Beware Doctors Bearing Gifts

February, 5, 2023 | 15 Comments

Comments

  1. “These drugs have destroyed my life.”
    This is one of the phrases I read numerous times after starting to research, back in 2007, to find out what was happening to me.
    It’s been a long time and it’s still extremely difficult to raise awareness about the risks of these pills.

    I gave up trying to explain that for 3 decades I was trying to know what was side effect, withdrawal symptom and what was me.

    Long story short: it took me two years to taper Effexor (300 mg).
    All withdrawal symptoms I know not from reading but for feeling them
    I did it all by myself for in those days not a single Brazilian psychiatrist knew how to do it.
    I went back to 75 mg. I could function and getting rid of two pills was of great help.

    Seroquel was possible to withdraw from 600 mg to 200 mg.

    And, ironically I still take Clonazepam which was the reason I went to a psychiatrist to ask for help to withdraw.

    He put me on the first antidepressant.
    It all started: side effects were “treated” as mental illness.

    Clonazepam, now I see, was responsible for panic attacks.
    I became agoraphobic.

    I’m again agoraphobic. I started paralysing whenever I was on the curb to cross the street.
    It was in 2019 – the year my father passed away.

    I kept asking for help when necessary.
    I could live with that and I’m doing psychoanalysis.

    Back in 2020 I had to make some changes in my life. I became anxious and agoraphobic.

    I got better in 2021 and till August 2022 I was great.

    Now it’s all back. I’m numb, not motivated and can’t go out any longer for I started paralysing in the sidewalk.
    I’m agoraphobic again.

    I’m older now and I don’t trust the psychiatrist that’s giving me the necessary prescription to buy these drugs.
    And he’s one of the best I’ve seen for at least he recognizes withdrawal symptoms and side effects.
    But he proposed to taper Effexor taking half the dose. I know it’s impossible and I don’t want to feel all those symptoms again.

    Luckily I can focus on some issues and I occupy my brain with other subjects.
    But if I stop and take a look at myself… I’m not very happy, proud of even recognize the person I was.

    I’ve been living these ups and downs for too long and once again I ask: is it me or these drugs have any part in it?
    People keep telling me “You have to talk to a psychiatrist.”

    Nope.

    (Press: “Submit Comment” – we feel so ashamed.)

  2. This has to be a first in the cause and effect White Coat Storm where a significant Professor with significant credentials, father of a recently deceased child, meets with another significant Professor with significant credentials, but who himself needs little convincing as he has done his own lay research and come to his own conclusions.

    But, Dan will not have been briefed in detail as to what goes on “when the books are cooked”.

    For the first time in medical history of adverse drug reactions, and so recent it has hardly cooled, there is this opportunity for the case of Dexter Johnson to hit the history, to say “just a minute, here”, something with Fluoxetine has gone terribly wrong. So wrong, in fact, that “or a BC doctor’s name in 2021.”

    recovery&renewal Retweeted

    Dan Johnson
    @DanJohnsonAB

    Replying to
    @jill_d35

    Very interesting history. I’ll pass it on to students.
    “…One has to wonder whether the 1990s Defeat Depression Campaign1 (DDC) has inadvertently resulted in a long trail of chronic illnesses due to underestimation of the risks of SSRIs/SNRIs.”

    “Dexter’s lack of scientific knowledge also made him a willing subject for trying antidepressants. He was 15, and not in charge of ensuring science-based medicine or patient safety.”

    A fantastic move by the Amazing Dan Johnson to afford us, in Lethbridge, Alberta, yet another insight in to the calamitous demise of Dexter, who joins the ranks of people, like Stephen O’Neill, a series well-documented, “or a doctor’s name” …

    • Thanks. I try to be objective, and assume that even fatal mistakes might have been well meaning. We even need to forgive Dexter for thinking that sadness would be better treated by a secret miracle drug and go away, rather than reveal it to a counsellor or the dad he always trusted. And it took a while but I think the dad needs forgiveness for not guessing something was up. I was ignorant and had never even heard the word fluoxetine. But even some parents who are told lose their children – they need our sympathy. The duty to warn should never be minimized.

  3. “The Massachusetts mom charged with murdering her three children and then jumping out a window was on a “staggering” cocktail of prescription medications for anxiety and depression, her lawyer said Friday.”

    “Among the drugs found in her system were Ambien, Klonopin, Valium, Prozac, Lamictal, Ativan, Remeron, Seroquel, and trazodone.”

    Joe Dwinell, writing in the Boston Herald

    https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/02/03/duxbury-mom-to-be-arraigned-tuesday-meds-trapped-her-in-a-living-hell-lawyer-tells-herald/

    How can any human being possibly need that many brain-altering drugs?

    This is an industry that careening completely out of control.

      • Pertinent follow-up, to Lecture in Lethbridge, Alberta…

        The coverage of medical injuries in company trial informed consent forms

        David Healy 1, Augusto Germán Roux 2, Brianne Dressen 3

        https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36710689/

        2.Study 329

        From 1994 to 1998, SmithKline Beecham conducted Study 329, a trial comparing paroxetine (Paxil) to imipramine and placebo in depressed minors [1].

        The consent form for participants stated [4]:

        If I become ill or injured as a result of participation in this clinical study, medical treatment will be provided, and the reasonable cost of such treatment will be paid by SmithKline Beecham.

        The trial report published in 2001 claimed an efficacy and safety for paroxetine [5]. There were suicidal events on paroxetine in this trial, but the implication was that paroxetine had not caused them. Prior company internal assessments and subsequent independent review did not support these claims for efficacy or safety [1,6]. The publication of the 2001 article, claiming efficacy and concealing life-threatening problems, boosted the sales of Paxil [7].

        Brook Jackson 
        @IamBrookJackson

        Augusto Roux
        @RouxAugusto
        ·
        18h

        I share with you an article that was published by Dr. David Healy, Brianne Dressen and me as authors, We explain how pharmaceutical companies they made fraudand underreported our adverse effects,During clinical trials, had government review

        https://content.iospress.com/articles/international-journal-of-risk-and-safety-in-medicine/jrs220043

        In the case of drugs, as pointed out over twenty years ago, a sequestration of clinical trial data, especially data on harms, and the ghostwriting of trial reports which further conceals harms, puts everyone who later takes the drug in a state of legal jeopardy [28,29]. If participants in a trial have their injuries concealed, anyone else similarly injured, who seeks a legal or other redress, will face company claims that there is no evidence from their trials of a link between this injury and their medicine.

         GSK personnel have stated under oath there are no adverse events that can be definitively linked to paroxetine [9].

        ‘something like slipping on a banana skin’ … 

  4. Good to know that tobacco helps people with OCD but back in the days when Google was not censured I found some articles about the benefits of smoking. One of them is Christopher Wanjek, author.

    1. Smoking lowers risk of knee-replacement surgery
    2. Smoking lowers risk of Parkinson’s disease
    3. Smoking lowers risk of obesity
    4. Smoking lowers risk of death after some heart attacks
    5. Smoking helps the heart drug clopidogrel work better

    I did a post about it in 2011
    https://hellaheaven-ana.blogspot.com/2014/11/5-health-benefits-of-smoking-by.html?m=1

    MAID: that’s outrageous.
    Amazing Polly, a Canadian YouTuber, who had her channel removed a long time ago said that a law allowing 7 years old children to ask for euthanasia WITHOUT the consent of their parents was being considered.
    Hard to believe but that’s the era we live.
    I did a quick research now but it’s too hard to bare.

    I left s comment yesterday but I did something wrong and “Your comment is awaiting moderation” didn’t appear.

    There I go being very specific:

    I’m agoraphobic again. The old panic attacks have ceased, it appeared after I was prescribed Clonazepam, I discovered that after a long time researching.
    Klonopin’s side effects changed along the decades and once it appeared “panic attacks” as a side effect.

    After taking numerous drugs I end up with Effexor 75 mg; Seroquel 200 mg, and, the irony, Clonazepam 2 mg.
    I went to a psychiatrist to help me to get rid off Clonazepam and was prescribed the first antidepressant that caused side effects that was prescribed as mental illness.

    I’ve been on a see-saw of agoraphobia and now it’s harder for instead of panic attacks I paralise.
    It’s impossible to keep walking.

    I was feeling fine till August and all of a sudden it came back.

    I’m feeling unmotivated to do anything but I’m not depressed. I’m doing psychoanalysis and she agrees.

    As always people say I must talk to a psychiatrist.
    I don’t know if these drugs I’m taking for so long can have any connection with this symptom.
    It’s very hard to know and finding a good psychiatrist who accepts my views and fears is hard.

    The only thing I can do is to focus on topics I research. Occupying my mind with other things than myself for if I focus on me: distress, anxiety, self-incrimination, shame …

    Now I have to have the strength to click “Submit Comment” we all feel ashamed…

  5. “Emotional numbness”.
    That’s it! I’m watching David’s interview with Witt Doerring and I never payed attention on this side effect. “Anhedonia”.
    It fits all I’m feeling and take reason I’ve been on this constant struggle since I started the wonderful world of psychiatric drugs.
    Ok. It seems I’ll have to make an extra effort to go down the stairs to clean the shoes.
    There are some interviews that are not on David Healy’s channel. They should all be there.

  6. Dear Dr. Healy,

    Thank you so much for sharing this very valuable information and video so that we can share it with others to get the word out. Dan is a friend of mine. I am sickened by what happened to Dexter, who was clearly a stable, talented, loved, not-mentally-ill youth before Prozac.. I became acquainted with Dan when I saw his post on a Prozac harm support group site last January shortly after Dexter died. Since my family member’s tortured hell began with Prozac and other antidepressants, I quickly replied to Dan that yes, Prozac CAN and does cause suicide. In fact, one of my family member’s physicians was David Dunner, M.D., who helped get Prozac through the FDA. A big Prozac plaque hangs over his desk. My family member survived – but the story is harrowing, and irrevocable losses occurred in the process. My sister is dead because of these drugs, as well as my brother-in-law. Neither of them had any sign of “mental illness” before starting an antidepressant. I am working with other survivors and parent who lost children to stop this egregious mass murdering in the name of medical care. It is life-long work.

    Dawn Sonntag, D.M.A.
    Olympia, Washington

    • Thanks for all your efforts, Dawn, and your strength. I was, and am, very sorry to find out about the impact of these poorly tested and ill-advised medications on your family.

  7. Re: updated edition
    the updated book 7th Edition
    The book is marketed to health workers but it would be good if it was more widely publicised It Might even prevent some of the harms and deaths due to inevitable lack of knowledge by most of us before being sensitized for differing reasons and lack information given by health workers whatever the reason

    Psychiatric Drugs Explained Paperback – 20 May 2022

    by David Healy MD FRCPsych (Author)
    4.8 out of 5 stars 6 ratings
    ________________________________
    See all formats and editions

    Kindle Edition
    £16.39Read with Our Free App Paperback
    £27.99 2 Used from £26.7218 New from £26.10

    Psychiatric Drugs Explained offers a wealth of evidence-based
    information on psychiatric drugs in an easy-to-use format that can be
    quickly referenced in the clinical setting.

    Written by internationally recognised author Dr David Healy, the book
    provides a comprehensive review of drug effects, action and
    side-effects. There is an emphasis on the lived experience of
    patients, providing the reader with a sense of what the adverse
    effects of drugs might feel like to those who use them.

    A reader-friendly approach and clear layout, with information
    organised by disorder, make this popular title accessible and useful
    not only to nursing staff, but to all members of the multidisciplinary
    team.

    Quick reference guide suitable for all members of the multidisciplinary team

    Helpful boxes on user issues make potential complications easy to spot

    Distinctive, reader-friendly style helps the reader understand the
    benefits and impacts of psychotropic drugs

    New topics include management of dependence disorders, stimulants and
    drugs for children, cognitive impairment and sleep disorders

    The only book with detailed coverage of the sexual side effects of
    psychiatric drugs and the abusive prescribing of prescription drugs

    Read less

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