work in progress
No DMs thanks
Joined July 2019
- Tweets9.5K
- Following728
- Followers1.6K
- Likes46.4K
Pinned Tweet
PSA: depression isn't caused by low serotonin (a "chemical imbalance") and if you were advised to take an SSRI on this basis, it was mis-sold to you.
(Also, I bet YOU know what's causing you to feel depressed way better than a doc you've never met before your 10-min appointment)
The vague post by the MHRA I've quoted below doesn't mention the actual risks the strengthened warnings for antidepressants are about, so I will:
One of them is increased risk of suicide. The warning about it is going to be updated to say the risk is increased in people of ALL ages, irrespective of diagnosis the antidepressant is prescribed for - eg the risk is increased for people prescribed antidepressants for non-mental health conditions. (People can be prescribed antidepressants for things like IBS.)
As a teenager I was put on paroxetine for crying to my GP about being bullied at school and a few days into starting it, I developed what I later learned to be akathisia and I tried to take my life. I'd never been suicidal once in my life before that, including five years of being bullied.
How many other people are out there like me? And how many people aren't here today because they too were like me?
The MHRA is introducing a series of new measures to strengthen how risks associated with antidepressant medicines are communicated to patients, carers and healthcare professionals. Read the full drug safety update here: brnw.ch/21x6qlr
fireworks and confetti retweeted
I told my male doctor the pain during sex had gotten so bad I was avoiding intimacy. He told me to “relax more” and that most women just need to “get out of their heads.” I asked if he’d ever told a male patient with erectile dysfunction to just relax and stop overthinking. He looked at his chart. I got a new doctor the next week. Turns out I had a condition that required actual treatment.
Where it's legal to do so (it is in the UK) women need to start routinely making audio recordings of their male doctor appointments because complaints about them often come down to one person's word against another. And as with the below, the doctor can just dismiss anything you complain about by implying "it's all just in your pwetty lil head" - framing that's especially effective if you have a psych diagnosis in your medical records.
Audio recordings make this much harder to do.
I told my male doctor the pain during sex had gotten so bad I was avoiding intimacy. He told me to “relax more” and that most women just need to “get out of their heads.” I asked if he’d ever told a male patient with erectile dysfunction to just relax and stop overthinking. He looked at his chart. I got a new doctor the next week. Turns out I had a condition that required actual treatment.
Kids on TikTok figuring things out for themselves.
Account with less than 2,000 followers gets almost half a million likes for this.
A reminder of the MHRA-approved Seroxat (paroxetine) leaflet from when it was launched in the UK and went on to be the #1 pharmaceutical product marketed as an antidepressant here. The two images below are the entirety of the leaflet dated August 1990.
Note how it:
- Is extremely limited in listing adverse effects- only nausea, dry mouth, sweating, shakiness, drowsiness and sleep difficulty are mentioned; claims these effects "should generally disappear after a few days".
- Doesn't mention sexual adverse effects (extremely common - affect around 70% people taking SSRIs), agitation, emotional blunting, weight changes or other well-documented effects.
- Doesn't warn about withdrawal, even though paroxetine has been proven again and again to be one of the worst for stopping; the advice if you miss a dose is simply to skip it.
- Has zero information on how to safely stop it (tapering is not mentioned at all).
- Does not mention suicidal thoughts / increased risk of self-harm (especially early in treatment or in younger people). Notably, it says " 'Seroxat' is not recommended for use by children".
(This did not stop it from being prescribed to children - a few years later as a teen I was put on it for crying about being bullied at school. I developed akathisia in the first few days and tried to take my life, even though I was never suicidal before.)
- Says next to nothing about pregnancy and breastfeeding risks - just another generic "consult your doctor" line.
Overall, it's extremely short, optimistic in tone and puts the onus on the struggling patient to actively seek out crucial information - information that's literally a matter of life and death.
The MHRA is introducing a series of new measures to strengthen how risks associated with antidepressant medicines are communicated to patients, carers and healthcare professionals. Read the full drug safety update here: brnw.ch/21x6qlr
(1/3) The UK is going to get improved and strengthened warnings for antidepressants. And because it's total BS, references to antidepressants working by correcting a "chemical imbalance" are going to be removed from leaflets.
A new report out today from the drug regulator (the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, or MHRA) is linked below. It lists the updates as:
"- the introduction of a boxed warning in the patient information leaflet (PIL) to direct patients and carers to the new relevant section of the PIL containing the updated warning on suicidal thoughts and behaviours.
- the introduction of a portable patient card to reinforce key safety messages regarding suicidal thoughts and behaviours, and provide information on where to seek help. The expectation is for the card to be on the box or in the medicine pack, and it will be available digitally.
- updates to the PIL wording for certain antidepressants to include reference to the term post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (“PSSD”), where appropriate.
- updates to the PIL wording to remove reference to “chemical imbalance” and describe the mechanism of action of antidepressants in line with current clinical understanding and advice
- updates to prescribing information to ensure that these changes are maintained and continue to be reflected in PILs over time"
(2/3) Warnings will be updated for all 28 antidepressants licensed in the UK: fluvoxamine, fluoxetine, citalopram, escitalopram, sertraline, paroxetine, venlafaxine, duloxetine, reboxetine, amitriptyline, clomipramine, dosulepin, doxepin, imipramine, lofepramine, nortryptiline, trimipramine,trazodone, isocarboxazid, tranylcypromine, moclobemide, phenelzine, agomelatine, vortioxetine, L-tryptophan, esketamine, mianserin, mirtazapine
(3/3) Full report here (PDF download):
assets.publishing.service.go…
fireworks and confetti retweeted
Please sign. Please share.
Children should not be diagnosed with a personality disorder.
We’re asking the RCPsych to stop using this label in children.
Link below.
🤖 Made with AI
fireworks and confetti retweeted
If 10% of the amount of energy directed at finding biomarkers for "schizophrenia" was devoted to actually improving quality of life for those with the dx we'd have a sea change in outcomes.
Doctors tellimg you to not cold turkey your antidepressant then in the next breath telling you to take it every other day if you want to get off it
TAKING SOMETHING LIKE EFFEXOR EVERY OTHER DAY *IS* COLD TURKEYING IT, OVER AND OVER AND OVER
With the exception of fluoxetine, all the following widely prescribed SSRIs and SNRIs (and mirtazapine) have short enough half lives you're gonna be heading into withdrawal by missing just one or two daily doses, and HOURS for missing doses of the most widely prescribed SNRIs.
Also, people who take the below for non-mental health reasons and don't have / never have had MH diagnoses (eg take duloxetine for pain) also get withdrawal that involves mood changes such as anxiety that they never had before—so don't be falling for that "it's the return of your original condition" BS.
If you're feeling terrible so quickly after missing one or two doses of the below and you're getting a bunch of physical and unfamiliar symptoms you never had before like brain zaps, your doctor needs to be talking with you about WITHDRAWAL.
