It’s Suicide Prevention Month and MISSD again designates today, September 20th, as International Akathisia Awareness Day. Sharing accurate info can save lives.

“Suicide prevention organizations and crisis hotlines can help reduce these avoidable deaths by asking questions about medications and adverse drug effects,” said MISSD founder Wendy Dolin. “Nobody is immune to akathisia.”

Read more at https://wellness.einnews.com/pr_news/526609172/akathisia-awareness-can-reduce-suicide

Whether it’s acne drugs, anxiety drugs, asthma drugs or possible COVID-19 cures, MISSD believes transparency in sharing clinical trial data is necessary to reduce adverse drug effects and related deaths.

Read the full Kaiser Health News article at https://khn.org/news/nih-and-fda-examine-serious-side-effect-that-surfaced-in-covid-vaccine-trial/?utm_campaign=KHN%3A%20Daily%20Health%20Policy%20Report&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=95280749&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8ZTSOmr_0wNVZFvY8vrjVBkkpxq0mX_zHYe9EYSaAhbUZ2HO-p_r00AxSMfRPBaKOkhNMBnlk1_3L0dYbep2OVM8B_Vw&utm_content=95280749&utm_source=hs_email

On World Suicide Prevention Day–and every day–we can reduce avoidable deaths by sharing akathisia info. Prescription drugs can cause akathisia and akathisia can cause medication-induced suicide.

Medical research terms these deaths “iatrogenic” which means caused by medical intervention and/or medical error. Knowing the risks & warning signs can save lives. Share our videos & podcasts found at https://www.youtube.com/c/MISSDFoundation/videos

New York Times health columnist, Jane Brody, spotlights how drug-induced delirium and other serious adverse drug effects can be caused by a “prescribing cascade that starts with drug-induced side effects which are then viewed as a new ailment and treated with yet another drug or drugs that can cause still other side effects.”

Prescribing cascades are “often overlooked by examining doctors and unrecognized by families.”

Make sure to ask your doctor if the pharmaceutical product you or your loved one is prescribed is known to be safe for that age group, and carefully review the patient information leaflet which may list some of the product’s risks. Drug-induced delirium and akathisia can precipitate medication-induced suicidality and suicide.

Read the full article at https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/07/well/live/prescription-medication-drug-side-effects-cascade.html?surface=home-discovery-vi-prg&fellback=false&req_id=19362113&algo=identity&imp_id=601751296&action=click&module=Science%20%20Technology&pgtype=Homepage

MISSD hopes future studies might ascertain the percentage of people who are suffering from adverse drug effects, such as akathisia, but whose symptoms are misdiagnosed as mental health challenges.

Read the full article at https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisonescalante/2020/08/11/researchers-doubt-that-certain-mental-disorders-are-disorders-at-all/#460ef3cc15a6

Two moms who lost their daughters to “suicide” after the teens were prescribed a popular acne drug are sharing their family’s experiences to help others be better informed than they were. Roaccutane and Accutane can cause drug-induced psychosis, akathisia, and iatrogenic death,

Get the full story at https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-8613003/Two-bereaved-mothers-share-shattering-warning-acne-drug.html

In today’s episode of the MISSD podcast series produced by Andy Miles of Chicago’s Studio C, Janet Schiel, founder of Butterflies for Joe, discusses her husband’s prescription-drug induced suffering and avoidable death.

Read the release at https://world.einnews.com/pr_news/523412850/experts-by-experience-share-akathisia-stories and listen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jodulqg4jYw&t=9s&fbclid=IwAR2wWwxRMZNmzEK2Kr7lnaTalkBuXraMhJegH_mpiMtQB2nGOU1Go_YoKsI

MISSD is pleased to see increased public awareness of critical adverse drug effects that can cause akathisia, psychosis, serotonin toxicity, delirium, and precipitate medication-induced suicide. Take and share our accredited akathisia course so that others can be safer health care consumers. See http://MISSD.LearnUpon.com

The MISSD podcast series called Akathisia Stories features the real experiences of families who lost loved ones to akathisia-induced death. Health care professionals, consumers, and caregivers can learn much by tuning in at https://www.studiocchicago.com/akathisia-stories

MISSD applauds that the Federal Communications Commission is designating an easily remembered phone number–988–as America’s new suicide prevention hotline. It is also critical that crisis counselors who are trained in suicide prevention be educated about akathisia and ask callers if they have recently stopped, started, or changed a medication dose or type.

Read the full article here: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/23/politics/fcc-national-suicide-hotline/index.html?fbclid=IwAR2WEZfj5fE1ypHE2YcE6p8Vkn0AA9kmeVHuBBAQByGAS20WnjLUEl0NH_Q