Here’s an interesting story from Australia, recently back in the spotlight. From 1962 to 1979, psychiatrist Harry Bailey, MD, serving as chief psychiatrist at Chelmsford Private Hospital in New South Wales, practiced “deep sleep therapy”, which involved keeping people in barbiturate-induced comas for days or even weeks. Twenty-four of the individuals who received this “treatment”… Continue Reading
The Chemical Imbalance Theory. Dr. Pies Returns, Again
On April 30, 2019, the very eminent and learned psychiatrist Ronald Pies, MD, published a piece in Psychiatric Times titled Debunking the Two Chemical Imbalance Myths, Again. Here’s the opening paragraph: “Like the legendary Count Dracula, who could be killed only by driving a stake through his heart, some myths seem almost immortal. For more… Continue Reading
Suicidal Behavior After FDA Warnings
On June 18, the British Medical Journal published an article by Christine Lu et al, titled Changes in antidepressant use by young people and suicidal behavior after FDA warnings and media coverage: quasi-experimental study. Here’s the conclusion paragraph from the abstract: “Safety warnings about antidepressants and widespread media coverage decreased antidepressant use, and there were… Continue Reading
SSRIs and Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension of the Newborn (PPHN)
There’s a new study in the January 2014 issue of the BMJ: Grigoriadis et al, Prenatal exposure to antidepressants and persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn: systematic review and meta-analysis. Thanks to Nanu Grewal for the link. PPHN is a relatively rare condition. The authors report that the estimated prevalence is about 1.9 per 1000… Continue Reading
Antidepressants and Suicide
There was an interesting article, Antidepressant regulations tightened following suicide, in the Copenhagen Post on January 7. Thanks to Mad in America for the link. It is reported that Danilo Terrida, aged 20, committed suicide in 2011 “…eleven days after he was prescribed antidepressants following an eight-minute-long conversation with a doctor.” The doctor has been deemed… Continue Reading
Antidepressants and Liver Failure
Last month (December 2013) the American Journal of Psychiatry published Antidepressant-Induced Liver Injury: A Review for Clinicians, by Voican C.S. et al. The study was a literature search from 1965 onwards. Here are the authors’ results: All antidepressants can induce hepatotoxicity, especially in elderly patients and those taking more than one drug Liver damage is… Continue Reading
Sandy Hook Massacre: The Unanswered Question
On December 27, 2013, Connecticut State Police issued a 7,000-page, heavily redacted, report on the massacre that occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary School just over a year earlier (December 14, 2012). For the record, I have not read the 7,000-page report, but I have read the Wikipedia article Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, last updated… Continue Reading
Causes of High Mortality in People Labeled ‘Mentally Ill’
ANOTHER VIDEO FROM DR. LIEBERMAN On October 28, Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, President of the APA, made another video. This one is titled An Important Look at Mortality in Mental Illness: A Decade of Data on Psychotropic Drugs, and was made for Medscape. You can see the transcript at the same site. Medscape is a web… Continue Reading
The Dangers of SSRI’s
SSRI’S AND SUICIDE Bob Fiddaman has a post up today called MHRA Consultant Calls for Antidepressant Use in Young. The article highlights some of the dangers associated with SSRI’s, and also describes some of the attempts to suppress or discount the significance of this information. Apparently in 2010, Swedish psychiatrist Göran Isacsson, MD, PhD, published… Continue Reading
Pharma Corruption of Healthcare
I’ve been reading another great book: Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime: How big pharma has corrupted healthcare, by Peter C. Gotzsche [Radcliffe Publishing, 2013]. The book is an exposé of pharma’s fraudulent research and marketing. The author is a Danish physician who has been involved in clinical trials of drugs, and in drug regulatory matters. He… Continue Reading
Antidepressants Being Handed Out Like Candy
There’s an interesting exposé in the London Daily Mail, September 29, titled Critics claim antidepressants are being handed out like sweets… Thanks to Leonie and Antidepaware on Twitter for the link. To find out how easily people could get prescriptions for antidepressants, the Mail sent “…three women of differing ages — all of whom had no… Continue Reading
More SSRI Side Effects: Upper GI Bleeding
Earlier this month, the American Journal of Psychiatry published an article by Yen-Po Wang, M.D., et al, titled Short-Term Use of Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors and Risk of Upper Gastrointestinal Bleeding. [Thanks to Mad in America for the link] The research was conducted in Taiwan. The authors studied the records of 5,377 psychiatric inpatients with gastrointestinal… Continue Reading
SSRI’s Impair Learning.
There’s an interesting article on Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience. It’s called Learning from Negative Feedback in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder is Attenuated by SSRI Antidepressants. The researchers evaluated learning ability in three groups: medication-naïve individuals who met the criteria for Major Depressive Disorder individuals who met the criteria for MDD and were receiving the… Continue Reading
Another Mass Shooting: Link to SSRIs?
A mass murder occurred yesterday, September 16, at the U.S. Navy Yard in Washington D.C. There are reports of at least 12 dead, and several wounded. Early news stories describe the perpetrator as having “mental issues,” and it is reported that he “…had been treated since August by the Veterans Administration for his mental problems.” … Continue Reading
The Link Between Psychiatric Drugs and Violence
Thanks to a tweet from Ginger Breggin for the link to a new article on AbleChild.org. The article is called CT AAG Nervous About Releasing Adam Lanza’s Medical Records: Disclosure “Can Cause A Lot of People to Stop Taking Their Medications.“ The AbleChild contact person is Sheila Matthews. AbleChild is a national parent rights organization… Continue Reading
SSRI’s and Birth Defects
Courtesy of Nanu Grewal in Australia, I’ve come across this interesting paper: Systematic meta-analysis of individual selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor medications and congenital malformations, by Nicholas Myles et al. The authors note that there is some suggestion of a link between SSRI’s, as a group, and birth defects, but that the teratogenicity of individual members… Continue Reading
SSRI’s During Pregnancy and APGAR Scores
There’s an interesting article on this topic by Hans Jensen et al, in the February 21, 2013 issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry. You can see an abstract here. The authors conducted a register study on all pregnant women in Denmark from 1996 to 2006, linking data from the Medical Birth Register, the Psychiatric… Continue Reading