Antidepressants withdrawal effects

AVOIDABLE DEATHS DUE TO MEDICINES ADVERSE SIDE-EFFECTS AND WITHDRAWAL REACTIONS.

May 2019

 The UK Royal College of Psychiatrists have finally agreed, after years of denial.

Withdrawal from antidepressants and benzodiazepine drugs at last being recognised as sometimes causing serious adverse effects  harming many people.

National clinical guidelines are currently being updated.

Wendy Burn, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said she wanted to see the guidelines "more in keeping with what we're hearing from some patients - and GPs - about the range of experiences of coming off antidepressants".

The number of prescriptions for antidepressants in the UK nearly doubled between 2007 and 2017, from around 40 million to more than 82 million, a report by the College shows.

The Royal College of Psychiatrists now accepts that it has not paid enough attention to patients suffering from severe withdrawal symptoms when coming off antidepressants.

The new stance by the Royal College follows a Lancet Psychiatry paper co-authored by David Taylor, the director of pharmacy and pathology at the Maudsley Hospital in London, who has himself experienced withdrawal, describing it in a recent New Yorker article as a “strange and frightening and torturous” experience that lasted six weeks. “Although the withdrawal syndrome can be differentiated from recurrence of the underlying disorder, it might also be mistaken for recurrence, leading to long-term unnecessary medication,” reads the paper.

 Despite current guidelines recommending a taper of two to four weeks, “tapers over a period of months and down to doses much lower than minimum therapeutic doses have shown greater success in reducing withdrawal symptoms”.

Back in 2014 APRIL_charity was contacted by a desperate relative, trying to convince the psychiatrists it was withdrawal causing the problems. The psychiatrists only wanted to prescribe more and more medication.

They told us:

“I was saying that it was a result of withdrawal in the end it slightly registered but they will only treat on the basis of diagnosis and relapse and it's always more medication. I think you're right it is the way they are trained. You're website is really helpful and a gem to find when such information is so valuable and rare. Thanks once again for taking the time out of your busy day and I will continue to visit your site and support where I can.”

In 2018 the headline in the British Medical Journal was:

Government must investigate rising excess deaths in England and Wales, experts warn

BMJ 2018; 361 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k2127 (Published 11 May 2018) Cite this as: BMJ 2018;361:k2127

Research experts have urged the government and MPs to investigate rising numbers of deaths in England and Wales, after new figures showed over 20 000 “excess deaths” so far in 2018.

Earlier this year an analysis of the Office for National Statistics’ data on weekly provisional deaths in England and Wales, published in The BMJ,1 found that by week seven of 2018 (ending 16 February) 10 000 more people had died than the average from the past five years.

Flu vaccine link to cause of lifelong illness - Narcolepsy

Flu vaccine link to cause of lifelong disorder - Narcolepsy,  found by Health Protection Agency -  click here to read Health Protection Agency report.

 The study was funded by the Department of Health policy research programme and the Health Protection Agency. The views expressed in the publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Department of Health, England. The former statement makes me wonder if the NHS will still promote all vaccines as safe before they have been proven safe.

When I first tried to find a link to the report in the BMJ about this research the only site that popped up on google was a comment -  in response to a BMJ article which stated:
All authors are full time employees of Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, a manufacturer of adjuvanted pandemic influenza vaccines.

Then I clicked on the BMJ page for the original article which can be found here:
 http://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.f794

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A nation of pill poppers - article in Mail - highlights problem of over prescribing

ABOUT THE ARTICLE

The NHS spent a staggering £22million a day on prescription drugs in England in 2006, a 60 per cent rise in real terms on a decade earlier.
We each pick up more than 16 prescriptions a year on average, twice as many as 20 years ago, Department of Health data reveals.

More than 50million prescriptions were written for cholesterol-busting statins in 2008, an 80 per cent rise on just four years earlier.
And more than 10,000 prescriptions a week are written for anti-hyperactivity drugs.

These facts are highlighted by Professor Joan Busfield, from Essex University, who is concerned about over prescribing and pharmaceutical industry use of ‘disease mongering’ and the re-writing of the Medical dictionary the DSM. More from her paper A Pill For Every Ill, published in the journal Social Science & Medicine are highlighted in the Daily Mail article 29 March 2010.

MILLIE'S COMMENTS

Statins and drugs for hyperactivity or ADHD diagnosis are all linked to depression and suicide, so of particular concern to APRIL charity.

Inappropriate prescribing and lack of knowledge of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) is leading to untold misery, long term ill health (iatrogenic illness) and avoidable deaths. I am faced with stories on a daily basis. Recent communications and meetings I have had with parents and sufferers have disclosed the following sad cases:

o A girl who had a stroke cause by blood clot while taking the acne drug, also used as a contraceptive that I have campaigned about. I have begged the Medicines Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to issue warnings to doctors that the drug causes depression in girls with no history of depression. Licensed for short term use for acne the drug is often prescribed for years as a contraceptive in spite of warnings (years ago) from the regulator that the risk of thrombosis is high for this drug. The reason I am not putting the name (easily found on the APRIL web site) is that the web site was hacked and brought down recently and I do not want to risk any problems.

o A mother grieving for the loss of her son who was over prescribed hundreds of morphine based pain killers, addicted and distressed, he took his own life. The consultant who was treating him for Ulcerative Colitis complications had not been informed by the GP of what he was prescribing to the patient. This highlights what I found at the inquest of Angela Lee, (see blog Oct 2009) that health professionals do not communicate with each other regarding patients being seen by more than one doctor or therapist.

o A mother told me her son killed himself after being prescribed an SSRI antidepressant. He took this for a few days and became worse, so complained to his GP. The doctor told him to double the dose and 4 hours after doing this he killed himself.

o A lady who had been addicted to tranquilisers (benzodiazepines) for 25 years had finally managed to come off the drugs with the help of Pam Armstrong who runs a support group in Liverpool. Her doctor had prescribed a drug recently assuring her it was not addictive. When I did the necessary research, I found it was an addictive drug. This highlights the need for patients to be vigilant and not to assume the doctor knows best. Pharmacology has not been an exam subject since 1993 for medical students, be warned!

o A lady was suffering from severe head aches and had not told her doctor this is since being prescribed drugs for high blood pressure. It is essential to return to the doctor if one develops new symptoms after taking any medicines.
Early warning sign of intolerance to drugs, if acted upon may prevent even more serious consequences.