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 about structural aspects to the problems not just of sexual dysfunction … [Read more...] about What to do about Suicide
AbbVie
The Spectre of Dissent
The last post The Greatest Failure of What Used to be called Medicine provoked a lot of comment - or at least the photographic images in it did. There was little discussion about the content of the post and what to do about the spectre of bureaucrats in the guideline and the regulatory apparatus hanging together when it comes to something like children hanging after … [Read more...] about The Spectre of Dissent
Generalists and Partialists
An issue that crops up in comments on both this and the RxISK blog is the question of whether treatment would be safer if given by specialists (partialists) rather than general practitioners (generalists). We wouldn't have the problems with antidepressants and antipsychotics for instance many people seem to think if prescribing was done by psychiatrists rather than GPs. This … [Read more...] about Generalists and Partialists
Go Figure: Where Does All the Pain Come From?
Editorial Note: This anonymous comment featured toward the end of the Murder or Accident post. It seemed worth transforming into a post in its own right. In the week of the US vote, a key question facing voters is where does all the pain come from. A colleague and I gave a talk to family docs this year and we discussed the opioid epidemic, including the 1% risk of addiction … [Read more...] about Go Figure: Where Does All the Pain Come From?
Go Figure: Murder or Accident?
Harold Shipman was a doctor in Britain, who was arrested for murder in 1998. He turned out to be a true Angel of Death, the most prolific known serial killer, who killed it is thought between two and three hundred of his patients by prescribing opioids in large doses. After his trial and conviction and jailing, he committed suicide in jail with no-one any the wiser as to why … [Read more...] about Go Figure: Murder or Accident?
Go Figure: A Geek Tragedy
In 1939, in the laboratories of Geigy pharmaceuticals, Paul Mueller discovered that DichloroDiphenylTrichlorethane DDT killed insects more effectively that anything else then available. Robert Domenjoz, the later creator of imipramine, had the job of evaluating it. He did the testing on lice that was to make DDT one of the best-selling pharmaceuticals in the world. He asked … [Read more...] about Go Figure: A Geek Tragedy
Go Figure on Perversity
In 1936, three workers at the Halowax Corporation in New York State, who had been working with chlorinated naphthalenes, developed chloracne - a skin condition that Viktor Yushenko's face brought dramatically to world attention in 2004, when he was standing as the pro-Western candidate for the presidency of Ukraine. Chloracne can be caused by many chlorinated compounds from … [Read more...] about Go Figure on Perversity
Go Figure: Digging for the Truth of Injuries
Editorial Note: In her comment, reproduced below, Sally was the person who best got to grips with what I was struggling with in last week's post and this week's and for the next few weeks. Drug induced injury is one sphere in which we get injured. Turning to other spheres may give us some ideas about how to handle the dilemma of a treatment induced injury - how to avoid being … [Read more...] about Go Figure: Digging for the Truth of Injuries
Go Figure: The Silver Lining Clouds the View
Editorial Note: Sally's first Go Figure post with its 100 comments outlines the basic dilemma facing RxISK - how can anyone who has been injured by treatment get people who have not yet been injured to wake up. The next 5 - 10 posts will pick up various ways this dilemma has been answered over the last century. All comments welcome along with any posts - something more than a … [Read more...] about Go Figure: The Silver Lining Clouds the View
Welcome to Troy
A lot people it seems have been singing and dancing in the street at news last week that AbbVie the pharmaceutical company that make Humira have dropped a legal action against the European Medicine’s Agency (EMA) that was aimed at blocking any access by researchers or others to their clinical trial data. Stacy of Arc Not everyone will be pleased though. Stacy London might … [Read more...] about Welcome to Troy