“The harmful effects of withdrawal from psychiatric drugs are beginning to be recognized in the research literature. Still, the shift has not necessarily made its way all the way to frontline clinicians.
In the US, by 2014, 12.7% of the population was prescribed an antidepressant. Researchers have recently estimated that 56% of users will experience withdrawal when they try to stop, and 46% of those who experience withdrawal will have “severe” withdrawal symptoms.”
In light of rising concerns over mental health in the current milieu, it’s wise to review the many drug-drug interactions (DDIs) that psychotropic drugs can have with each other and with drugs for other common conditions.
More than 200K people have viewed our two akathisia videos, and MISSD is pleased that a third akathisia video is now in production. Please see and share these public health videos to increase awareness and reduce akathisia-induced deaths.
Prescription sleeping pills, agitation, insomnia, facial swelling, and flu-like symptoms preceded Jimi Hendrix’s death, notes Tony Brown, author of Jimi Hendrix: The Final Days.
“Jimi doesn’t look particularly healthy in these photographs: his face seems a little puffy and on only a few of the pictures does he attempt to smile,” said Brown.
Hendrix, whose death in 1970 was not ruled a suicide, had been taking the prescription drug, Vesperax, for insomnia.
Some commonly prescribed antibiotics, including doxycycline, can cause suicidality and other psychiatric adverse effects but the patient information leaflets still lack carefully worded warnings that can better protect consumers and reduce avoidable suffering and deaths.
It’s good to see akathisia in the news and also very important to note that akathisia can cause psychiatric symptoms. The presence of akathisia often leads “physicians to inappropriately increase agents such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)…”
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.
“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
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.”