Zantac Lawsuit


Researching drug company and regulatory malfeasance for over 16 years
Humanist, humorist

Monday, February 24, 2020

Prostate Cancer UK - Venue: Hampton In Arden




I don't often get involved in charity events, there's too many and one never knows if the money raised goes through pharma-funded organisations.

However, when I first heard of the Prostate Cancer Awareness Fundraiser in a village where I used to reside (Hampton-In-Arden), I had no hesitation in lending my support as my father (86) has recently been diagnosed with this.

Event organiser, David Castle, (pictured below) was delighted with the outcome. He told me, "I can’t believe that a conversation over a few beers with Ollie Basnett (Guitarist for 2 Weeks Notice) in November at the White Lion in Hampton culminated in what happened on Saturday. The turnout was amazing and people were so generous. Great music great food and alcohol made it a night to remember. Many thanks to sponsors and donations for the raffle. We are up to over £8k which is beyond my wildest dreams."



Event Organiser, David Castle

Live music on the night was provided by The Red Skies Band and 2 Weeks Notice, two bands that are well worth hiring should you have an event of your own.

A great time was had by all and I got to catch up with old friends and even made some new ones. It was a night when a community came together and dug deep into their pockets. They are quite a breed those Hamptonites!

I salute you all.


Bob Fiddaman


Wednesday, February 12, 2020

You've Been Labelled





Dr Jonathan N. Stea, Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary


Dr Jonathan N. Stea is a Clinical Psychologist whose speciality is concurrent disorders. He is an "Adjunct Assistant Professor" at the University of Calgary.

His "antipsychiatry" label is just one example of what those in the prescribed harm community face on a daily basis on Twitter. It would appear that those who choose to go public about their experience with psychiatric medication are, according to Stea, deterring people from getting treatment and stigmatizing.

If one looks at the product labelling of any psychiatric medication one will find warnings of increased suicidality, withdrawal problems, sexual dysfunction, to name but a few.

Do we see the likes of Stea labelling the creators of the product labels, namely the drug companies and the regulators?

If, by speaking out about personal experiences, people are labelled by healthcare professionals such a Stea, what then for the drug companies and global regulators? Are they stigmatizing and antipsychiatry because they warn about the dangers of taking psychiatric medication?

Stea isn't the only one, there are many more 'professionals' on Twitter that try to silence those harmed by the very same pills they prescribe.

My question is simple:

Why such disdain for patients harmed by psychiatric medications?

Answers on a postcard to:

#PrescribedHarm
Twitter

Bob Fiddaman


Saturday, February 08, 2020

Jordan Peterson - Akathisia



Jordan Peterson (above) is a Canadian clinical psychologist and a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto.

Peterson was prescribed a low dose of a benzodiazepine a few years ago for anxiety following an extremely severe autoimmune reaction to food, according to his daughter, Mikhaila.

Last year, when his wife, Tammy, was diagnosed with terminal cancer, the dose of the benzo, believed to be clonazepam, was increased. Clonazepam is a sedative used to treat seizures, panic disorder, and anxiety. The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NBCI) also suggests that clonazepam is effective in managing neuroleptic-induced akathisia.

After Peterson's dose was increased he began to suffer. His daughter, Mikhaila, on her YouTube channel, tells viewers:

"It became apparent that he was suffering from both a physical dependency and a paradoxical reaction to the medication. A paradoxical reaction means the drugs do the opposite of what they’re supposed to." Mikhaila added that her father experienced akathisia, which she explains as a condition “where the person feels an incredible, endless, irresistible restlessness, bordering on panic, and an inability to sit still. The reaction made him suicidal.”

She's correct. Akathisia is a precursor to suicide and drug companies have known about this for a long time and failed to warn either prescribing physicians or the consuming public about this dangerous condition.

In 1998, Dr Roger Lane, who, until early 2001, was the Medical Director of the Zoloft Product Strategy Team at Pfizer, wrote about the association and risk of violence and suicide for all SSRI drugs. As Dr Lane writes, these conditions are sometimes hard to detect and diagnose, although not so hard to treat. E.g. “SSRI-induced akathisia is a relatively rare event but is frequently unrecognized when it does occur . . . In addition to the obvious motor (objective) manifestations of ‘inability to sit still’, most researchers agree that akathisia has a strong psychological component. The most outstanding feature of akathisia is subjective distress.

Lane warned, "It may be less of a question of patients experiencing fluoxetine-induced suicidal ideation, than patients feeling that ‘death is a welcome result’ when the acutely discomforting symptoms of akathisia are experienced on top of already distressing disorders.” For this reason, is it imperative that both physicians and their patients be forewarned and alerted about this serious risk."

Lanes article, “SSRI-Induced Extrapyramidal Side-Effects and Akathisia; Implications for Treatment”, appeared in the Journal of Psychopharmacology (J Psychopharmacol. 1998;12(2):192-214.)

Mikhaila currently has two videos posted on YouTube. The first, from September 2019 and an update which was uploaded yesterday.

In the February update, Mikhaila tells viewers:

"After several failed treatment attempts in North American hospitals, including attempts at tapering and micro-tapering, we had to seek an emergency medical benzodiazepine detox, which we were only able to find in Russia. It was incredibly gruelling and was further complicated by severe pneumonia which we’ve been told he developed in one of the previous hospitals. He’s had to spend 4 weeks in the ICU in terrible shape, but, with the help of some extremely competent and courageous doctors, he survived.  The decision to bring him to Russia was made in extreme desperation when we couldn’t find any better option. The uncertainty around his recovery has been one of the most difficult and scary experiences we’ve ever had."

Between them, both videos have amassed over one and a half million views.

I'd like to thank Mikhaila for raising awareness on this issue, which, only last week, was played down by two high profile psychiatrists on Twitter. (See 'Two Psychiatrists Explain Akathisia')

For more information on akathisia and the numerous drugs that can cause it (over 500) please visit and take the Akathisia 101 online accredited course. You might just save a life!

Here are Mikhaila's two videos, after which is an educational video from MISSD (The Medication-Induced Suicide Prevention and Education Foundation in Memory of Stewart Dolin)





Bob Fiddaman



Wednesday, February 05, 2020

Natalie Gehrki 7 Years




Tomorrow marks the death anniversary of 19-year-old Natalie Gehrki who, on February 6, 2013, was compelled to end her young life.

In 2003, Natalie became somewhat anxious and shy and after a visit to see a psychiatrist she started on her spiral of decline. Prozac, an SSRI, was recommended. Neither Natalie or her mother, Kristina, were provided with informed consent. In fact, Kristina, in an article she wrote some years later, said, "The doctor skipped over risks vs. benefits."

In 2003 there were no black box warnings on SSRIs so neither Natalie or her parents knew anything much about it. Shortly after taking Prozac Natalie became increasingly anxious and agitated, withdrawn and apathetic, she also developed new fears and obsessions. By the middle of 2004, she had started to self-harm, light cuts to her arm were evidence of this. Her prescriber, instead of withdrawing the drug, increased the Prozac dosage.

Earlier that year (March 2004) the FDA had advised all doctors that SSRIs pose life-threatening risks to children. Neither Natalie or her parents were given this information from Natalie's prescriber.

This from her mother:

"Natalie also lost her ability to participate in physical activities. Her fifth-grade diary reflects she felt uncoordinated, “couldn’t catch a ball,” and was often “the last person picked” for sports teams. This was significant given that Natalie previously showed excellent fine motor skills and happily out-climbed friends at the rock climbing wall.

"Natalie’s doctor started offering new diagnostic guesses. They included borderline personality disorder, emotional lability, OCD and manic depression. She diligently updated her charts, but didn’t update us with new Prozac information. Natalie’s symptoms were far more serious than her original presenting symptom of anxiety."

In the summer of 2005, Natalie was instructed by her prescriber to take a "medication holiday”. The prescriber wanted to see how Natalie would fair when not taking Prozac. There was no tapering regime offered, just an abrupt stop.

Days after stopping Prozac Natalie told her mom that she wanted to kill herself. One has to bear in mind that at this point Natalie was just an 11-year-old girl. Terrified, her mother took her to hospital. After a brief consultation with the hospital psychiatrist, it was recommended that Natalie needed to restart her Prozac, in addition, she needed more drugs. Risperdal, an antipsychotic was thrown into the mix. Once again, no informed consent was given to either Natalie or her parents.

The horror-train ride wasn't over for Natalie - some years down the line Zoloft, an SSRI, came into play. Natalie's behaviour changed, she became unusually problematic in her behaviour. Her mother informed the prescriber of the change in Natalie. Despite this, Natalie remained on Zoloft.

More agitation and anxiety ensued and Natalie's self-harming was getting worse. On hearing this her prescriber added Valium, an anxiolytic and sedative, to Natalie's regime.

Good grades at school turned into bad grades and Natalie, not being able to sit in her chair at school, opted instead to wander around the classroom.

Between 2010-2013 her mother believed the Zoloft was causing the problems. She writes:

"I believed the 100 mg of Zoloft should be stopped and that perhaps it was prescribed at too high a dose. I asked about metabolism and noted Natalie’s petite size (under 5 feet tall and 110 pounds). The psychiatrist retorted dosage has “nothing to do with metabolism.”

"We explained Natalie’s adverse reaction to Prozac and offered to provide all medical records. The doctor didn’t want the records, declaring, “I make my own diagnosis.”

The prescriber reassured Natalie and her mother that Zoloft was okay. During this period Natalie continued to take Zoloft and her mother recalls that Natalie's faulty cognitive reasoning, memory loss, and destructive, risky behaviour all became worse.

In November of 2012, Natalie's Zoloft dosage was increased from 100mg to 150mg, shortly after this increase Natalie's gait changed and she started shuffling her feet as she moved. She also started skin-picking, something her prescriber put down to possible 'Obsessive-compulsive disorder' (OCD)

I'll leave the last words to her mom:

"One week later, Natalie had a scheduled therapy appointment. She was feeling ill, complained of “swollen throat glands” had a fever and headache. She thought she had the flu. Natalie tried to sleep but had terrible insomnia. She called the doctor to cancel her appointment. The doctor suggested they have telephone therapy instead. During their phone call, Natalie said she had been vomiting, discussed her “increasing OCD symptoms,” and Natalie cried. I later learned the psychiatrist instructed Natalie—without ever seeing her—to start taking 200 mg of Zoloft. Again, no informed consent, no risks vs. benefits, and caregivers left in the dark. Abductor Number Four doubled Zoloft the last 12 weeks of Natalie’s life. The doctor scheduled a follow-up appointment in two weeks. This is not close monitoring.

"Two days after taking the maximum Zoloft dose as prescribed, Natalie was dead. She had valiantly raged against the dying light for nearly half her life but was no match for 200 mg of Zoloft. She died of a violent self-sustained injury, but did not die by her own hand: She was chemically tortured, suffered and died at the hands of her doctors. Their negligence was medical violence. As is typical of akathisia-induced death, Natalie, who was born a gentle soul, did not go gently into that good night."

Kidnapped: Natalie’s Story is in two parts. You can read them here and here.

Kristina can be reached via Twitter here.

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Blog Commentary

Two years ago, Kristina and I spent time together at the Hard Rock Cafe in Panama City, Panama. On the eve of Natalie's death anniversary, we wandered around the hotel in search of any AC/DC memorabilia. As our search was coming to an end, I noticed a T-Shirt in a glass cage. The shirt once belonged to Dixie Chicks singer/songwriter, Natalie Maines.

I find this comforting as it was the Dixie Chicks that helped me through my severe Seroxat withdrawal. I mention this in my book, 'The Evidence, However, is Clear: The Seroxat Scandal.'

I believe that Kristina's daughter somehow guided Kristina to this, just to let her know that she was now free from suffering.

The message on the front of the T-Shirt reads: "Free Natalie."



Bob Fiddaman

Monday, February 03, 2020

Two Psychiatrists Explain Akathisia




Remember the names, folks.

On the left, we have Tyler Black, MD, Suicidologist and expert in emergency psychiatry. On the right, George Dawson, Psychiatrist, addiction psychiatrist, neuropsychiatrist, physician.

These two professionals have opened a can of worms on Twitter after claiming that they have both suffered akathisia. Miraculously, they claim, the akathisia was brought on by strenuous exercising!

This is a first, folks as every medical book or piece of literature regarding akathisia may have to now be re-written.

Up until their claims (Fig1), it was thought that akathisia was a condition caused by the adverse effects of treatment with many prescribed and over-the-counter drugs. To develop akathisia one can only ingest a drug, there is no other way of developing it. Dawson and Black's claims change all that.

Fig1


Dawson and Black's comments caused outrage amongst Twitter users, a selection of which are below.

One concerned patient advocate, Kristina Gehrki, whose daughter, Natalie, died an iatrogenic death brought on by akathisia, felt compelled to tweet The Royal College of Psychiatrists President, Wendy Burn, whose response did nothing but fan the flames.


Burn, as per usual, completely missing the point.

Shortly after the critiques of Dawson and Black's assertions that akathisia can be caused by exercise, Black somewhat retracted his statement with:

The Medication-Induced Suicide Prevention and Education Foundation in Memory of Stewart Dolin (MISSD) reached out to Dawson, their tweet and his reply can be seen here.

Dawson's claim of being an expert in diagnosing akathisia and movement disorders is deeply worrying given his earlier claims that he developed 'acute akathisia' after strenuous exercise. How can one claim to be an expert in diagnosing akathisia when one falsely claims akathisia can be brought on through exercise?

It really is a wrong message to send out, particularly as exercise is often used to combat depressive episodes. By Dawson and Black claiming exercise can cause akathisia, they may be scaring people who want to use this route rather than a medicalised one. Quite why they have done this is anyone's guess.

Dawson and Black seem to be fully supported by the President of RCPsych, who, back in November endorsed Black's account to her followers, this too is deeply concerning. Burn's advice to Black, well, mute people, "You don't have to hear what they are saying about you."

What a wonderful legacy she is leaving behind!



There's nothing like a psychiatrist who ignores voices of those harmed by the very same drugs they've prescribed.

For more information on the **REAL** causes of akathisia please take the free, accredited Akathisia101 Course here.

Bob Fiddaman





Saturday, February 01, 2020

Evelyn "Evie" Pringle



Evelyn Pringle

It is with great sadness that I announce the death of the extraordinary investigative journalist, Evelyn Pringle.

'Evie', as I knew her, was the key reason I started writing this blog back in 2006. We would later correspond and help one another with various articles.

I first became aware of Evie's work after reading the excellent, Drip, Drip, Drip, Paxil Info Leaks Out, a superb piece of investigative journalism. I highly recommend you read it. The expose is from 2006 but it gives you an insight into Evie's brilliant mind and investigative skills.

Some years down the line we made contact after she learned about this British blogger guy linking to her articles.

In 2010, I received a 58-page document from the Federal Aviation Administration. It was regarding a Freedom of Information request I had submitted in relation to a proposal that will allow pilots to control aircraft whilst on certain SSRI medications.

Much of 2010 was taken up with me reporting on the Sara Carlin inquest, to be honest, I reached the point of burn-out once the inquest had finished.

I, therefore, forwarded the 58-page document on to Evie. I didn't really know anyone else who could do it justice.

Here is the result of Evelyn Pringle's study of the 58-page document: SSRIs Render Unfriendly Skies

Some years later Evie became a talk-show host covering such topics of government corruption and paedophile rings in Hollywood. She was never one to mince her words.

Evie's work is spread far and wide across the internet and after contacting me I helped her catalogue her articles so she could put them all in one place. Evelyn Pringle's Catalog of Articles was a result of that collaboration.

My one regret in life is that I never got to meet Evie in person, we corresponded and spoke on the phone, for those who never knew her, she was an extremely funny individual who swore like a docker and who was passionate about unveiling corruption. We lost touch as the years wore on and I didn't know she had been suffering an illness.

Fly high, sister, and thank you for giving me a voice and nurturing my skills as an investigative researcher. I shall live forever in your debt.

Your friend,

Fid

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Bob Fiddaman






Please contact me if you would like a guest post considered for publication on my blog.