It was interesting to read Professor Pies considerations on “Antipsychiatry” and his linkage of this with the “chemical imbalance trope” [Psychiatric Times, 2nd August 2019] Like Professor Pies I am … Continue reading ‘The mutability of the past’
Many years ago, one of my patients who had lost a child to suicide, wrote to me to say: Some years later I read this: I have previously shared considerations … Continue reading Kindness, attention and respect
In this old film of mine, which considers my experience of the selective-serotonin-reuptake inhibitor, SEROXAT, I said at one point: “People don’t believe a word I say” This was a … Continue reading “People don’t believe a word I say”
The words in this piece on antidepressant prescribing come from the novel ‘Grace Notes’ by Bernard MacLaverty. This novel was published the same year that I was started on an … Continue reading ‘They say no’
I began training in psychiatry in October 1993 just after the “Defeat Depression Campaign” had been launched. It ran alongside the five years of my training. This “Campaign” had the … Continue reading My career began with the “Defeat Depression Campaign”
Following the publication of the Royal College of Psychiatrists Position Statement on antidepressants and depression there was widespread news coverage supported by Expert Statements by Professor Allan Young and Professor … Continue reading Position statement: frequency of withdrawal reactions
I consider this U-turn as nothing but welcome. I have written to the President, Vice-President and CEO of the Royal College of Psychiatrists to say so. What hell/terror it has … Continue reading What hell and terror
In a previous post I shared this paper: The declarations of interest were given as follows: I have written the following open letter to the lead author: Sent: 22 May … Continue reading “uncritical partisan narrative”
This perspective has just been published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology. My brief response to one of the authors can be read here, alongside further details of the competing interests of … Continue reading “Antidepressants, withdrawal and addiction: where are we now?”
References: Davies J, Moncrieff J, Kinderman P, et al; Council for Evidence-Based Psychiatry. Stigma and efficacy of taking antidepressants. Letter to the editor. Times 2018 Feb 23. Burns W. Pills for … Continue reading A letter in the BMJ
In recent posts I have shared some of what I have come across in the British Newspaper Archive in relation to a search on the word “serotonin”. I have found … Continue reading “Doctors gamble on a cure”
So asked the headline! From the Irish Independent of the 2nd November 1993. Professor Antony Clare, in expressing his concerns about the sensationalism surrounding SSRIs and their promotion, concluded: