“We were talking about dad tonight & I think something’s not right,” said daughter whose dad started Cymbalta 3 weeks earlier.

Gail, who discusses her late husband’s akathisia tragedy here in our podcast series, says, “I really wasn’t educated on any of the side effects of any of these drugs.”

Mental Illness Awareness Week is a good time to learn more about adverse drug effects that can negatively impact normal cognitive functions. Akathisia is caused by 100s of different drugs, many of which are not prescribed for mental health challenges.

Akathisia can occur when stopping, starting or changing the dose or type of certain medications. While the severity of symptoms varies, this MISSD video shows what akathisia sometimes looks like. 

Click here to view and share the info with family and friends.

When adverse drug effects are misdiagnosed as signs of mental illness, it can cause avoidable suffering & death. In recognition of Mental Illness Awareness Week, let’s increase awareness of adverse drug effects that can look like mental illnesses but are not.

Click here to take our free, 1-hour, accredited Akathisia 101 course or visit MISSD.LearnUpon.com 

Accutane and Roaccutane are being linked to at least 14 deaths this year–mainly from suicide. An inquiry in the UK has been opened after consumers shared adverse experiences to include young men who claim to have been left impotent & families whose children died from what they believe to be prescription-drug-induced suicides.

Get the full story here.

Study finds benzodiazepine prescriptions doubled during a 12-year period with more doctors prescribing them for conditions other than insomnia and anxiety.

“The problem is in the long term, they lead to more problems than they solve,” said Dr. Anna Lembke, Medical Director of addiction medicine at Stanford University. “People develop a tolerance, and they need more and more to get the same effect. They develop a dependence, finding when they don’t take them their anxiety is worse. And they think, ‘Oh, I need it because I have an anxiety disorder,’ but in many instances they’re actually medicating withdrawal from the last dose, so you can get into this vicious cycle.”

Read the full story here.

In episode 4 of Akathisia Stories, we hear from international drug safety advocate, Kim Witczak, who discusses the akathisia-induced death of her late husband, Woody, and her subsequent advocacy.

“Woody took the three-week sample pack, did what the doctor said – you know, take week one, week two,” says Kim, who was out of the country on a business trip when Woody started taking Zoloft as prescribed. When Kim came home, she saw Woody drenched with sweat. “He dropped his briefcase at the backdoor; went into a fetal position on our kitchen floor with his hands wrapped around his head like a vice, going: ‘Help me, Kim; help me. I don’t know what’s happening to me. It’s like my head’s outside my body looking in.’”

Listen to the full story here.

A large European study finds that more than 50% of patients who are prescribed drugs marketed as antidepressants do not receive enough information about the purpose of the treatments they are prescribed.  Nearly 80% of patients are also given no explanation about the drugs’ potential adverse effects.

Get the full story here.