Something is amiss with CR229

July 2020.

CR229: a ‘Position Statement’ by the Royal College of Psychiatrists has been published: The Final report of the Patient Safety Group on Self-Harm and Suicide in Adults. 

CR229: makes no reference to akathaisia as an established risk factor for suicide [British National Formularly]

CR229: makes no reference to impulsivity and suicidality that may occur on initiation of drugs taken as prescribed.

CR229: makes no reference to the potential for any withdrawal effects from prescribed psychiatric drugs, let alone how to manage these effects.

CR229 was published without any acknowledgment of the following evidence.

Something is amiss with CR229

Science is based on the principle that it dispassionately considers all possibilities – including all possible outcomes of any intervention.

A week before he died, Antony Schofield sent a message to me that he copied to his mother. Antony described horrendous and protracted withdrawal effects from the psychiatric drug that he had originally been prescribed for ‘generalised anxiety’. Antony had come to suffer the hell that is akathisia. He could no longer live with this.

I replied to Antony’s message straight away. I gave my phone number.

A week later, Antony’s elderly mother managed to contact me. We were then able to speak on the phone. Antony’s mother informed me that her only son had taken his life.

It is unforgivable for ‘Suicide Prevention’ programmes/initiatives/strategies/policies to ignore learning from life.