Billiam James

Modern Myths: Doctors and patients lost on the Sea of Medicine, an illustration for a story by Dr. David Healy.

“The clinics were different now to what they had been… The woman with burning hands, the mother with the autistic baby or the asexual son, were in the same place as her — no-one wanted to know them. Was there any way to unite all these people, each marooned on their own island, this new Archipelago of the Shipwrecked?”

Read Dr. David Healy’s full story: “Crusoe, we say, Was Rescued“.

After 20 years on antidepressants, is it possible to become drug-free? Psychiatric drug withdrawal symptoms — like burning feet, akathisia and emotional hypersensitivity — are daunting, but recovery is possible as shown by this story of one woman’s path (Katie B-T) to redemption.

“After 20 years on antidepressants, I decided I wanted to taper off. It was important for me to see what life was like without them and if I could claim more of my sexuality. I had no idea what I was in store for….

“I started SSRI’s when I was 12 years old. I haven’t gotten to try out and experiment with what I like and don’t like in relationships with the new feedback my body gives me. Some of my interpersonal dynamics related to my sexuality never got worked out because I didn’t know they existed. Now I have support to explore these concerns in therapy, playing catch-up, but knowing that I won’t have to go through life missing out on this important part of myself.”

Read the full story by Katie B-T on RxISK.org: Girl on a Hot Tin Roof

Teresa Pocock: I love my human rights. Please don’t take them away just because I have Down syndrome.

Please sign Teresa Pocock’s petition demanding an apology from the CCAC and Rekai Centre at Change.org.

Antidepressants = Sexual Side Effects

One pill makes you smaller.¹
One pill makes you stall.²
And the ones your doctor gives you
Make you feel nothing at all.³
Just numbness⁴ and dumbness⁵ in bed.
Remember what your lover said,
“Lose your meds. Save our bed.
Save our bed.”

Antidepressant (SSRI) Sexual Side Effects:

1. Erectile Dysfunction
2. Anorgasmia
3. Diminished Libido
4. Genital Numbness
5. Pleasureless Orgasm

Post Antidepressant (SSRI) Sexual Side Effects:
Symptoms of sexual dysfunction may persist years after quitting SSRIs, resulting in the complete loss of genital sensation.

SSRI Meds linked to Sexual Dysfunction: Lexapro, Cipralex, Cipramil, Paxil, Seroxat, Prozac, Celexa, Zoloft.

For more information of SSRI and Sexual Dysfunction see these stories by Dr. David Healy and the team at RxISK.org

• Buried Alive: Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction
• Drugs and Sex Don’t Go
• No Sex and the City
• Treating PSSD
• Accutane: 30 Years of Trading our Sex Lives for Clear Skin
• Sexual Dysfunction Enduring After Treatment Halts: s-DEATH

Illustration: No Sex Please! (We’re on antidepressants). Based on 17th Century Kama Sutra and Ragamala paintings. © 2014 created by Billiam James.

When your doctor spends more time looking at your charts, than looking at you… You might wonder about their recommendations, especially if it’s medicated prevention strategy based on a statistical probability, like the way the health care system treats osteoporosis.

For example, if your bone-density is falls within certain guidelines, your doctor will automatically prescribe medication (in order to reduce his/her liability) for the rest of your life. Theoretically this will reduce your risk ofhaving a fracture, but the meds certainly come with a host of bad side effects, which may outweigh the benefits…

Here’s a story about one woman who decided not to surrender to her doctor’s fears.

My first bone-density scan… and now I have a label: Osteoporosis.

The primary care physician kept me waiting for 40 minutes after the time of the scheduled appointment. When she came into the office she sat down in front of a monitor and said nothing while she brought up my records. Then she spun the monitor around so I could see it. Displayed on the computer screen was my risk of osteoporotic spinal fracture – 12.4% – and hip fracture – 2.4%.

I was flustered and did not think to ask exactly how this risk is calculated and what it represents.

While I accept that I am at a higher risk of fracture than a young adult woman, I still feel my risk of fracture is not great and I don’t appreciate being made to feel fearful of my risk – or at least unduly fearful. I do not want to compromise other quality of life factors because of some very small risk of spinal or hip fractures.

She went into the risk of death from hip fractures. Yes, I am aware that a hip fracture is often the beginning of a downward spiral to death but this just doesn’t seem like the place where I am now in my life, while the risk of stomach upsets, oesophagus damage, and/or general malaise from a biphosponate seems much more immediate to say nothing of an increase in a risk of fractures in the extremities from this class of drug.

Read the full story on RxISK.org: Fragile Doctors

Illustration: Fear of Falling, © 2013 created by Billiam James

Drug companies maximize the sales of new drugs by hyping their benefits while downplaying significant risks. In 2010 the European Medicines Agency began releasing patient-level data from the clinical trials used to approve new medicines in Europe – a development hailed by American, and European researchers and researchers around the world as a major step towards drug safety.

This process has been shut down by a lawsuit taken by two American corporations – AbbVie, makers of Humira, the number one selling medication in the world with projected sales of $10 billion in 2013; and InterMune, whose pulmonary-fibrosis drug Esbriet has recently been approved in Europe at a cost of over $40,000 per year.

Sign the petition here: Let us see Drug Data! Drug hazards are not “trade secrets”!

Read Dr. David Healy’s post here: Letter to Stacy London

Translations:
The posters are being translated into many languages including French, Dutch, Hindi, Kannada, Spanish, Mandarin, Italian, and German as part of RxISK‘s world-wide campaign for open data on pharmaceutical research and drug safety trials.

Humira is a monoclonal antibody – one of the new biological agents that acts on the immune system. Its side effects can be so nasty it has a black box warning on it.

Despite this, it’s on its way to becoming the best-selling drug of all time. You don’t get to be a best-seller on this scale without pushing the marketing envelope way beyond those who are seriously enough ill to warrant taking risks with a dangerous drug. Without running a marketing campaign that is to old-style drug marketing as a HumVie is to one of the smaller European cars.

The company have already been warned by the FDA for promoting Humira for milder conditions and misleading about its safety. The marketing includes many emotive messages – with images suggesting children are repelled by a single patch of psoriasis.

See more at: Stacy London: What not to Take by Dr David Healy

“There are many of us with bad Rheumatoid Arthritis or Crohn’s Disease who would gladly take these risks, especially if the drug produced a real benefit. We might be much less inclined to do for milder conditions. But in all cases the trade-off should be ours.

Ideally we should be helped by our doctors and pharmacists, but doctors and pharmacists who truly know what the problems can be. When AbbVie hide their clinical trial data, they make anyone who was involved in a clinical trial of their drug or a doctor prescribing it or pharmacist dispensing it into a potential accomplice to injury and perhaps homicide because the missing data is used to argue that ‘we’ve done trials and look there is no risk’.”

See full post: Lets do the AbbVie again by Dr. David Healy

“High blood sugars won’t kill rapidly like diabetes does. Very severely raised blood sugars over a prolonged period can raise the risk of heart attacks or strokes just as very high blood pressure or cholesterol levels can in some people. Very severely raised blood sugars can lead to thirst, hunger and infections but very few people with type 2 diabetes experience this. For most people type 2 diabetes is a disease of numbers not of symptoms. For most people there is no good evidence that treating these numbers with the latest diabetes drug improves health.”

See Full Article: Great White Lies by Dr. Dee Mangin

And you thought high blood-sugar was dangerous… Meds for Diabetes Type 2: Reduce your blood-sugar levels and life expectancy. There have been over 83,000 Heart Attack Deaths from Avandia.

For more info see Dr. David Healy’s post: Swimming with Great Whites? If you’ve got “Diabetes” look away now.

My poster for Dr. David Healy’s post “Marilyn’s Curse” about medication, Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs), and the way medical research uses “randomization” to hide dangerous side effects.

See More: Marilyn’s Curse

One of the hardest things for people, who suffer from illnesses/disabilities, is getting good information and support. The health care system doesn’t seem to provide it, and so many of us join community support groups where we can share our experiences and support each other. (I go to Epilepsy Toronto and know many who use Fluoroquinolone support groups. The FQ groups are certainly not supported by any Pharmas, but my epilepsy group gets funds from UCB, the people who sell us Keppra and Vimpat.)

The pharmaceutical industry is very aware of this, and lends their financial muscle to support all kinds of community support groups — particularly if group members are potential “customers” for their meds. And this can create a Conflict of Interest, and subvert the group’s mission to serve its members.

This appears to be what has happened to American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. My friend Julie Wood, a suicide survivor, decided to attend a local support group this month, only to find that they were promoting medications as the only way to reduce suicide risk, and trying very hard to ignore the well-documented links between suicide risk and psychiatric meds.

What I find particularly bad about this practice, is that pharmaceutical industry is preying on the weak and sick, offering them hope (a pill?) wrapped in sympathy and support, when in fact they don’t seem to care about whether the medication works or not, or whether it actually helps the patient…

Read Julie’s full story on RxISK.org (Data Based Medicine):
http://wp.rxisk.org/how-pharma-captures-bereaved-mothers/

Banned on the Hill (and in Europe!)

Is fear of the “Dirty Oil” label behind Canada’s tarring of Artist’s European tour? What lengths will the Canadian Government go to ensure that oil from the Alberta Tar Sands is not labelled “dirty”? Watch this video about Canadian artist Franke James, and how a dream opportunity — a 20-city European artshow to educate youth about climate change — faced behind-the-scenes interference by the Canadian Government.

Created with Franke James. See: www.frankejames.com 2011

Who Cares about the Forest?

“Who cares about the Forest?” Do you ever feel guilty when you use paper towels? Do you ever think about trees being cut down to make envelopes? Do you ever wonder, “is it really right to cut trees?”

Created for FSC Canada with Franke James. See: www.frankejames.com 2011

Verbotomy

The daily create-a-word game and comic.

See: www.verbotomy.com 2006-2011

Whack the PM!

Canada’s whackiest election poll and spoof.

Office-Politics

The game everyone plays.

See: www.officepolitics.com. Created with Franke James, 2000-2003.

Control Alt Delete

How to restart your life even if it’s totally crashed

See: www.jamesgang.com/work/control/. Created with Franke James, Alec Stevenson and Frank Sinclair. 1999-2000

Way back when Billiam James was known as D. Nile… 1986-1989 Multimedia Video/Computer Installations.

“I want to be a credit card to my society”

~ Billiam James

Money ATM (Art Technology Money)
An interactive sculpture with real-time video integration of user input, consumer profiling, and electronic commerce — it delivered a customized print-out with real money to every user. Created by D. Nile (a.k.a. Billiam James) for A Space 1987 exhibition Guerrilla Tactics.

Printout from Money ATM

“‘Money is the center of our culture’ says Nile… ‘and technology represents our dreams.’ The two come gloriously together, he says, in the automated teller machine. I have the horrible feeling he is right.” Christopher Hume, Toronto Star
See full story: Art Exhibit gets a laugh out of technology

“An effort to subvert the economic system” Lisa Rochon, The Globe and Mail
See full story: High-tech works takes their cues from computers

Canadian Cultural Center

Canadian Cultural Center
Installation mixed media, created for Edmonton Art Fesitival, 1989

Teeter-Totters: Bank Balance

Bank Balance
Electronics/Mixed Media, White Water Gallery exhibition Teeter-Totters, 1986

“A satire of the banking system giving people a ‘different perspective’ on that segment of every day life.” Kieth Howell, North Bay Nugget
See full story: White Water features contemporary works

Image Conscious

Image Conscious
Multimedia sculpture created for Etobicoke City Hall, 1986

“Artwork’s rude, lewd slogans irrate Etobivcoke aldermen. Visitors to Etobicoke city hall are being told to ‘pick your nose’ and ‘spank your baby’ by a piece of mirrored electronic art hanging at the Civic Centre Gallery hall. …But the moving billboard, created by artist using the pseudonym D. Nile, is raising the most reaction so far from local politicians.” Bob Mitchell, Toronto Star
See full story: Artwork’s rude, lewd slogans irrate Etobivcoke aldermen

Mud is Motivation

Mud is Motivation
Multimedia Exhibition, stArt Gallery, Kitchener, 1988

Grass and Sand

Really Visual

Watch Your Step

Concrete Desire

“Although Toronto artist D. Nile has fun parodying the imagery of pop art, his art is essentially concerned with content (social commentary) rather than form.” Robert Reld, Kitchener-Waterloo Record

See full story: Nile’s multimedia show prefers content over form