A recent Growth Spurts program featured MISSD Founder Wendy Dolin, who discussed the benefits of meditation as a tool to reduce stress and anxiety during challenging times. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxpcKvnhvxo&t=149s

We’ve received great feedback from last night’s collaborative program, “Quieting the Silence: Suicide Awareness in the Jewish Community,” and want to thank The Blue Dove Foundation, No Shame on U, and JCFS Chicago for helping make this meaningful event possible.

Listen at: https://www.facebook.com/missd.co/videos/1566440863635684

“Growth Spurts,” a program sponsored by the Full-Bloomed Lotus-Center for Self Awareness, will interview MISSD Founder, Wendy Dolin on Dec. 10th at 2 p.m. Central Time. Dolin will discuss the mission of MISSD, and ways meditation can help during challenging times. See: https://www.fullbloomedlotus.com/soul

Tune in at: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85722072135…

Zoom Meeting ID: 857 2207 2135 Passcode: 412798

The BJGP, a leading primary care research journal, has published an important letter about misdiagnosis of antidepressant dependence and withdrawal. We appreciate the efforts of authors Marion Brown and Stevie Lewis to increase awareness of adverse drug effects that can cause suicidality and suicide.

They write, “Most urgently, we urge individual prescribers to always raise with their patients possibilities such as antidepressant adverse effects and/or potential dose-change and withdrawal issues before initially prescribing an antidepressant for any patient – and before attributing patients’ subsequent development of ‘unexplained’ ‘functional’ symptoms to psychosomatic ‘medically unexplained’ or ‘functional’ syndromes and disorders.”

Read the full article at: https://bjgplife.com/2020/12/03/the-patient-voice-antidepressant-withdrawal-mus-and-fnd/

It’s Giving Tuesday, and MISSD wants to give a big shout out to all who help us reduce avoidable suffering and death by increasing akathisia awareness.

Today in San Francisco, commuters and tourists can see our mass transit ads on buses and inside terminals. This ad campaign was made possible by the generosity of supporters dedicated to reducing the 4th leading cause of death: Adverse drug effects.

“Nobody is immune to medication harms, and adverse drug effects don’t discriminate,” said MISSD Founder, Wendy Dolin.

Read the article at https://www.einpresswire.com/article/531844116/prescription-drugs-can-cause-suicidality-and-suicide

“For more than a decade, health officials have watched in vain as suicide rates climbed steadily — by 30 percent nationally since 2000 — and rates in the V.A. system have been higher than in the general population. The trends have defied easy explanation and driven investment in blind analysis: machine learning, or A.I.-assisted algorithms that search medical and other records for patterns historically associated with suicides or attempts in large clinical populations.”

MISSD also hopes the VA will closely examine the role polypharmacy plays in medication-induced suicide among veterans.

Read the full article https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/23/health/artificial-intelligence-veterans-suicide.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Health

“Young men using the hair loss drug finasteride, sold under brand-name Propecia, may be at higher risk of experiencing depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts,” a new Boston study finds. Researchers identified 356 reports of suicidality, and almost 3,000 reports of other psychological symptoms among men taking finasteride.

Read the full article at https://www.healthline.com/health-news/researchers-investigate-link-between-hair-loss-drug-and-thoughts-of-suicide#Strong-link-between-drug-and-symptoms

Despite limited evidence of efficacy and mounting safety concerns, “the use of medication from 2 or more psychotropic classes, i.e., polypharmacy, has increased among US youths,” finds a recent study published in JAMA Pediatrics. Polypharmacy increases the risks of serious adverse drug effects, such as akathisia, delirium, and mania, that can cause suicidality.

Get the full story at https://www.madinamerica.com/2020/11/increasing-numbers-children-prescribed-multiple-psychiatric-medications/

Adverse drug effects, suicidality, addiction, and mental well being are just a few topics to be addressed by Wendy Dolin and other experts by experience from 9 to 11 on October 18th. The program is free and more details are available at https://www.time2talkaddiction.org/events.

“The combination of the inner signs, the outer signs, and the cognitive confusion makes this a very profound, underreported side effect.” –Wendy Dolin, MISSD Founder

Listen to The Divorce and Beyond podcast about akathisia, advocacy, and the tragic loss that led to MISSD. https://divorceandbeyond.podbean.com/e/the-episode-that-could-save-your-life-with-the-founder-of-missd-wendy-dolin-on-the-divorce-beyond-podcast-with-susan-guthrie-esq-141/