Happy Holidays: A Year in Review

For the mothers and fathers who have loved and lost.

For the husbands and wives who have loved and lost.

For the brothers and sisters who have loved and lost.

For those of you that have loved and lost friends.

For those of you that have suffered long-term harm.

For those of you who continue to fight the cause.

"Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies." ~ Andy Dufresne: Shawshank Redemption

I salute you all.

May this holiday period, whatever you wish to call it, bring you love, light and peace.

Time to put my feet up, crack open a few tinnies and dwell on the past 12 months.

Here are, in no particular order, 10 of the most viewed blog posts for 2019. Thank you for your continued support.

Q&A with Carmine Pariante
An interview with Carmine Pariante, a professor of biological psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College, London, and consultant perinatal psychiatrist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust. The interview didn't go as planned and was abruptly terminated.

50 Years and Still Rockin'
Celebrating with friends - The 50th anniversary of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights Award show in Los Angeles.

Pariante's Dish of the Day
A short documentary in which Carmine Pariante claimed that he could grow depression in a Petri-dish.

Hashtag Backfires on Twitter
The hashtag #ITakeMyMedsForMentalHealth was heavily promoted on Twitter. Leading psychiatrists jumped up and down, at the same time sending out dangerous information.

Royal College of Psychiatrists in Dubious U-Turn
Years of public denial regarding withdrawal problems then an admittance that there 'may be a problem', this admittance, obviously came with caveats and no apology.

The ADD/ADHD Infomercial
Watch how an ADHD 'expert' diagnoses an audience member with ADHD, it took him less than 30 seconds. David Blaine, eat your heart out!

Suicide Expert Embroiled in Twitter Controversy
UK Suicide 'expert' joins forces with former UKIP press secretary, Jasna Badzak and retweets her outlandish claim that those in the #PrescribedHarm community are nothing more than "a dangerous cult".

PHE Review Dilutes SSRI Problem
Public Health England releases a  review of available data and published evidence on the problems of dependence and withdrawal associated with some prescribed medicines, but did they dilute it?

UK Suicide Expert: Akathisia Can Make People Suicidal
UK Suicide 'expert' finally admits akathisia can make people suicidal. Controversially, he claims the UK government won't allow him to alter the suicide strategy plan. Was he telling the truth?

The Death of Elisa Lam
A viral video, an endless list of conspiracy theories. I research the case and find startling evidence previously missed.


Thanks for reading, folks.

Bob Fiddaman

Turning Something Bad Into Good (Spin)

Jacob Polete (16)

Sean Polete shared his concerns about antidepressants and whether a prescription contributed to the suicide death of his 16-year-old son, Jacob Polete, on Nov. 30, 2018.

Jacob's Dr didn't inform him about the black box warning. He didn't inform him that he was prescribing it off-label' and that it wasn’t approved to treat depression in teens.

Jacob's father told the Dayton Daily News:

“I didn’t do the research because I felt like, well, I’m just happy to have somebody giving us some advice. These antidepressants and things have significantly different effects on a child’s brain and it’s much different than the adult brain.”

Step forward the spin doctors.

V. Grace Matheson, MD, PhD

In the same article, Dr. Virginia Grace Matheson, a child psychiatrist at Dayton Children’s Hospital, said:

“For most children, the drugs work. We don’t want them to be afraid of the medicine. The vast majority of cases, the medication will really help the child feel better and if they are having suicidal thoughts as part of their depression, it will relieve those in most cases. But there are those kids who have the adverse effects.”

Matheson added:

“Most of them [antidepressants] work in a very similar way, so we can sort of extrapolate from the adult data. It doesn’t mean that it’s not safe or it doesn’t work. Sometimes a child prescribed antidepressants actually has a form of bipolar disorder that wasn’t detected.”

T.J. Grimm, retail and ambulatory director for University Hospitals in Cleveland, and president-elect of the Ohio Pharmacists Association, added:

“There are people who, because they’ve heard about increased suicides, they’ve heard these medicines don’t work, (they’ve been) scared off. ”

Jacob Polete was just 16-years-old. Part of his online obit reads:

He attended Fairhaven church where he volunteered at Celebration Place, a program serving children 5 to 13 years old coping with life’s tough issues. Jacob was an avid naturalist, a fan of bushcraft, and wilderness survival. He enjoyed hiking in the woods, biking riding, and exploring large cities like New York and rural areas like the Metro Parks. He was not a fan of suburbs. He had recently started working as a bagger at Dorothy Lane Market, and was very proud of himself for saving his earnings to buy himself a new bicycle. Jacob loved food challenges, cooking, and pushing the limits of his taste buds with strong flavors and strange foods. He was fearless and impulsive, and never backed away from a challenge. He had great compassion and love for his furry friend Athena and an intimate circle of friends. His loving yet mischievous personality, combined with his intelligence and innate wisdom, gave the sense of being in the presence of an old soul. He was captivated by Lord of the Rings, both the books and the movies, and the band Pink Floyd. He was a curious experimenter and delved deeply into chemistry and botany. Since early childhood, Jacob was a skilled “deconstructive engineer,” and took apart every object he could get his hands on.

Read the full vomit-inducing spin by the 'experts' here.

In the meantime, this is for Dr Virgina Grace Matheson.

Bob Fiddaman

Related links

Antidepressant Induced Suicide - The Mothers and Wives
Sara Carlin Inquest - We Know How, Now Tell us Why!
Netherworld - a film by Kevin P. Miller
Secrets of the Drug Trials (BBC)
AntiDepAware - Promoting awareness of the dangers of antidepressants