These words are from David Foster Wallace. I don’t know if he was speaking about the depression he had or the akathisia that antidepressants can cause. Maybe he didn’t know and this contributed to his suicide. This post needs to be read in conjunction with What to do about Sex on RxISK. This post is […]
This post continues the Spotlight on the Suicides series. There were 8 named people in Stephen O’Neill’s medical record, or who made entries in the record between the time of first admission and his death. He appears to have told most of them that in his view the sertraline he had been put on and […]
Continuing the Spotlight on the Suicides Series I have largely avoided naming names and will continue to avoid putting names in the frame but Stephen’s family doctor’s name, Dr Brannigan, is already in the public domain, and I’ve made it clear that the coroner thought highly of him and the whole point behind these posts […]
Big Bias (video here) may be the most important lecture I have ever given. Its not easy. The bottom line is that Clinical Trials don’t work. For everyone working in health (medical Catholics), this is a bit like saying the Pope is not infallible. We have a great problem with this, partly because our response […]
The image is of legendary journalist Bill Haddad who did more to grapple with pharmaceutical corruption than anyone else. The opening lines of A Pill for Neoliberalism, as delivered, about the job of doctors and journalists being very similar, were not part of the transcript in last week’s post. The remarks came to me as […]
Following their Spotlight on the Troubles series, BBC ran an astonishing Behind the Scenes program that must have left even those who thought they knew what happened in the Northern Irish Troubles doubt that they really knew what was going on. The revelations turned the Troubles into a real life version of John Le Carre’s […]
I had no reply to the letter sent in September featured in last week’s post – Spotlight on the Politicians. Michelle O’Neill had a nothing response to a letter she sent the Northern Ireland Office. Vaughn Gething’s office (Wales Health Minister), when asked, acknowledged receipt of the letter but figured they had only been sent […]
This Continues the Spotlight on the Suicides series. Astonished by the conclusion of Stephen O’Neill’s inquest, I wrote to Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister, copied to the Ministers of Health in Ireland, Simon Harris, in Wales Vaughan Gething, and in England Matt Hancock, along with the Danish MEP, Margrete Auken, the European Ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly […]
This continues the Spotlight on Suicides Series – The photograph is of Patrick McGurgan – the coroner. Mr McGurgan appeared to be a decent man. He treated everyone with courtesy and appeared to be listening. His conclusions at the end of the inquest provoked a correspondence from me that will be posted later in this […]
This is part 2 of Spotlight on the Suicides. In February 2017, I received the email below. The email address gave no hint of where it came from – it could have been any English speaking country but the word Trust in the second and fourth paragraphs suggested England. The details seemed clear enough for […]
