Adverse Psychiatric Reactions Information Link
Promoting awareness of medicines that can harm mental health

Blogs & Web sites relevant to adverse drug reactions

APRIL's blog

Read our latest news and articles relating to APRIL

Causes and concerns on health, pharmaceutical and psychiatric matters.

Please also follow us on Twitter @APRIL_charity

Other related and recommended blogs -

the content of blogs are not endorsed by the trustees of APRIL, as we do not have the time to study them! Please read our Disclaimer

 

Adverse drug reactions encountered during the Clinical Trials before the drug is licensed

Official web sitesof the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industries

Electronic Medicines Compendium contains the data sheets for all drugs licensed in the UK - insert name and look at the PIL - patient information leaflet or the SPC - Summary of Product Characteristics, which should list all adverse drug reactions (ADRs) encountered during Clinical Trials of the drug.

Pre-licensing the drug may have only been tested on men and would not cover all ethnic groups, people of different ages, or those in poor health.

 

Post Licensing adverse drug reactions (ADRs) data

(less than 10% of serious ADRs are reported)

 Interactive Drug Analysis Profiles (iDAPs) on the Yellow Card MHRA website.

. iDAPs are provided for all licensed drugs for which we have received reports of suspected adverse reactions. 

About iDAPs

Each iDAP contains complete data for all spontaneous suspected adverse drug reactions, or side effects, which have been reported on that drug substance  to the MHRA, via the Yellow Card Scheme from healthcare professionals and members of the public. They also include reports from pharmaceutical companies.

iDAPs enable you to interact with the data so you can understand more about the types of reactions that have been reported, and at a high level about who experienced the side effects. Medicines are listed alphabetically by the name of the active ingredient, not by the brand name. To find the name of the active substance in your medicine, look at the patient information leaflet that was supplied with it.

 

DPWG Dutch Pharmacogenetics Working Group

established in 2005 by the Royal Dutch Pharmacist's Association (KNMP). The DPWG is multidisciplinary and includes clinical pharmacists, physicians, clinical pharmacologists, clinical chemists, epidemiologists, and toxicologists.

The objectives of the DPWG are:

  • To develop pharmacogenetics-based therapeutic (dose) recommendations.
  • To assist drug prescribers and pharmacists by integrating the recommendations into computerized systems for drug prescription and automated medication surveillance

The DPWG is funded by the KNMP.The Royal Dutch Pharmacists Association

 

Prescrire - an independent therapeutics journal on line run by pharmacisits and subscribed to by thousands of doctors Reliable, rigorously independent information on treatments and healthcare strategies,
to enable fully informed decision-making. Prescrire is financed by its subscribers.
No grants, no advertising. No shareholders, no sponsors

 

The Therapeutics Initiative UBC

The Therapeutics Initiative (TI) was established in 1994 by the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics in cooperation with the Department of Family Practice at The University of British Columbia with its mission to provide physicians and pharmacists with up-to-date, evidence-based, practical information on prescription drug therapy.

To reduce bias as much as possible the TI is an independent organization, separate from government, pharmaceutical industry and other vested interest groups. We strongly believe in the need for independent assessments of evidence on drug therapy to balance the drug industry sponsored information sources.

 

Mad in America Mad in America’s mission is to serve as a catalyst for rethinking psychiatric care in the United States (and abroad). We believe that the current drug-based paradigm of care has failed our society, and that scientific research, as well as the lived experience of those who have been diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder, calls for profound change.

 

The web site is run by Robert Whitaker,  an American journalist and author who has won numerous awards as a journalist covering medicine and science, including the George Polk Award for Medical Writing and a National Association for Science Writers’ Award for best magazine article. In 1998, he co-wrote a series on psychiatric research for the Boston Globe that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. His first book, Mad in America, was named by Discover magazine as one of the best science books of 2002. Anatomy of an Epidemic won the 2010 Investigative Reporters and Editors book award for best investigative journalism. He is the publisher of madinamerica.com.

 

 Katinka Newman    http://www.thepillthatsteals.com/

A recently established web site invites stories of stolen lives - Katinka who suffered herself, wrote an excellent book and is collecting experiences of people who suffered due the apparent adverse effects of prescribed drugs.

 

 https://davidhealy.org/ Dr David Healy

Dr David Healy Professor of Psychological Medicine reveals startling facts about clinical trials and risk of suicide due to ADRs. Comments are encouraged on Dr Healy's blog to keep conversations going about medication-induced suicide.

Dr Healy is  also involved with the setting up of RxISK,

  https://rxisk.org/ RxISK is a website where patients can report and research the side-effects of drugs they    are taking.

 

  http://cepuk.org/ Council for Evidence Based Psychiatry

Following the serious adverse reactions suffered by Luke Montagu following too sudden withdrawal from various psychotropic  drugs when he was a patient at the Priory hospital, Luke and his father Lord Sandwich began to investigate the problems. Luke had undergone surgery and a not uncommon reaction following the anaesthetics and drugs used around the time, he became unwell. The resulting prescribing led to his iatrogenic (treatment induced) poor health.

The organisation supported by doctors and psychiatrists, have made headway that led to the British Medical Association for the first time in 40 years, actually saying they will act on the issue of dependence and withdrawal from benzodiazepines and SSRI and similar antidepressants. They agreed to set up a telephone helpline...that was in 2016 we await in anticipation of their actions.

 

 http://fiddaman.blogspot.co.uk/ Bob Fiddaman

A blog by Bob Fiddaman, covering the dangers of antidepressant medication, the pharmaceutical industry and medicine regulators.

 

 www.benzo.org.uk Ray Nimmo's blog has been a colation of benzodiazepine information founded by a man who suffered himself.

 

  https://seroxatsecrets.wordpress.com/ Seroxat Secrets

An independently written blog by a patient prescribed Seroxat who had severe side-effects and withdrawal symptoms whilst taking the drug. The blogger investigates and writes about SSRIs, the pharmaceutical industry and adverse drug reactions from anti-depressants."

 

AntiDepAware

The objective of this site is to promote awareness of the dangers of antidepressants. Brian the father of a suicide victim, colates information about hundreds of violent deaths all linked to SSRI and similar antidepressants, attends meetings and writes articles.

"We are told that there are at present over 5 million users of antidepressants in the UK. There is no wish to ban these drugs which give support to a large number of people with severe depression. However, it is clear that antidepressants are being prescribed to those who are not clinically depressed, to whom they are likely to do more harm than good."

 

 

Powered by Charity Edit