Making medicines safer for all of us
Adverse drug events are now the fourth leading cause of death in hospitals.
It’s a reasonable bet they are an even greater cause of death in non-hospital settings where there is no one to monitor things going wrong and no one to intervene to save a life. In mental health, for instance, drug-induced problems are the leading cause of death — and these deaths happen in community rather than hospital settings.
There is also another drug crisis — we are failing to discover new drugs. [Read more…]
From the blog…
Swans, Psychopharmacology and Religion
After qualifying in Medicine in Dublin in 1980, I went to Galway on the West Coast of Ireland. Galway was very small compared to Dublin, but I’d heard the university had a new pharmacology professor, Brian Leonard, and interesting things might happen there. The world in 1980, and Ireland in particular, looked very different to…
Interoception or Neuroplasticity
Mad in America recently ran a Webinar on Neuroplasticity as a way to manage one of our greatest challenges – Protracted Withdrawal Syndrome. The presenters, as described by Mad in America, included: Ben Ahrens, a chronic illness recovery expert, TEDx Speaker, and CEO of a brain retraining program Re-Origin. This program stemmed from his use of…
Ghost, Cyborg or Mystery – Fidere Aude
Nearly 400 years ago Rene Descartes dramatically changed our view of ourselves in ways that have caused problems ever since. The change is caught in this famous image which illustrates what Descartes viewed as an obvious fact we could depend on. If our foot strays too near a flame, an image of the flame runs…
Challenging My Media to Disclose
At the end of most articles in the Guardian newspaper you find this: This is what we’re up against. Teams of lawyers from the rich and powerful trying to stop us publishing stories they don’t want you to see. Lobby groups with opaque funding who are determined to undermine facts about the climate emergency and…
Truth, Trust and Health
Geoff Wilson invited me to give this lecture in Lexington Kentucky at a Medicating Normal meeting in May to a group of healthcare professionals. Don Marks gave me the chance to repeat it a few days later at Kean University’s Psychology Department. Both groups were also asked to comment on Challenging My Doctor to Disclose. Bill…