Blog post - latest update 15 December 2016
You will have been re-directed to our blog while our web site is in the process of being upgraded and edited, for which we apologise.
Please read here :
our submission to the Parliamentary Health Select Committee Inquiry into Suicide Prevention
The final report by the committee totally ignored the medication links to suicides, stating the view of those who gave oral evidence was that treatment with drugs is better than no treatment. How sad they could not discuss the fact there are suicide warnings for many psychotropic and everyday medicines.
APRIL charity has had a web site for over 15 years - this is currently being upgraded.
By early 2017 we should have an improved site up and running - In the meantime please read articles on this blog and view our videos from our groundbreaking conferences.
Leading experts in clinical pharmacology, genetics and medical education. speak and answer questions about adverse drug reactions (ADRs), and dependence issues.
Hear about the way clinical trials may be manipulated explained by Dr Ben Goldacre and Professor David Healy. The wonderful Professor Heather Ashton's wise words and many other experts in the field of medicine. A coroner's view and the stories of people, some bereaved, who kindly agreed to sharing their experiences with us.
https://vimeo.com/user1816628
We also have a Youtube channel to which over 40,000 people have seen and some have commented. Well worth reading those comments to hear how people have suffered and how valuable our work of creating awareness is. Please find information about specific drugs on the pharma web site www.medicines.org.uk and review the data on the SPC (summary of product characteristics) for full information about some of the possible side effects.
Please follow us on Twitter @APRIL_charity
Our submission to the Government Suicide Prevention Inquiry can be viewed on the Parliamentary web site:
http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/health-committee/suicide-prevention/written/37700.pdf
We take the opportunity to request if you may please consider a contribution to help us continue in our work.
http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/health-committee/suicide-prevention/written/37700.pdf
We take the opportunity to request if you may please consider a contribution to help us continue in our work.
Link to Charity Choice Fundraising site, click on 'Our Appeals : https://www.charitychoice.co.uk/april
Direct link to the Appeal:
https://www.charitychoice.co.uk/april/appeals/psychiatric-side-effects-major-resource-upgrade-of-web-site/626
Latest news on activities of APRIL
Please share the link for this remarkable new video documentary by Katinka Newman but can only be viewed on a computer - not on mobile devices unfortunately!
https://www.youtube.
Oxford University Press International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology
A newly published paper = October 2016 referring to rigged clinical trials covering up suicides and other ADRs caused by antidepressants is also worth reviewing:
http://ijnp.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/10/25/ijnp.pyw092
Please scroll down this blog for important information about antidepressants, Dianette, Non psychiatric drugs linked to suicidal behaviour and depression in a recent study by Professor Munir Pirmohamed and others.
Until the revised web site is available, it is still possible to research the information about medicines or other data on our web site archived by Wayback Machine - just go to the web site : http://web.archive.org/web/*/www.april.org.uk
waybackmachine.org is a great resource and they state for www.april.org.uk it has been
Saved 158 times between August 24, 2000 and April 26, 2016.
Antimalarial drug
31 August 2016 on BBC TV Victoria Derbyshire programme focus was partly on the #psychiatric adverse reactions to #Lariam #Mefloquine the drug recommended for prevention of #malaria
Follow her on twitter too: @VictoriaLive
After hearing the evidence in the programme one may wonder why nothing was done to protect the public and our troops from the long term mental health issues triggered by this drug, there are suicides and homicides linked to the adverse effects too.
The answer is the pharmaceutical company threatened that if any kind of campaigning were to continue in the UK the cost would be too great.
details are here:
APRIL has a dossier of testaments from the public about the dreadful effects of the drug. It may be of use for 'curing' malaria but as a preventative the harm seems to outweigh the benefit.
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Apart from editing and revising the web site, Millie Kieve the founder of APRIL Tweets to doctors and others - Please follow us on Twitter @APRIL_charity
This week a good result was when Dr Mark Porter mention Millie Kieve had tweeted to ask why he did not promote patient reporting of ADRs:
This week a good result was when Dr Mark Porter mention Millie Kieve had tweeted to ask why he did not promote patient reporting of ADRs:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07mxk4g BBC broadcast 9th & 10th August 2016
After radio 4 programme 'Inside Health' prog last week (2nd & 3rd August), item on statins, when they discussed the conflicting evidence re benefits and harms. I tweeted direct to Dr Mark Porter how important to balance the misinformation and why did he not promote the Yellow Card reporting system for patients as doctors so seldom report ADRS. (more than one tweet of course as words so limited in tweets!) - I believe the incidents of memory loss, depression and muscle weakness caused by statins is under reported!
And Dr Porter quoted my tweet to instigate a discussion on Yellow Card reporting in this week's prog and even mentioned my name!
This is about 15 mins into the programme after the hip treatment discussion.
I hope the MHRA will be pleased but still wonder why they don't do more to publicise the Yellow Card system. This lack of effort to promote the scheme to the public re-enforces the Health Committee Inquiry finding:
The MHRA have a conflict of interest in trying to manage safety of medicines while they are supported by and have to promote the pharmaceutical industry.
The MHRA have a conflict of interest in trying to manage safety of medicines while they are supported by and have to promote the pharmaceutical industry.
