• The aim of this web site is to share information about psychiatric adverse effects of prescribed medicines and anaesthetics.However many who suffer adverse reactions are then prescribed psychotropic drugs, some can cause dependence.

    Our APRIL charity medical conferences were outstanding for not being funded by industry, therefore allowing Professors & health professionals to speak without fear and to answer questions from anyone.

    Click here: Please review the videos of Professors, a Coroner and others, even if you find the truth they speak may shock you.

    Important - Some prescribed drugs must NOT BE STOPPED SUDDENLY

    So if you are reducing any medication that may have caused dependence, study the information available and if possible get support from a health professional. Tapering has to be done very slowly, with safe advice and with understanding of the risks. This organisation is advising and members of patient support groups are advising the UK authorities https://iipdw.org/

    Dependence can be due to changes in receptors in your brain or hormonal system as with antidepressants benzodiazepine, steroids, pain killers and similar drugs. 

    Laura Delano make a compelling appeal to why you can live again, even after years on psychiatric drugs.

    Go to her organisation 

    https://withdrawal.theinnercompass.org/

    Another group to follow with information about withdrawal:

    https://iipdw.org/

    I advise anyone interested in official reports of adverse drug reactions (ADRs)

    to sign up for alerts from the regulatory agency in your country. Warnings about risks may be seen in one country but not shared in others, so be wise and study the drugs you are offered before assuming they are without problems. Many issues occur long after a drug is licensed.

    In the UK we have pharmacists who regularly report on findings from ADR Yellow Card Reports and you can read their Re:action data here: http://yccwm.org.uk/index.php/reaction/

    Independent pharmacists produce valuable information about medicines safety and warnings
    They  produce journals in French and English - https://english.prescrire.org/en/Summary.aspx

    The Journalists at Préscrire kindly invited me to speak at a conference in Paris. The English version of my talk (given in French) For my talk content click here:  published in English entitled
    "Listening to Victims' Voices" 

     

    Personalised Medicine 

     At last in March 2022 a promise for Personalised Medication Prescribing. This should dramatically reduce harm done to many by using medication they cannot tolerate, or does nothing to improve their condition.

    A Detailed report just published March 2022 by the 
    Royal College of Physicians & British Pharmacological Society -
    Click Here for the Report: PERSONALISED PRESCRIBING

    An article in The Guardian Experts push for genetic testing to personalise drug prescriptions explains the benefits, as About 6.5% of UK hospital admissions are caused by adverse drug reactions, while most prescription medicines only work on 30% to 50% of people.
    Click here for the Guardian article by Linda Geddes:

    APRIL has been promoting the use of genetic testing for many years  - Click here for a talk by Professor Sir Munir Pirmohamed, Chair of the Working Group on Personalised Prescribing, speaking at our conference

    .......................................................................................

    The British Medical Journal (BMJ) published an article in Clinical Updates

    ADVERSE DRUG REACTIONS - together with an interview with the author Dr Robin Ferner.

    if you see an option stating Hear on Browser  this avoids having to register for Soundcloud - or just read the article.

    DR FERNER, EXPLAINS WHAT A BLACK TRIANGLE DRUG IS...

    Also about the Yellow Card system of reporting.

    The West Midlands ADR Reporting Centre at the Comittee on Safety of Medicines, now called the MHRA. Produced useful statistics. These publications are from many years ago when the WMCSM were permitted to do their own analysis of Yellow Card ADR reports they received. Sadly this is not longer the situation it seems.

    Prescribed Drug Induced Depression  

    Prescribed Drug Induced Hallucinations 
    Information about:   APRIL's Events   Report your experience:

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  • APRIL's Blog

    Millie Kieve's Adverse Psychiatric Reactions APRIL_charity blog

    Personalised Medicine promise - to prevent high rate of adverse drug reactions (ADRs)

     

    BREAKING NEWS 

    Personalised Medicine 

     At last in March 2022 a promise for Personalised Medication Prescribing. This should dramatically reduce harm done to many by using medication they cannot tolerate, or does nothing to improve their condition.

    A Detailed report just published March 2022 by the 
    Royal College of Physicians & British Pharmacological Society -
    Click Here for the Report: PERSONALISED PRESCRIBING

    An article in The Guardian Experts push for genetic testing to personalise drug prescriptions explains the benefits, as About 6.5% of UK hospital admissions are caused by adverse drug reactions, while most prescription medicines only work on 30% to 50% of people.
    Click here for the Guardian article by Linda Geddes:

    APRIL has been promoting the use of genetic testing for many years  - Click here for a talk by Professor Sir Munir Pirmohamed, Chair of the Working Group on Personalised Prescribing, speaking at our conference

    The aim of this web site is to share information about psychiatric adverse effects of prescribed medicines and anaesthetics.However many who suffer adverse reactions are then prescribed psychotropic drugs, some cause dependence.

    Read below about an online conference on issues of dependence and withdrawal from antidepressants, benzodiasepines and other drugs causing serious withdrawal reactions. With Professor Joanna Moncrieff and Robert Whitaker

    Withdrawal from Medication
    CONFERENCE - May 6/7 2022  
    Click for flyer:     Withdrawal from Psychiatric Drugs

    https://iipdw.org/


    The MHRA Roaccutane / isotretinoin Inquiry into harms some people suffer, is still ongoing. Plus link to Millie Kieve's newest video.

     Re the MHRA Isotretinoin expert working Group (IEWG) conclusions following  submission of evidence from Millie Kieve for APRIL charity, together with many parents tragically bereaved by the suicide of their child.

    The outcome  of our written and face to face (via Zoom) submissions of evidence, is very slow to emerge and more will be posted about this at a later date.

    For my part (Millie)  - News of the work for APRIL which is ongoing, even though my age tells me to slow down!

    I have now given up the office as I had rarely been into the space since the Covid lockdown, so am working on books about the history of APRIL and my life in fact!

    In the meantime I have updated some videos on the Vimeo web site and this one is the newest:

    https://vimeo.com/683984803

    It is a talk that started as a conversation between me and my long time volunteer and friend Kathy.

    I decided as I was explaining some of the history of the efforts I have made to help towards greater patient safety, I may as well record this. So I added still pictures to help illustrate the information. This covers the early years around the time of the  first conference I organised.

    This includes when Dr David Healy (now Professor) was rejected after having his post as Professor in Toronto, following his talk to a few doctors, I believe, about the risk of suicide for some people taking antidepressant SSRI and similar drugs. You will hear he did agree to speak at that first conference, which led to the amazing work by the BBC Panorama team in highlighting the issues around dependence and harm caused by the SSRI antidepressant Seroxat. 

    The fact that dosage was licensed too high and how the CEO of MIND charity actually resigned from and committee of people working for the Medicines regulator at the time, for reasons of failure to disclose or act on harm they knew about.

    Please listen to the 11 minute 'conversation' in which I do actually include Kath's contribution, but not all as it may have been unsuitable for sharing! 

    There are many videos of interest I have edited and included on Vimeo and the link to them all is on the Home Page of APRIL's web site https://www.april.org.uk Talks by leading experts in adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and how clinical trials have been rigged in favour of benefits from medicines with cover up of harms. Testimonials of suffering and recovery from people who have been sectioned for psychiatric issues, some due to the ADRs they suffered.

    I will do more on the blog if I can be sure some people are still reading my posts. Please enter your email to be informed of new posts. I have no access to that data so have no idea how many of you may have signed up.

    Kind regards to all and stay safe from Covid - with heartfelt concern for those in Ukraine who have far more  than Covid to worry about.

    Inquiry invites your views as concern about psychiatric and physical harm from acne drug isotretinoin / Ro - Accutane / Reticutan / Rizuderm

     Isotretinoin / Roaccutane / Reticutan / Rizuderm / Accutane 

    Please submit your views for an Expert Review of your experience or your relative or friend's as to the safety or otherwise of this acne medication.

    https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/isotretinoin-call-for-information-to-be-considered-as-part-of-an-expert-review 

    Closing date for submission extend to 16th February 2021 

    UK and non UK submissions welcome

    Concerns about suicide, depression and physical harm linked to using this acne medication are worldwide. 

    EU ADR database records psychiatric Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) 30,295 with reported cases of completed suicide by people using the acne drug 440 by 01/02/21

    The original manufacturer Roche withdrew the drug from the US market following extensive amount of litigation. The US litigation was also about the drug causing Inflammatory Bowel Disease such as Ulcerative Colitis.

    Only licensed for for severe acne, yet has been given to people with mild acne. One young medical student with a few spots on his back died by suicide - you can hear his father's account here: https://vimeo.com/16759077 

     Roaccutane / isotretinoin and generic versions can cause serious adverse reactions for some people . 

    Please submit your views for the Expert Review due to concerns about suicide, depression and physical harm linked to usage - date has been extended until February 16 2021.

    Worldwide - not just the UK - so please if you have any views, if you or a family member has concerns about adverse effects you may not expect, such as on libido or mood changes  or  if you were bereaved suddenly and the victim was using or had stopped using the acne drug, please access via the link below and submit your views by Feb 16 2021

    https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/isotretinoin-call-for-information-to-be-considered-as-part-of-an-expert-review 

    Benzo Belle is about preventing Harm from Medicines by Calista Cazuko
    Calista Cazuko is a remarkable young and lovely singer songwriter. 

    Her first meeting with me (Millie) was when I was thinking of having piano lessons and
    we both lived near a piano shop.

    So from music we got on to the subject of medicines, in particular Dianette.
    Hear what Calista says about the years (contrary to the licensing) she took this acne drug as a contraceptive pill.

    The blog post is so delightful to listen to and has some very good advice both from Calista and from her 
    guest Melanie Davis. Melanie use to work with MIND and she talks about her project to help people with their benzodiazepine issues, either to reduce or withdraw. 

    Many support activities involving music were set up for the victims of Benzo addiction. Many were unaware the drugs cause dependence.

    So please listen to the latest blog  "Benzo Belle"and there are links on the page too. This is part of the Empress Diaries project. https://empressdiaries.buzzsprout.com


    Analysis of FDA Antidepressant suicide risk in RCTrials



    New Generation_Antidepressants_and_Suicide_Risk_in_Randomized_Controlled_Trials_A_Re-Analysis_of_the_FDA_Databaseer-

    The full paper is available from the link https://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/501215

    Or google as it is freely available.

    Antidepressants withdrawal effects

    AVOIDABLE DEATHS DUE TO MEDICINES ADVERSE SIDE-EFFECTS AND WITHDRAWAL REACTIONS.

    May 2019

     The UK Royal College of Psychiatrists have finally agreed, after years of denial.
    Withdrawal from antidepressants and benzodiazepine drugs at last being recognised as sometimes causing serious adverse effects  harming many people.

    National clinical guidelines are currently being updated.

    Wendy Burn, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said she wanted to see the guidelines "more in keeping with what we're hearing from some patients - and GPs - about the range of experiences of coming off antidepressants".

    The number of prescriptions for antidepressants in the UK nearly doubled between 2007 and 2017, from around 40 million to more than 82 million, a report by the College shows.

    The Royal College of Psychiatrists now accepts that it has not paid enough attention to patients suffering from severe withdrawal symptoms when coming off antidepressants.

    The new stance by the Royal College follows a Lancet Psychiatry paper co-authored by David Taylor, the director of pharmacy and pathology at the Maudsley Hospital in London, who has himself experienced withdrawal, describing it in a recent New Yorker article as a “strange and frightening and torturous” experience that lasted six weeks. “Although the withdrawal syndrome can be differentiated from recurrence of the underlying disorder, it might also be mistaken for recurrence, leading to long-term unnecessary medication,” reads the paper.

     Despite current guidelines recommending a taper of two to four weeks, “tapers over a period of months and down to doses much lower than minimum therapeutic doses have shown greater success in reducing withdrawal symptoms”.

    Back in 2014 APRIL_charity was contacted by a desperate relative, trying to convince the psychiatrists it was withdrawal causing the problems. The psychiatrists only wanted to prescribe more and more medication.
    They told us:
    “I was saying that it was a result of withdrawal in the end it slightly registered but they will only treat on the basis of diagnosis and relapse and it's always more medication. I think you're right it is the way they are trained. You're website is really helpful and a gem to find when such information is so valuable and rare. Thanks once again for taking the time out of your busy day and I will continue to visit your site and support where I can.”



    In 2018 the headline in the British Medical Journal was:

    Government must investigate rising excess deaths in England and Wales, experts warn

    BMJ 2018; 361 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k2127 (Published 11 May 2018) Cite this as: BMJ2018;361:k2127
    Research experts have urged the government and MPs to investigate rising numbers of deaths in England and Wales, after new figures showed over 20 000 “excess deaths” so far in 2018.
    Earlier this year an analysis of the Office for National Statistics’ data on weekly provisional deaths in England and Wales, published in The BMJ,1 found that by week seven of 2018 (ending 16 February) 10 000 more people had died than the average from the past five years.

    Doctors in the dark about how medicines work
    Do Doctors have to prove they know how drugs work and can recognise Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs)  before - or even after they qualify?

    The newly established Prescribing Safetly Assessment has been available for medical students across the UK only for the past 3 years.
    https://www.medschools.ac.uk/our-work/assessment/prescribing-safety-assessment

    This is a step forward and follows the campaign 19 years ago, we participated in to persuade the General Medical Council (GMC) to re- introduce Clinical Pharmacology into the medical schools curriculum for medical education, as in the GMC guidline manual called ' Tomorrow's Doctors'.

    The subject of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics had been withdrawn as an essential subject for medical students in the early 90's due to the GMC preferring 'Integrated Medicine'. As one Medical Consultant friend said to me " They will learn as the coffins are driven past the surgery windows!".

    Many U.S. adults take medicines that can cause depression

    Many U.S. adults take medicines that can cause depression

    Details of study in Journal of American Medical Association June 2018 repeats what we at APRIL have been warning for the past 20 years.

    The researchers, from the University of Illinoisat Chicago, looked at how more than 26,000 people from 2005 to 2014 used medications.

    They found one third of Americans at risk of  depression as a potential adverse effect.  The medicines include those for acid reflux, birth control, allergies, high blood pressure, and we know of course drugs for acne and anti-malarial are also high risk for possibly causing depression and suicidal thoughts and actions..

    The news of this study spread through the world but for some reason not picked up in the UK as far as we know.  There is a video of interview with a doctor on ABC news

    https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Wellness/american-adults-prescription-drugs-depression-study/story?id=55846725

    Regulation of medicines safety
    An excellent talk by Professor John Abraham is well worth listening to

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qBd4KRbXNc

    Please also sign up to receive notification of new blog posts, you will not be inundated with
    emails from us. We do not share this information with any other organisation.

    Keep your own medical records

    NHS boss reveals loss of further 162 000 pieces of medical correspondence


    BMJ 2017; 359 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.j4822 (Published 17 October 2017) Cite this as: BMJ2017;359:j4822

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    1.                         Gareth Iacobucci

    1.The BMJ

    The loss of more than 700 000 items of NHS clinical correspondence, reported earlier this year, has been compounded after officials admitted that a further 162 000 patient files went missing over five years.
    The scandal first emerged in March 2016, when it was discovered that hundreds of thousands of files, including test results and diagnoses, were misplaced between 2011 and 2016 before they were delivered to hospitals and GPs in England by NHS Shared Business Services, an agency co-owned by the Department of Health and the IT company Sopra Steria. In June this year a National Audit Office inquiry identified around 1700 cases where patients could have been harmed as a result

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    Video about APRIL


    Professor Joanna Moncrief introduces Millie Kieve's talk which includes patients' experiences of Dianette, Roaccutane & antimalarial drugs.
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