisty mode
- [The Right Not to be Kidnapped](https://rxisk.org/the-right-not-to-be-kidnapped/) - Declaration In the last decade, a new problem has come into focus, illustrated by the posts over the last 4 weeks. Families and communities have traditionally provided the overwhelming bulk of care for relatives whether they were mentally infirm, elderly and dementing, younger with learning disabilities or suffering from physical illness. The impetus to care
- [Medical Kidnapping: The Dilemmas of Therapeutic Optimism](https://rxisk.org/medical-kidnapping-the-dilemmas-of-therapeutic-optimism/) - Editorial Note: This is the fifth post in a medical kidnapping series. There will be at least one more, perhaps two. Lost rights The county asylum system that came into being in 1845 initiated a period of therapeutic optimism, that was extinguished by 1900. Therapeutic optimism re-emerged in the 1950s with the advent of the
- [The History of Medical Kidnapping](https://rxisk.org/the-history-of-medical-kidnapping/) - Editorial Note: The last three posts give examples of medical kidnapping happening now. The Doctor Munchausen series of posts on David Healy in July and August 2014 give some more examples. This post and two to follow outline how we ended up in a position where people can be kidnapped. Medical Kidnapping goes back a
- [Life Unarmed](https://rxisk.org/life-unarmed/) - Editorial Note from Johanna Ryan: Matthew Purinton has been a patient all his life – but if that word suggests to you a passive person awaiting rescue, think again. As a child born with a rare and seemingly overwhelming set of disabilities, he and his parents signed up for some of the most radical interventions
- [Greg's Dilemma: Riding a Bike Backwards](https://rxisk.org/gregs-dilemma-riding-a-bike-backwards/) - Editorial Note: Last week in Greg's Dilemma, Greg outlined the difficulties he had with dependence on and withdrawal from serotonin reuptake inhibitors and benzodiazepines. The first comment was from a therapist who seemed to say "pull yourself together". This eerily echoed the next part of Greg's dilemma - that could have been posted last week
- [Lessons from SSRIStories #5: What Does Research Tell Us About the Connection between SSRIs and Violence?](https://rxisk.org/lessons-from-ssristories-5-of-5-what-does-research-tell-us-about-the-connection-between-ssris-and-violence/) - by Julie Wood Summary of Post #4: Medication-induced violence is different from regular violence. It can manifest as bizarre and random actions without apparent motive. Sometimes, it is based on a sudden impulse without any warning. Other times, thought distortion leads to elaborate plans, but the violence still makes no rational sense. In many cases,
- [Lessons from SSRIStories #4: How is SSRI-Related Violence Different?](https://rxisk.org/lessons-from-ssristories-4-how-is-ssri-related-violence-different/) - by Julie Wood Summary of Post #3: The same mechanisms that induce violence in users of SSRIs can induce suicide. These mechanisms are akathisia, emotional blunting and delirium-psychosis. These are not uncommon effects, although the degree to which individuals experience them varies, and people may experience more than one of these side effects at once.
- [Lessons from SSRIStories #3: How do SSRIs cause violence and suicide?](https://rxisk.org/lessons-from-ssristories-3-of-5-how-do-ssris-cause-violence-and-suicide/) - by Julie Wood It is one thing to see that taking SSRI medications can cause violence in some people, but quite another to make sense of it. In his blog, “Prescription-Only Violence”, Feb 18, 2013, David Healy identifies the three mechanisms through which these drugs can cause a person to do violent things: “The antidepressants
- [Lessons from SSRIStories #2: Anecdotal Evidence of the SSRI-Violence Connection](https://rxisk.org/lessons-from-5-2-anecdotal-evidence-of-the-ssri-violence-connection/) - by Julie Wood Summary of Post #1: Hard as it may be to accept, there is evidence that SSRIs, along with some other drugs, legal and illegal, can cause people to become violent. The connection between psychoactive medications and violence is not understood. News reports that mention psychoactive medications in a story about a violent
- [How Do SSRIs (and other medications) Cause Violence and why don’t people spot the connection?](https://rxisk.org/how-do-ssris-and-other-medications-cause-violence-and-why-dont-people-spot-the-connection/) - by Julie Wood The connection between SSRIs, violence and suicide For many years, a few medical experts have been trying to raise awareness of the link between selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants (and some other medications) and violence. The RxISK.org website Violence Zone flags the issue for people interested in researching the side effects
- [Tracking Down the Cause of Withdrawal and PSSD](https://rxisk.org/tracking-down-the-cause-of-withdrawal-and-pssd/) - Editorial Note: Between now and the end of the year, RxISK will have a major revamp. Among the first new features will be a Complex Withdrawal and PSSD research section. The philosophy behind this is that no-one knows what Protracted Withdrawal Syndromes and PSSD actually are and it's more difficult to find an answer if we
- [Study 329 Stories](https://rxisk.org/study-329-stories/) - Kristina Gehrki It is refreshing to see the BMJ publish an article highlighting the corruption, collusion and dangerously unethical behaviors among the pharmaceutical and psychiatric industries, university medical departments and government "regulators." I'd like to tell my teen-aged daughter all about the "retraction." Unfortunately, she died from SSRI-induced akathisia, Serotonin Toxicity and prescribed suicidality. When
- [Benzodiazepine and Antidepressant Dependence](https://rxisk.org/benzodiazepine-and-antidepressant-dependence/) - Sally MacGregor has written about the horrors of dependence on olanzapine - see Olanzapine Withdrawal and Back In Olanzapine Waters. Here she picks up a conundrum - Primary Care Doctors react to the idea of Benzodiazepines as though they have been the greatest threat to the stability of society since World War II, while at the
- [The Man who thinks he is a Monster: Sertraline and Violence](https://rxisk.org/the-man-who-thinks-he-is-a-monster-sertraline-and-violence/) - Editorial Note: See The Man who thought he was a Monster Sunday’s child is full of grace He was born on a Sunday. He had an average background with few health, physical or mental problems. His main difficulty was a certain social anxiety. He went to University to study Neuroscience – probably to try and understand
- [The Man Who Thought he was a Monster: Antidepressants and Violence](https://rxisk.org/the-man-who-thought-he-was-a-monster/) - This post by Steindór Erlingsson asks awkward questions in the week when the jury is likely to deliver a verdict in the sentencing part of James Holmes' trial for the shooting dead of twelve people in Aurora Colorado at the premiere of the Batman movie, Dark Knight Rises, Holmes had no intentions of harming anyone before
- [My Trip Through the Polypharmacy Blender](https://rxisk.org/my-trip-through-the-polypharmacy-blender/) - By Rory Tennes I was asked by David Healy to write my own story after he read my comment on another RxISK story. I agreed but have been surprised how hard it was to sit down and do it. I knew the story, the words were in my head. Yet I avoided getting started. Perhaps
- [Because Veterans Are Worth It](https://rxisk.org/because-veterans-are-worth-it/) - Editorial Note from Johanna Ryan: Cesar Ruvalcaba is a veteran of the U.S. Army, 10th Mountain Division, and served in Somalia in the early 1990’s. He’s now a dedicated antiwar activist and a member of Vietnam Veterans Against War (VVAW). He told this story May 25 at a Memorial Day rally in Chicago organized by
- [Dopamine & Addiction: Junkies of the Third Age?](https://rxisk.org/dopamine-addiction-junkies-of-the-third-age/) - The last set of posts have brought stimulants and dopamine into the frame. In the 1960s and 1970s while stimulants were becoming controlled drugs it was nevertheless denied that they caused dependence. It is now clear that the closely related dopamine agonists, increasingly the first line treatment for Parkinson's Disease, cause a host of compulsive
- [Over The Top: Tackling Medical Power](https://rxisk.org/over-the-top-tackling-medical-power/) - Editorial Note: Laurie Oakley has recently brought out a book, Crazy And It Was, that gives many vivid illustrations of the problems of coping with healthcare systems, especially mental healthcare systems. Her account of what it's like to deal with a doctor who just isn't listening was particularly compelling. We asked her to give some
- [Massacre of Innocence](https://rxisk.org/massacre-of-innocence/) - Paradise lost Any post about pregnancy pulls in more than the average amount of complexity. We had a series of posts on the risks of antidepressants in pregnancy at the end of last year The Dark is for Mushrooms, not for Women and Preventing Precaution and Mumsnet and a string of posts from Adam Urato - see
- [The Persecution of Heretics](https://rxisk.org/the-persecution-of-heretics/) - Editorial Note: For the past two months while there have been a series of authors on RxISK posts, David Healy has run a Persecution of Heretics series on davidhealy.org. The heresy is that drugs come with side effects - that they are poisons that can be put to close to magical use if both doctor
- [Rethink at Rethink?](https://rxisk.org/rethink-at-rethink/) - Editorial Note: This post from James Bennett of RxISK's team explores the increasingly problematic area of sexual functioning on antidepressants and other drugs. The efforts to take down the Wikipedia page on Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD) suggest that the sexual side effects of antidepressants worry industry more than anything else. Why this should be is
- [Sudden Cardiac Death and the Reverse Dodo Verdict](https://rxisk.org/sudden-cardiac-death-and-the-reverse-dodo-verdict/) - Editorial Note: Ten years ago I was at a meeting in Ottawa Canada looking at the issue of adverse events on treatment and how to manage these. The attendees were mostly left leaning activists. But Terence Young, then recognizably a conservative and later a conservative Member of the Canadian Parliament was also there. He was
- [Thalidomide: From Disaster to Recovery](https://rxisk.org/thalidomide-from-disaster-to-recovery/) - A quiet man A few months ago Martin Johnson retired as the Director of Britain's Thalidomide Trust. Under his stewardship, UK Thalidomiders have become a major force for global drug safety. In a world where Brands are everything and even the BMJ seems to have sacrificed scientific content for good branding, the Thalidomiders adapted the
- [Written on Water](https://rxisk.org/written-on-water/) - Editorial Note: This is a brief synopsis of Dear Luise by Dorrit Cato Christensen - a story of power and powerlessness, and a most extraordinary book. Extraordinary because of the horror it outlines. Extraordinary because of Dorrit's restraint when writing about her daughter. Do things go as badly wrong as this often - yes. Are we doing anything to stop disasters like
- [The Macbeth Test](https://rxisk.org/the-macbeth-test/) - Editorial Note: No one outside the UK may be paying any heed to the all-consuming debate within Britain about the referendum on the future of Scotland. Everything comes back to this. Corporations have been saying they'll pull out if Scotland leaves the UK (Standard Life) or that they'd prefer if Scotland left (British Airways). The
- [I'm not pre-pregnant. I just have a womb.](https://rxisk.org/im-not-pre-pregnant-i-just-have-a-womb/) - Editorial Note: Two months ago we were deep in a controversy about Antidepressants and Birth Defects. (See The Dark is for Mushrooms, not for Women, Preventing Precaution and Mumsnet). Many women hearing a message that they should be wary about antidepressants and the risk of birth defects hear that they are being regarded simply as
- [Letter to Stacy London](https://rxisk.org/letter-to-stacy-london/) - Five weeks ago Johanna Ryan and Kim Witczak wrote a letter to Stacy London. It covered Stacy's role in AbbVie's Humiraverse. It wasn't a critical letter. People in Humiraverses can't throw stones - the company will always win. Stacy is probably better placed than anyone to make a difference to AbbVie and Pharma's current campaign
- [AbbVie Petition: Drug Hazards are Not Trade Secrets](https://rxisk.org/abbvie-petition-drug-hazards-are-not-trade-secrets/) - RxISK has started a petition on Change.org which will go to Richard Gonzalez CEO of AbbVie, and Daniel Welch CEO of InterMune, who are at present taking a legal action to block the European Medicines Agency's policy of open access to clinical trial data. The reason to petition is in this post Let's do the AbbVie
- [The Pre-Pregnancy Dilemma Survey: Part 1](https://rxisk.org/the-pre-pregnancy-dilemma-survey-part-1/) - This is the first of two five minute surveys covering dilemmas that have been thrown up by the Panorama program on antidepressants, anticonvulsants and birth defects. The dilemma arises from the fact that women going on them are kept in the dark about a number of important issues. First, they aren't told that these drugs can
- [No Sex and the City](https://rxisk.org/no-sex-and-the-city/) - PSSD - the most reported syndrome to RxISK There have to date been 67 reports of Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD) on paroxetine (Paxil, Aropax and Seroxat), fluoxetine (Prozac and Fludac), sertraline (Zoloft and Lustral), citalopram and escitalopram (Cipramil, Celexa, Lexapro and Cipralex), venlafaxine (Efexor and Pristiq), fluvoxamine and nefazodone. This makes it the most reported
- [PSSD: If a Drug Caused Blindness?](https://rxisk.org/pssd-if-a-drug-caused-blindness/) - Editorial Note: Of these 13 Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD) cases, 12 came to us from a colleague who had been approached by others. If a drug caused anyone to go blind or deaf it would probably be removed from the market immediately. In the early days of Viagra, there was talk of it turning visual
- [The Data Access Wars](https://rxisk.org/the-data-access-wars/) - This is the first of three Crusoe posts. For background on Crusoe, see Watch where you wave that wand, The Oedipus Effect, The Tree Must Go. Beta Centauri was unquestionably a long way from Massachusetts. Somewhat to her surprise Crusoe found breathing no problem, and the temperature seemed just about right. The scenery as they’d come in was
- [How Pharma Captures Bereaved Mothers](https://rxisk.org/how-pharma-captures-bereaved-mothers/) - Introduction by David Healy In 1987 Herb Hendin started the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). AFSP is a non-profit 501(c)(3). It is an active fund-raiser. AFSP fell into the hands of Charlie Nemeroff and later John Mann and colleagues at Columbia. On December 1st 2000, Charlie Nemeroff told the Council of AFSP that Healy
- [Gambling on the Side Effects of Antidepressants: Does Pfizer Play Dice?](https://rxisk.org/gambling-with-antidepressants/) - This piece by Daniel O'Sullivan was first posted on Crikey.com. Our interest was stimulated by a query to RxISK from Daniel who had been told by the Australian regulator (the TGA) that they only had one report of this. Looking for gambling in RxISK, gives 1 case in Australia, but 4 cases of pathological gambling - more than from all the
- [Cora's Story: A Benzodiazepine Story](https://rxisk.org/coras-story-a-benzodiazepine-story/) - In RxISK Stories, we regularly take you to dark places where few would wish to go. We have perhaps become too used to the horrific consequences of medicines going wrong that we fail to appreciate how off-putting this sequence of posts can be. It is like a doctor taking a friend into an operating theater
- [The Honest Apothecary: Pharmageddon, RxISK.org, and an interview with Dr. David Healy](https://rxisk.org/the-honest-apothecary-pharmageddon-rxisk-org-and-an-interview-with-dr-david-healy/) - There are many roads one can travel on within the world of medicine. Some take their training down the pathway of clinical practice and patient care. Other will steer themselves toward the scholarly street of science and studies. A few apply their brains to the boulevard of books and blogs. And some head straight for
- [BBC Radio: The Prozac Economy](https://rxisk.org/bbc-radio-the-prozac-economy/) - Prozac is 25 years old. It has been taken by over 40 million people around the world and made billions of dollars for Eli Lilly, the company that created it. But does it work? And what effect has the promise of a "happiness pill" had on society? Will Self examines the legacy of the so-called
- [Maclean's magazine: There's a pill for that](https://rxisk.org/macleans-magazine-theres-a-pill-for-that/) - A B.C. class-action suit against the makers of Paxil is putting the spotlight on a controversial issue: the growing use of antidepressants during pregnancy. ...Yet a rising chorus of researchers is questioning Motherisk’s stance on SSRI use in pregnancy. One of the most vocal is psychiatrist and psychopharmacologist David Healy, director of the North Wales
- [OpEdNews.com – A Conversation with David Healy](https://rxisk.org/opednews-com/) - A Conversation with David Healy, MD, author of the new book Pharmageddon. Full story: Has the Drug Industry's Grip On Health Care Become a Pharmageddon?
- [WND Education – Psych Meds Linked to 90% of School Shootings](https://rxisk.org/wnd-education-psych-meds-linked-to-90-of-school-shootings/) - Expert: Psychiatric drugs likely cause of Lanza's extreme violence NEW YORK – From the moment news emerged Friday that a young man had carried out a horrific massacre of elementary-school children, politicians from local city halls to the White House have been restoking the age-old push for more gun control. While guns have been a
- [National Post — Poison in healthy doses: MP warns that Canadians blind to dangers of prescription drugs](https://rxisk.org/national-post-poison-in-healthy-doses-mp-warns-that-canadians-blind-to-dangers-of-prescription-drugs/) - Canadians are willfully blind to the lethal risks of prescription drugs, which kill people “every day” through side effects, even at proper doses, according to a Conservative MP. “All drugs are poisons,” Terence Young told a packed audience this week at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. “The only difference between a drug and
- [WND Education – Top Psychiatrist: Meds Behind School Massacres](https://rxisk.org/wnd-education-top-psychiatrist-meds-behind-school-massacres/) - Society conducting 'vast social experiment' without knowing its end NEW YORK – If lawmakers and authorities are truly concerned about stopping gun violence in schools, they need to take a close look at the prescription of psychotropic drugs for children and young people, says a leading psychiatrist. In an exclusive in-person interview in New York
- [Time Healthland](https://rxisk.org/time-healthland/) - Psychiatrist Contends the Field Is ‘Committing Professional Suicide’ British psychiatrist and Big Pharma gadfly David Healy is so controversial amongst his colleagues that some have tried to have his medical license revoked — but there he was on Thursday, speaking at the American Psychiatric Association’s second largest annual meeting at a well-attended session on conflicts

## Pages

- [](https://rxisk.org/) - RxISK is a free, independent drug safety website to help you weigh the benefits of any medication against its potential dangers.
- [PSSD and Related Conditions in the Media](https://rxisk.org/media-pssd-and-related-sexual-dysfunctions/) - Below is a collection of media articles from around the world featuring post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD) or related conditions. The list includes newspapers, magazines, TV and online media. If you can find others, please let us know. Note: We do not guarantee the quality or accuracy of the external articles linked below and do not
- [PSSD Academic Literature](https://rxisk.org/pssd-literature/) - A list of all relevant academic literature involving post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD) including studies, review articles, editorials and commentaries.
- [Guides and Papers](https://rxisk.org/tools/guides/) - Published papers based on RxISK data Serotonin reuptake inhibiting antidepressants: A trigger for visual snow syndrome? Comment on ‘visual snow syndrome and migraine: a review’ Diagnostic criteria for enduring sexual dysfunction after treatment with antidepressants, finasteride and isotretinoin Development and persistence of patient-reported visual problems associated with serotonin reuptake inhibiting antidepressants Post-SSRI sexual dysfunction: Patient
- [PSSD Research Fund](https://rxisk.org/pssd-research/) - Your donations are needed to fund scientific research into post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD) and other enduring sexual dysfunctions. The aim is to better understand the biology of these conditions and hopefully find treatments. £47,774 raised of £50,000 goal368 donations DONATE The conditions Post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD) is a condition in which sexual side effects don't
- [Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD)](https://rxisk.org/post-ssri-sexual-dysfunction-pssd/) - Post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD) is a condition in which sexual function does not return to normal after the use of SSRIs and related antidepressants.
- [PSSD Doctors & Specialists](https://rxisk.org/pssd-doctors-specialists/) - We have listed several doctors below who are familiar with post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD). We are not claiming that any of these doctors can help you as there is currently no treatment for the condition. They have all given permission to be listed. It should be noted that many healthcare professionals are aware of PSSD
- [Drug Search](https://rxisk.org/drug-search/) - The following tool uses the OpenFDA API to show you data from the top 1000 adverse event reports that have been submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Please note that the total displayed at the top of the results is the total number of reactions - not the total number of reports. For
- [Vision Zone](https://rxisk.org/vision-zone/) - Those of you who reported vision problems in blog posts and RxISK Reports have made RxISK a leading player when it comes to drugs and vision, particularly involving antidepressants. Your reports are more illuminating than those belonging to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). You have shown that vision problems can start on stopping treatment
- [Founding Team](https://rxisk.org/about/team/) - There are few professionals who have the profile and international reputation of our founding team, which includes people who have risked their careers in speaking out about adverse drug events. Dr. David Healy, CEO and principal founder of Data Based Medicine Global Ltd., is an internationally respected psychiatrist, psychopharmacologist, scientist, and author. A professor of
- [Side Effect Search by Year](https://rxisk.org/side-effect-search-by-year/) - The following tool uses the OpenFDA API to show you data from adverse event reports that have been submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). More ways to search Drug search Drug search by year Side effect search Proportional reporting ratio (PRR) and reporting odds ratio (ROR) In addition to the above tools,
- [Drug Search by Year](https://rxisk.org/drug-search-by-year/) - The following tool uses the OpenFDA API to show you data from adverse event reports that have been submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). More ways to search Drug search Side effect search Side effect search by year Proportional reporting ratio (PRR) and reporting odds ratio (ROR) In addition to the above
- [Proportional reporting ratio (PRR) and reporting odds ratio (ROR)](https://rxisk.org/prr-ror/) - The following tool uses the OpenFDA API to show you data from the top 1000 adverse event reports that have been submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Tip: If you are displaying a large number of results (eg. 1000) and want to search for a particular item, you may be able to use
- [Side Effect Search](https://rxisk.org/side-effect-search/) - The following tool uses the OpenFDA API to show you data from the top 1000 adverse event reports that have been submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Please note that when searching by side effect, variations of the same drug may be listed separately. For example, if you search for "visual snow syndrome",
- [Drug search by year (Side Effect list)](https://rxisk.org/drug-search-by-year-limited/)
- [Drug Search by Year (Detail)](https://rxisk.org/drug-search-by-year-detail/)
- [Skin and Nails Zone](https://rxisk.org/skin-nails-zone/) - “Crime TV fans know how easily drugs can be detected by skin and nail analysis,” says Dr. Dee Mangin, Data Based Medicine’s Chief Medical Officer. “However, in real life we often don’t make the connection between the prescription drugs we take and their effects on our bodies.” Arsenic, the poison of choice for inheritance-minded spouses
- [Fertility Zone](https://rxisk.org/fertility-zone/) - The impact of the drugs we take on our fertility may, for society, be the most important impact these drugs are having – greater than the risks of dependence, suicide, or violence. They almost certainly contribute to the falls in fertility rates now happening across the developed world. Perhaps not the sole cause, but we
- [Withdrawal Zone](https://rxisk.org/withdrawal-zone/) - While many of us associate withdrawal with stopping things like cigarettes, heroin, or sleeping pills, we may not realize that commonly used prescription drugs for conditions such as high blood pressure, cholesterol, indigestion, and depression have withdrawal effects that can range from mild rebound symptoms to life-threatening crises. For example, when stopping a proton-pump inhibitor
- [Hair Zone](https://rxisk.org/hair-zone/) - The Hair Zone was created to allow you to research the effects of drugs on hair, and for us to learn how the drugs you are taking are affecting your hair. Among the first side effects of drugs to be established was the effect of the first contraceptives on hair. This was established by women
- [Sex and Relationships Zone](https://rxisk.org/sex-relationships-zone/) - Many medications can dramatically affect our relationships, our sexual response, and our feelings and attitudes to others. We tend to think of these as brain effects, but they are more likely to be changes driven by our bodies. Our medicines can alter the way we smell or how we smell others, and this can impact
- [Violence Zone](https://rxisk.org/violence-zone/) - Prescription drugs can cause violent or aggressive thoughts, acts, and behaviors, or can trigger behaviors like alcohol misuse or other substance abuse that ends up in violence, or can cause a disinhibition that leads to violence. It is important to find out if there is a connection between these thoughts and your prescription so that
- [Suicide Zone](https://rxisk.org/suicide-zone/) - Medications sometimes cause people to have suicidal thoughts and behaviour. It is important to find out if there is a connection between these thoughts and your prescription so that adjustments can be made. It is important to distinguish between suicide and death by misadventure. Suicide is the deliberate termination of one’s existence while in one's
- [Tools](https://rxisk.org/tools/) - Healthcare Record Pro Forma Starting a Medication Guides & Papers Too Many Medications? Complex Withdrawal Videos Reducing the Risk of Treatment Induced Suicide
- [12 Questions To Ask Before Starting A Medication](https://rxisk.org/tools/drug-checklist/) - If your government allows it, your doctor prescribed it, and your pharmacist dispensed it, then it must be safe, right? Not necessarily. Make an informed choice so you can weigh the benefits of a prescription drug against potential harms. If you are already taking prescription drugs, be on the lookout for possible interactions and be aware
- [Akathisia: What You Need To Know](https://rxisk.org/akathisia/) - Akathisia is an emotional state caused by over 100 different drugs, primarily antidepressants and antipsychotics, but also antibiotics and others.
- [Are You On Too Many Medications?](https://rxisk.org/tools/polypharmacy-index/) - Answer the following 10 questions to assess the risk of your taking a mixture of drugs that is of more harm than benefit to you. The higher the number, the more important it is that you have a conversation with your doctor. Read more about the problems of polypharmacy in a post by Dr. Dee
- [Get Medication Harms Into Your Medical Record](https://rxisk.org/pro-forma/) - Patients often have difficultly getting problems caused by medications properly recorded in their medical record, particularly post-treatment issues that have continued after stopping the medication. Healthcare record pro forma The idea of this pro forma came about because two new codes were introduced to the SNOMED database in 2024: SCTID: 1340196008 Post-SSRI sexual dysfunction SCTID:
- [Medicine Induced Stress Syndromes (MISS)](https://rxisk.org/medicine-induced-stress-syndromes/) - Author: Dr. David Healy 20 February 2015 RxISK & MISS The most common query to RxISK has been from people dependent on or trying to withdraw from antidepressants, anticonvulsants, or other drugs. This paper provides some of the historical and theoretical background for two other papers on general withdrawal strategies and antidepressant withdrawal. Confusions arise
- [Dependence and Withdrawal](https://rxisk.org/guide-dependence-and-withdrawal/) - Author: Dr. David Healy 20 February 2015 Dependence and withdrawal The commonest queries to RxISK have been about dependence on and withdrawal from a range of drugs, from statins to anticonvulsants. There are a number of principles that can be outlined to cover the management of these various conditions. Treatment groups Within each apparent treatment
- [Mood Stabilizers](https://rxisk.org/mood-stabilizers/) - Author: Dr. David Healy 20 February 2015 The “mood stabilizers” An extraordinary number of people of all ages are now taking a mood stabilizer in the apparent belief there is a lot of information “out there” on these drugs, that most things we need to know about them are known and that they must be
- [Antipsychotics](https://rxisk.org/antipsychotics/) - Author: Dr. David Healy Last updated: 2016 What are antipsychotics? Antipsychotics are drugs licensed for the treatment of schizophrenia, psychotic episodes and mania. They were originally called neuroleptics in Europe and major tranquilizers in the USA. They are divided by marketing into two groups: First generation antipsychotics Second generation (or atypical) antipsychotics First generation drugs were
- [Antidepressants](https://rxisk.org/antidepressants/) - Authors: Dr. David Healy, Dr. Joanna Le Noury, Dr. Dee Mangin Last updated: 2016 What are antidepressants? Antidepressants are psychiatric drugs that are licensed for the treatment of depression. Some are also licensed for other conditions such as anxiety, eating disorders and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Types of antidepressants include: Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)
- [Research Forum for Enduring Sexual Dysfunction](https://rxisk.org/forum/) - Overview | p53 | p63 | ACE-2 | Prokineticin | Kisspeptin | VEGF | Epigenetics | Neuropathy | Studies Introduction A number of treatments that inhibit serotonin reuptake – antidepressants, antibiotics, antihistamines and analgesics – along with retinoids used for skin and other problems, and finasteride and related drugs for hair loss, can cause enduring sexual dysfunctions.
- [RxISK Prize](https://rxisk.org/prize/) - The RxISK Prize of $100,000 USD is offered to anyone who can provide a cure for persistent sexual side effects after stopping antidepressants, finasteride (Propecia), or isotretinoin (Accutane). Personal stories Our blog contains several personal stories from those affected by enduring sexual dysfunction after stopping antidepressants, finasteride or isotretinoin. Buried alive"It’s a very scary thought
- [Experiencing a Drug Side Effect?](https://rxisk.org/experiencing-a-drug-side-effect/) - Get your free RxISK Report to find out All prescription drugs can cause side effects, but it can often be difficult to engage with your doctor when your treatment might be causing a problem. The RxISK Report takes 10 minutes to complete and provides you with a RxISK Score indicating how likely it is that
- [Complete a RxISK Report](https://rxisk.org/complete-a-rxisk-report/)
- [Reducing the Risk of Treatment Induced Suicide](https://rxisk.org/reducing-the-risk-of-treatment-induced-suicide/) - Author: Dr. David Healy MD FRCPsych Up to 500 medicines can cause any of us, even the most balanced people with no prior medical history of any sort, to become suicidal, homicidal, severely agitated or confused. See Drugs That Can Cause Depression, Agitation and Suicidality. Some of the 500 come with clear warnings – in
- [Zones](https://rxisk.org/zones/) - The RxISK Zones bring together a collection of content from our website about each type of side effect. They are aimed at giving you a good overview of the issue without having to search through lots of material. If you enter the name of a prescription drug, this will generate a list of reports to
- [p53](https://rxisk.org/forum/p53/) - Overview | p53 | p63 | ACE-2 | Prokineticin | Kisspeptin | VEGF | Epigenetics | Neuropathy | Studies P53 is described as the Guardian of the Genome. The articles below give you a feel for its role in skin as well. Skin will sound trivial to most people, but it is the boundary between
- [Side Effects of Antipsychotics](https://rxisk.org/side-effects-of-antipsychotics/) - Author: Dr. David Healy Last updated: 2016 For the most part, antipsychotic side effects will clearly seem like side effects. There are, however, a number of effects brought on by the drugs that may seem more like a worsening of the illness. It is important that you are able to tell the difference. All too
- [Stopping Antidepressants](https://rxisk.org/guide-stopping-antidepressants/) - Author: RxISK Medical Team 20 February 2015 Introduction Dependence on and withdrawal from imipramine, the first tricyclic antidepressant was reported in 1959. It had only been introduced in 1958. It now seems highly likely that the effects on stopping imipramine stemmed from its serotonin reuptake inhibiting ability. As of 2014, close to 10% of the
- [Complex Withdrawal Model](https://rxisk.org/complex-withdrawal-model/) - Overview | Model | Ion Channels | Memory | C-Fibers & Touch | Mysteries History of withdrawal By the mid-1960s, the existence of withdrawal syndromes after antipsychotics were stopped was well documented.1 Within two years of the release of the first antidepressant, imipramine, a withdrawal syndrome had been described.2, 3 This evidence of withdrawal on prescription drugs led
- [Dopamine Agonists & Parkinson's Disease](https://rxisk.org/dopamine-agonists-and-parkinsons-disease/) - Author: Dr. Sarah Richards 20 February 2015 Rationale for levodopa and dopamine agonists The recognition that Parkinson’s disease is caused by a depletion of the neurotransmitter dopamine came from post mortem studies reported by Oleh Hornykiewicz in 1960. His studies concluded that the caudate and putamen of patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease showed a marked
- [Dopamine Agonists](https://rxisk.org/dopamine-agonists-for-takers/) - Author: Dr. Sarah Richards 20 February 2015 What data underpin the use of these drugs? The availability of data obtained through clinical trial analyses of l-dopa and the dopamine agonists is restricted to those trials which pharmaceutical companies have made available on their websites. Even where clinical trials have been published on company websites, it
- [Notes on Antidepressant Withdrawal to Take to Your Therapist](https://rxisk.org/notes-on-antidepressant-withdrawal-to-take-to-your-therapist/) - Author: RxISK Medical Team 20 February 2015 Introduction It is not uncommon for people dependent on and having withdrawal problems from antidepressants, mood stabilizers or other drugs to be referred to, seek out, or encounter therapists who will often have the skills to be helpful. However equally, if these therapists take the wrong approach, in
- [Side Effects of Antidepressants](https://rxisk.org/side-effects-of-antidepressants/) - Author: RxISK Medical Team Last updated: 2021 Antidepressants can cause a range of physical, emotional and psychological side effects. Some may be present within the first few hours of starting treatment, whereas others may develop over the longer-term. They can range from minor problems through to serious issues that can be life altering or life threatening. Some
- [Experiment at the End of the Millennium](https://rxisk.org/experiment-at-the-end-of-the-millennium/) - This is chapter 7 from Dr. David Healy’s book, Let Them Eat Prozac. Introduction From the Deposition of John Heiligenstein (1994): Q. Can you conceive as a clinical research physician and scientist, anything that would change your opinion on whether or not Prozac has a causal relationship between it and suicidality?A. I doubt if there
- [Contact Us](https://rxisk.org/contact/) - As outlined in About Us, RxISK is not a clinic or even a site of information about drugs. It’s a place where you can contribute examples of what drugs have done to you, what you have found out that seems more generally unknown, and your thoughts on a medical system – often called an industry
- [Videos](https://rxisk.org/videos/) - The Dr. Drew Podcast Dr. David Healy and Emily Grey talk discuss post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD). October 4, 2023. Listen on PodcastOne There are more videos on our Vimeo channel and on Dr. David Healy's YouTube channel. Podcasts Open ExcellenceSeptember 30, 2019Beyond Well: Science, Ep.10 - Sex, drugs, and... Mad in AmericaNovember 4, 2017Dr. David
- [Terms and Conditions](https://rxisk.org/terms/) - Updated 28 September 2023 1. Introduction The terms “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to Data Based Medicine Global Ltd., a corporation incorporated under the laws of the UK, and its affiliated companies. These Terms and Conditions govern your use of rxisk.org, davidhealy.org, ssristories.org, and study329.org (the “Websites”); by using these Websites, you accept these Terms
- [Privacy Policy](https://rxisk.org/privacy/) - Updated 27 September 2023 1. Overview This Privacy Policy describes the personal information we collect through rxisk.org, davidhealy.org, ssristories.org, and study329.org (the “Websites”), and how we collect and use it. The terms “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to Data Based Medicine Global Ltd, a corporation incorporated under the laws of the United Kingdom, and its
- [About Us](https://rxisk.org/about/) - RxISK is a free and independent website, launched in 2012 to empower you to have better conversations about your medications with your doctor. No-one knows more about the effects of a drug than the person taking it. Drug safety has been in free fall for 20 years. Drug companies, regulators, and staff working in healthcare,
- [Healthcare Professional Comment](https://rxisk.org/hcp-comment/)
- [Media Contact](https://rxisk.org/media/) - Media enquiries should be directed to: David HealyEmail: david.healy@rxisk.org
- [Ion Channels](https://rxisk.org/ion-channels/) - Overview | Model | Ion Channels | Memory | C-Fibers & Touch | Mysteries Sodium, calcium and potassium channels are involved in almost every process within the body, including muscle contractions, cardiac function, and sensory experience. Impairment of ion channels is known as “channelopathy”, and can be either congenital or acquired eg. from an autoimmune disease. Various medications such
- [Drugs That Can Cause Depression, Agitation & Suicidality](https://rxisk.org/drugs-that-can-cause-depression-agitation-suicidality/) - Author: RxISK Medical Team Last updated: 2018 Life expectancy is falling or has stopped rising in Western and other developed countries. In some countries (USA) rising suicide rates have been highlighted as one possible factor in this fall. In others (UK) the suicide rate doesn’t appear to be rising but it’s difficult to get a
- [Mysteries](https://rxisk.org/mysteries/) - Overview | Model | Ion Channels | Memory | C-Fibers & Touch | Mysteries Who are we? The difficulties on withdrawal from antidepressants link to some of the most profound mysteries both philosophical and pharmacological. In the West, we have grown very used to identifying ourselves with our brains. The first thing to note here is a difference between
- [C-Fibers & Touch](https://rxisk.org/c-fibers-touch/) - Overview | Model | Ion Channels | Memory | C-Fibers & Touch | Mysteries The issue of peripheral or sensory neuropathy is bound up in the question of touch. Touch is the least explored of our special senses. As an introduction to the issues raised here, it is worth reading Touch – The Science of Hand, Heart, and Mind
- [Memory & Cognitive Problems](https://rxisk.org/memory-cognitive-problems/) - Overview | Model | Ion Channels | Memory | C-Fibers & Touch | Mysteries Brain fog Lots of people complain of memory and other cognitive problems on or after taking medications, whether psychotropic drugs such as serotonin reuptake inhibitors, cholesterol lowering statins or fluoroquninolone antibiotics. The term “brain fog” refers to the experience of a general cognitive impairment
- [Complex Withdrawal](https://rxisk.org/complex-withdrawal/) - Overview | Model | Ion Channels | Memory | C-Fibers & Touch | Mysteries Half a century of problems: Time to get serious The problems that people can have stopping psychotropic drugs have been recognized since the 1950s. There is no agreement as to just what happens, or how to tackle what’s involved. Some of the symptoms that some people experience
- [Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor](https://rxisk.org/forum/vegf/) - Overview | p53 | p63 | ACE-2 | Prokineticin | Kisspeptin | VEGF | Epigenetics | Neuropathy | Studies VEGF is vascular endothelial growth factor. Why the possible link to sexual function? Well these things usually get named after the first thing they are found to do - but they can do lots of things. VEGF interacts
- [Kisspeptin](https://rxisk.org/forum/kisspeptin/) - Overview | p53 | p63 | ACE-2 | Prokineticin | Kisspeptin | VEGF | Epigenetics | Neuropathy | Studies At the moment those of us in RxISK know very little about kisspeptin. Our attention has been drawn to it by another person with post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD), who has also set up a meeting with one research
- [Studies Underway](https://rxisk.org/forum/studies/) - Overview | p53 | p63 | ACE-2 | Prokineticin | Kisspeptin | VEGF | Epigenetics | Neuropathy | Studies Many people get in touch asking us about cognitive, endocrine, treatment or other studies that are underway. We have a PSSD Literature page, which lists academic publications we are aware of, and a PSSD Media page which lists
- [Sensory Neuropathy](https://rxisk.org/forum/neuropathy/) - Overview | p53 | p63 | ACE-2 | Prokineticin | Kisspeptin | VEGF | Epigenetics | Neuropathy | Studies Sensory neuropathy One of our regular contributors from Finland noted that it is great to have research on prokineticin and p63 etc but that we need to remember the bigger picture - that PSSD and related conditions involve
- [Epigenetics](https://rxisk.org/forum/epigenetics/) - Overview | p53 | p63 | ACE-2 | Prokineticin | Kisspeptin | VEGF | Epigenetics | Neuropathy | Studies Gene silencing Over a decade ago, Antonei Csoka put forward an epigenetic theory of post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD). His work is referenced in the template letter to epigeneticists. David Stofkooper, a young man from Holland with PSSD, put
- [Prokineticin](https://rxisk.org/forum/prokineticin/) - Overview | p53 | p63 | ACE-2 | Prokineticin | Kisspeptin | VEGF | Epigenetics | Neuropathy | Studies Prokineticin was drawn to our attention when it was spotted by someone who made a link to enduring sexual dysfunctions. It looks like a promising protein – it mediates the emotional aspect of touch that seems
- [ACE-2](https://rxisk.org/forum/ace-2/) - Overview | p53 | p63 | ACE-2 | Prokineticin | Kisspeptin | VEGF | Epigenetics | Neuropathy | Studies When Covid first struck, the ACE-2 (angiotensin converting enzyme) became hot as it was known that coronaviruses gained entry to cells by fusing with this enzyme. There were concerns for people taking ACE-inhibiting antihypertensives, but this
- [p63](https://rxisk.org/forum/p63/) - Overview | p53 | p63 | ACE-2 | Prokineticin | Kisspeptin | VEGF | Epigenetics | Neuropathy | Studies Meeting Professor Luisa Guerrini and finding her previous research has shown that thalidomide, isotretinoin and sertraline have similar effects on p63 is where the idea for this research forum first came from. The discovery of the
- [Liability](https://rxisk.org/drugs-liability/) - « Back to Guides & Papers This chapter is from Dr. David Healy's book, Psychiatric Drugs Explained. Drug-induced injury Liability for drug-induced injuries did not become an issue of general concern until quite recently. However, a number of drug-induced problems, from thalidomide in the 1960s to antipsychotics and tardive dyskinesia in the 1970s and Opren
- [Pharmacological Abuse](https://rxisk.org/pharmacological-abuse/) - « Back to Guides & Papers This chapter is from Dr. David Healy’s book, Psychiatric Drugs Explained. When chlorpromazine was first introduced, doctors prescribed and patients took what they were given. The prescription of a medicine now, however, is much more likely to be based on the assumption that a patient should understand the condition for which
- [Consent](https://rxisk.org/consent-to-treatment/) - « Back to Guides & Papers This chapter is from Dr. David Healy's book, Psychiatric Drugs Explained. Introduction Over the past two decades there has been a shift within health care from an expectation that patients with medical problems should entrust themselves passively to the care of physicians to an expectation that they should cooperate in their

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