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…
Artificially Intelligent or Artificial I ?
The image here is the front of the Great Seal of the United States – but it has been doctored. The word Unum is replaced by Mediocris which is not Latin for Mediocrity although it might as well be – it’s Latin for Average. Earlier posts have dealt with Artificial Intelligence (AI) issues – The…
Skills and Pills for Depression
David Antonuccio, a close friend for 20 years since we met around the issue of antidepressants and suicide, and now an emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of Nevada, organized a Skills and Pills for Depression meeting in Reno on October 4 2025. The recordings of the talks are available now. The quality is…
Health, Care and Science in Real Life
This post was delivered as a Medicine in Crisis lecture at a Pills and Skills for Depression meeting that David Antonuccio organized in Reno Nevada on October 4. Kim Witczak who features throughout the post was a panellist at the meeting. There was an audience of over 200 primarily University of Nevada students – so…
Request for American Psychiatric Association Assistance
Dear Dr Wills You wrote to Dr. Makary on July 25th following a July 21st FDA Panel on Antidepressants and Pregnancy. I was a panel member and hope you won’t object to me taking advantage of your closing invitation to Dr. Makary to avail of APA assistance. The panelists expressed very different views, so it…
Continue Reading Request for American Psychiatric Association Assistance
Partnerships in Healthcare
Following a media feeding frenzy in the wake of an FDA Panel on SSRIs in Pregnancy – see Unsafe Safety Systems – another feeding frenzy erupted with an HHS (Health and Human Services ) statement that it was reviewing the use of Tylenol in Pregnancy and possible links to Autism. This post engages with both…