FRIENDLY FIRE Michigan Veterans Harm Reduction Summit David Healy Thanks to Derek Blumke for asking me here today. It's a great pity not to be there in person. There is a fabulous group of speakers. Most of us sense that US Vets, more than any other group in society, may be able to move things forward in a way that can hugely help all of … [Read more...] about American Veterans Can Save Healthcare
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Truth is Stranger than Fiction
GK Chesterton and then later Mark Twain said that Truth is Stranger than Fiction - it has to be because Fiction has to make Sense. But Fairy Tales are also Stranger than Fiction. Most of what we call Fairy Tales began life as Moral Tales - where the story might be incredible but the Truth lay in the Moral. For a century we have felt these tales when given to children … [Read more...] about Truth is Stranger than Fiction
Drug Dysregulation or Iatrogenic Insanity?
This recent Mad in America Webinar on Stopping Antidepressants introduced the idea of SSRI Dysregulation. Terms like Dependence etc band people with problems on SSRIs in with 'substance abusers'. Substance Abusers do not get a good deal from services that do not recognize the mainstream services and the drugs they hand out have often caused the problem - drugs like SSRIs. … [Read more...] about Drug Dysregulation or Iatrogenic Insanity?
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 what it looks now. There was an Iron Curtain … [Read more...] about Swans, Psychopharmacology and Religion
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 neuroplasticity concepts to … [Read more...] about Interoception or Neuroplasticity
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 up the recently discovered nerve fibres to the pineal gland where … [Read more...] about Ghost, Cyborg or Mystery – Fidere Aude
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 established science. Authoritarian states with no regard for the … [Read more...] about Challenging My Media to Disclose
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 James helped produce this Truth Trust Health … [Read more...] about Truth, Trust and Health
Damsels Dying from Distress or Dysphoria?
This post, which opens with a photo of Noelia Voigt navigates between last week's Cass and Cassandra, which features Distressed Damsels and Dudes, and RxISK's post this week - Is Your Treatment Making you Suicidal, which features Dysphoric Damsels and Dudes - dying from drug induced dysphoria. Noelia was until this week Miss USA 2023. She has stepped down from the post, … [Read more...] about Damsels Dying from Distress or Dysphoria?
Cass or Cassandra: Doctors Bearing Gifts
CisMedicine – TransMedicine While The Once and Future Immunity about vaccines for RSV was being drafted last week, the Cass Review on Gender Medicine hit the news headlines. Cass trenchantly critiques gender medicine as it has been practiced in the Western world in the last decade. These 2 items intersect as hopefully this post will make clear. Trenchant though it was, the … [Read more...] about Cass or Cassandra: Doctors Bearing Gifts