Posts Tagged ‘Dr David Healy’

Akathisia: What if your meds are making you sick?

Akathisia is a feeling of extreme agitation and restlessness associated with drug side effects caused by antidepressants, antipsychotics and other medications. Symptoms range from nervous twitching to a complete inability to sit still — an inner restlessness and anxiety so overpowering that it can lead to suicidal behaviour.

Our objective is to create awareness about potentially harmful “side effects” of prescription drugs used to treat mental health conditions. While these medications can be helpful, the side effects can also be debilitating.

However awareness about this problem is limited. Many people who are suffering from Akathisia, do not realize that it can be caused by their medications.

The health care system (with support from pharmaceutical industry) often prefers to ignore evidence that harmful side effects are caused by medications. As a result, problem is blamed on the disease, or worse — blamed on the patient — rather than the drug itself.

To learn more about Akathisia and other prescription drug side effects, visit www.rxisk.org/akathisia

SONG LYRICS:

Akathisia, Akathisia.
You make me wanna
Make me wanna…
Akathisia.

Thank you doctor for this little pill.
But the fact of the matter, it’s making me ill.
The fact of the matter is I can’t, can’t, can’t,
I can’t can’t sit sit still.

Akathisia, Akathisia,
You freak me out. You freak me out.
Akathisia.

I’m tripping on my restless thoughts.

Have to admit I used to be sad.
Told the doctor I’s feeling bad.
Gave me these meds and I’ve been had.
The side effects are driving me mad.

Falling through the cracks, medicated dregs.
My heart is racing, as it begs,
Doctor please, you got to stop.
Stop these restless legs.

Akathisia, Akathisia,
You freak me out. You freak me out.
Akathisia.

You make me wanna,
Make me wanna…
Kill myself.

You make me wanna,
Make me wanna…
Kill myself.

Cause I can’t, can’t can’t.
Can’t sit still.
Cause I can’t, can’t can’t.
Can’t sit still.
This pill, pill, pill. This pill
Is making me ill.

But I’m still here, trying to cope.
Doctors’ drugs, too much rope.
Reaching out, need some hope
Got to lose this prescription dope.

Akathisia, Akathisia,
You freak me out. You freak me out.
Akathisia.

You make me wanna,
Make me wanna
K-k-k-k…

Make me wanna,
Make me wanna
K-k-k-k…

Make me wanna,
Make me wanna
Quit that dope.

I’m gonna quit,
Quit that doctor’s dope.

CREDITS:

Song Title: Akathisia (I can’t sit still)
Music and Lyrics: Billiam James
Musical and Vocal Performance: Billiam James
Recording and Production: David Tallarico, The Beat Cave
Video Camera/Editing/Production: Franke James and Billiam James
Producer: The James Gang, Iconoclasts Inc.

Special thanks to Dr. David Healy

Note: Stopping or discontinuing any medications can be dangerous process. Please seek the advice of a physician or other qualified health provider before changing or stopping your medical treatment.

Posted: August 29th, 2018
Categories: Creative
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Lost on the Sea of Medicine

Sea of Medicine

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“.

The Miracle of the Chemical Cure

The Miracle of the Chemical Cure

Modern Myths: A trip back to the founding of the Church of Psycho-pharmacology, an illustration for a story by Dr. David Healy.

In 1957, interested in the fuss surrounding the new tranquilizers, she [Crusoe] dropped in to a World Congress of Psychiatry Meeting being held that year in Zurich. There was an extraordinary buzz — the excitement surrounding the discovery of chlorpromazine was growing not fading. It really did seem like a cure for schizophrenia or the harbinger of a cure that would arrive any day now.

The meeting was full of chatter about the next wonder drug about to appear and what it all meant…

It was openly accepted that the new College had been created by Sandoz, who had convened the Supper in Zurich. One delegate even joked that Sandoz’s boss, Rothlin, the President of the College, was the head of a new religion – a Pope. Rothlin though was a businessman – well maybe that’s what Pope’s were. Not someone anyone thought was likely to have had LSD himself.

Sandoz and other companies bankrolled the meeting, paid for the delegates to be there, paid for the delegates to be there, and put on the coaches that took them from Rome to Castel Gandolfo.”

Read Dr. David Healy’s full story: “Castel Gandolfo“.

Is There Life After Meds?

Is There Life After Meds?

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

Posted: December 30th, 2014
Categories: Creative
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No Sex Please! (We’re on Antidepressants)

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

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

The Heart of Medicine

Heart Of Medicine

The heart of medicine… Is it the caring concern of one person for another? It is detached statistical analysis? Is it motivated by love? Or driven by greed?

Read Dr. David Healy’s parable about about a sister and a brother, and the winter and summer of medicine… The Snow Queen

Illustration: The Heart of Medicine, © 2013 created by Billiam James. Based on original painting on Sacred Heart of Jesus with Saint Ignatius of Loyola and Saint Louis Gonzaga, circa 1770, José de Páez, Mexico, 1727-1790

What’s at Stake?

What's at Stake with Humira?

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.

FrenchDutchHindiKannadaSpanishMandarinItalianGerman

 

Yes, “death” is a possible side effect

Yes, Death is a possible side effect
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

Half-Truths

Half truths are more dangerous than lies

“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

Diabetes Type 2: Sweet Lies

Blood Sugar Pills: The Cure that Kills
“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

Posted: September 19th, 2013
Categories: Creative
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And you thought high blood-sugar was dangerous…

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.

Posted: August 5th, 2013
Categories: Creative
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Put-Me-to-Sleep Pills

Put Me To Sleep Pills

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

Posted: June 5th, 2013
Categories: Creative
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Pills of Hope

pills of hope

My Portrait of Sir Andrew Witty, CEO of Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK), as Frankenstein. for Dr David Healy’s post, Brand Fascism, which tells the story how pharmaceutical marketing seems to be perverting, or limiting, the power of medical science, because it places the interests of corporate investors, before the health of their customers.

“The 100,000 people who work for GSK are just like you, right? I’m sure everybody who reads the BMJ has friends who work for drug companies. They’re normal people… Many of them are doctors”. Sir Andrew Witty

See:

Posted: June 5th, 2013
Categories: Creative, Science
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Glaxo Buys Open Science

Glaxo Buys Open Science. Patents Sharing. Promises Full Access. In a surprise move, drug maker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has announced a secret takeover of Open Science Federation for a purchase price rumored to be almost $500,000 USD. GSK CEO, Sir Andrew Witty, said that the takeover was part of a strategic response by the company to release all its clinical trial data. With questioning, Witty admitted that he, and the company’s board of directors, were initially resistant to the suggestion they should “open the kimono”, and show their jewels. However, with many voices calling for openness, and wincing from  a $3 billion USD fine for illegally promoting antidepressants to children, the company decided to look at the idea of openness more closely.“When we realized how little money there was in Open Science ... well, that was when the light went on.” Within the company, the Open Science take-over was pitched as the perfect, cost-effective, solution to their current woes. By buying the whole kit and caboodle, GSK could refurbish its image as a good corporate citizen, prop up its sagging stock price, and most importantly find a way to meet the public demands for the sharing of its data, without sharing anything at all. “Open Science is perfect for GSK. But we’re bringing something to the table too. Our patented Sharing Information Technology System (ShITs), will completely turn things upside down in the open science community.

Illustration for Dr. David Healy‘s post about the vagaries of diving, fishing and looking for real data in the murky world medicine and pharmaceuticals.

See: April Fool in Harlow: Anecdote Fishing in Harlow

And sure, this is an “April Fool’s” thing, but it’s actually based on some truth… If you want to find out more about the GSK approach to “Open Science” and the “sharing” of research data, you can actually sign up for the GSK Clinical Study data program. Once you’ve signed off off on their legal stuff (caveat emptor), you can request access to their trial data. Currently they have about 220 trials listed… a extremely small fraction of the total trials they’ve done. Your request will be reviewed by independent panel who will decide whether or not you can actually see the data. No promises of course! But why don’t you give it a try… I’ve signed up! ;-)

See: https://clinicalstudydata.gsk.com/

Posters: OpenGSK.pdf, OpenGSK.jpg or OpenGSK.png.