Letters That Warm the Heart
Today I got an email from “Tim” about a column I did about my addiction to Desoxyn. Tim is very angry at me, and makes a lot of unfounded assumptions about me:
I’m not saying this to be mean, but blaming your doctor for prescribing an FDA-approved drug without predicting you’d lie to him has nothing to do with him. I trust you didn’t do anything weird, like claiming he was responsible for not reading your mind and finding out you were lying to him. I know a guy who’s gone to jail from manipulative patients like that.
NY Times exposed Cindy McCain for that, too. She conveniently leaves out in her stories, their expose said, how she ruined her doctor’s entire career. Doctors are not suppose to be lie detectors, or predict the future. They can only prescribe and continue to treat patients based on what they tell them.
Resentment is like a poison…
Take care,
tim
First of all, when you start out with the dependent clause “I’m not saying this to be mean,” you know it’s going to be mean. But let’s clarify a few things. My doctor, who’d been working with me for years, misdiagnosed me with ADHD and therefore prescribed an addictive drug — a drug I begged him not to prescribe from the start because I was worried about addiction. He minimized my worries and essentially told me it couldn’t happen.
At each appointment, I alerted him to my escalating problem and told him again and again that I thought I was getting addicted. His response? To prescribe more. He’d tell me it was okay to pump up the volume on it, and even told me what to do when the long-acting version was discontinued — how to manage the highs and lows and pits of despair. I was clear with him: I have a problem. He was clear with me: It doesn’t matter.
Never did I try to hurt him in any way, in print or otherwise. I’ve never used his name. I never considered legal action. The only thing I did was decide not to pay the last couple bills he sent, which didn’t amount to more than $400. Rehab was expensive for my parents. I wasn’t going to hand them those bills too. He never tried to collect. I wonder why.
When I told him I was going to rehab, he shrugged. “Well, if you want to.” His indifference was completely bizarre, as it had been all along. I never manipulated him. I felt, after being misdiagnosed and misprescribed and having all my concerns dismissed briskly, that I was the one who’d been treated poorly. Yet he’s still in practice now, and I’ll never, ever do anything to hurt him.
So Tim, how does that fit in with your apparent worldview? After years of addiction and a brutal recovery, who needs to be crapped on again by people who just happen to have your email? Thanks for getting in touch, buddy.
liz | 9:19 AM | Uncategorized
“Crazy” Cat Owners, Be Careful
I got this email today from Kristin, who reminds People Like Us to keep our meds properly stored:
My cat, Kiki, apparently found a stray Zoloft pill on the floor or something…no idea how/where/etc. and he ALMOST died from it! The vet thinks he had serotonin syndrome. He was practically in a coma and his body was going crazy. They had to give him activated charcoal and a bunch of other stuff. He couldn’t even move, walk or meow for days! By some miracle he was saved and he is back to his old self!
Anyway, I thought maybe you could remind your readers to be aware of their pills and if their pets should happen to get into something take them to the vet right away and TELL THE VET that the pills might be the problem! My vet didn’t even think to ask if there were SSRIs in the house until I mentioned it. Knowing about the pills determined the whole course of treatment. Without that my cat probably would have died and no one would have known why!!!
And, yes, my cat and I both lost a few years off of our lives with this ordeal!!!
[Photo of my beloved cat Augie, who's gone now due to pancreatic disease.]
liz | 11:49 AM | Uncategorized
Fie on You, Copy Number Variants!
From U.S. News & World Report:
Copy Number Variants are common and usually appear as deletions or duplications of significant stretches of DNA. But the largest deletions — those over 2 million bases long — appear only in people with schizophrenia, Need said.
Si, claro. Y por que no hablamos mas en un idioma que no entiendo?
Genome Study Points to New Culprit for Schizophrenia
liz | 3:22 PM | Uncategorized
It’s Your Favorite Topic: Suicide!
Suicide increase last year is unexplained [Philadelphia Inquirer]
liz | 3:37 PM | Uncategorized
All Too Typical: Returning to the Case of Esmine Green
Becca: The Civil Rights Division of the New York Department of Justice issued a report on January 30 to Kings County Hospital Center in Brooklyn. Here are a few excerpts:
“Substantial patient harm occurs regularly due to KCHC’s failure to properly assess, diagnose, supervise, monitor and treat its mental health patients. We are particularly troubled by the patient death that occurred in June 2008, where a patient was left unattended and died face down on the floor as staff and security guards ignored her. Futher, we find that the number of incidents of patient-on-patient aggression is extraordinarily high and is continuing with little or no abatement. Conditions at KCHC are highly dangerous and require immediate attention.
“A principal example of KCHC’s failure to provide care consistent with generally accepted professional standards is the well-publicized collapse of and death of 49-year-old patient Esmin Green. Ms. Green was admitted to the CPEP on June 18, 2008. She remained there for almost 24 hours, without a bed, until approximately 5:30 AM on June 19, 2008. At that time, she collapsed from her chair and lay prone on the floor, limbs askew. She remained face down on the floor for approximately one hour without any attention from staff.
“During that hour, surveillance video shows that several staff members, including one doctor and two Hospital Police officers, entering the waiting area, appeared to observe Ms. Green lying on the floor, and then left without offering any assistance. In addition, although the video image was broadcast by surveillance monitors, the monitors’ images were either ignored or unwatched by staff.”
Joe: Tragically, too often the inadequate care associated with one tragedy typifies the inadequate which is systemic. More from the US DOJ report on Kings County Hospital:
“While perhaps unique in the extent of the harm that resulted, the tragic case of Ms. Green typifies the patterns of inadequate care and treatment of patients at KCHC. In particular, we find that KCHC: (1) fails to adequately protect its patients from harm; (2) fails to provide adequate mental health care; (3) fails to provide adequate behavioral management services; (4) fails to provide adequate medical and nursing care; (5) has inadequate quality management practices; (6) fails to provide a safe physical environment; (7) has inadequate clinical leadership; and (8) fails to adequately develop discharge plans. Many of these deficiencies stem from a system that has neither clear, specific standards of care nor an adequately trained supervisory, professional, and direct care staff.”
liz | 12:34 PM | Uncategorized
Do You Take Cymbalta, Effexor, Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Celexa and/or Lexapro?
If so, you might want to be aware that the FDA is requiring new labels on them. From Furious Seasons:
Yesterday, the FDA ordered that makers of several anti-depressants change their labels to warn patients and doctors that the drugs can cause neuroleptic malignant syndrome. … I’d not known before of a connection between anti-depressants and NMS, which has largely been linked to antipsychotics in the past.
To explain NMS further, this is from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke:
Neuroleptic malignant syndrome is a life-threatening, neurological disorder most often caused by an adverse reaction to neuroleptic or antipsychotic drugs. Symptoms include high fever, sweating, unstable blood pressure, stupor, muscular rigidity, and autonomic dysfunction. In most cases, the disorder develops within the first 2 weeks of treatment with the drug; however, the disorder may develop any time during the therapy period. The syndrome can also occur in people taking anti-Parkinsonism drugs known as dopaminergics if those drugs are discontinued abruptly.
Additionally, according to Medscape, further risk factors are:
# Dehydration
# Agitation
# Exhaustion
# Malnutrition
# Organic brain syndromes
# Nonschizophrenic mental illness
# Lithium use
# Past history of ECT
# Warm and humid environments
# Inconsistent use of neuroleptics
# Postpartum period
Just, FYI, you know.
liz | 12:27 PM | Uncategorized
Headline Disappointment
Oh well. I thought this was about me.
liz | 3:58 PM | Uncategorized
International Holocaust Remembrance Day
And good morning to you, too! To explain why today matters:
In 2005, the United Nations General Assembly designated January 27 as an annual international day of commemoration to honor the victims of the Nazi era. This date marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp. … The U.N. resolution rejects denial of the Holocaust, and condemns discrimination and violence based on religion or ethnicity.
This morning I heard a report on the radio that due to the economic crisis and lack of funds, Auschwitz, which is now an educational site, may have to close. That would be unfortunate.
Interestingly, on this day in 1973, the Vietnam peace pacts were signed. The New York Times‘ Flora Lewis wrote then:
The Vietnam cease-fire agreement was signed here today in eerie silence, without a word or a gesture to express the world’s relief that the years of war were officially ending.
The accord was effective at 7 P.M. Eastern standard time.
Secretary of State William P. Rogers wrote his name 62 times on the documents providing–after 12 years–a settlement of the longest, most divisive foreign war in America’s history.
I wonder what else happened on Jan. 27. We are but specks of dust.
liz | 10:26 AM | Uncategorized
Part 1,674,000 on Why It’s Shite to Prescribe Psych Meds to Kids
Okay, I’m not immediately going to follow through on that headline, because I’m reassured by the Washington Post’s jaunty tone:
Hallucinations Are Rare Side Effects of ADHD Medications
The L.A. Times puts it a little differently:
ADHD drugs cause hallucinations in some kids, study says
Here’s Julie Steenhuysen’s Reuters breakdown:
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Drugs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder can cause children to have hallucinations even when taken as directed, U.S. government researchers said on Monday.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration researchers analyzed data from 49 clinical studies conducted by makers of the drugs and found they can cause psychosis and mania in some patients, including some with no obvious risk factors. In some cases, children hallucinated that worms, bugs or snakes were crawling on them.
“Patients and physicians should be aware of the possibility that psychiatric symptoms consistent with psychosis or mania” might arise in the course of treatment, Dr. Andrew Mosholder and colleagues wrote in the journal Pediatrics.
Their analysis provides fresh detail about known risks of the drugs, which include Novartis AG’s Ritalin and Focalin XR, Shire Plc’s Adderall XR and Daytrana patch, Johnson & Johnson’s Concerta, Eli Lilly and Co’s Strattera and Celltech Pharmaceuticals Inc’s Metadate CD.
It also includes data on Cephalon Inc’s modafinil, sold as Provigil, a narcolepsy drug that was rejected as an ADHD treatment in children.
liz | 2:07 PM | Uncategorized
Oh Shit! Is This a Cute Fix or Just a Hallucination?
Thanks to Terry for sending me this very disturbing image of a baby lemur clinging to a teddy bear/stuffed monkey animal. I am taking more Seroquel STAT.
liz | 1:49 PM | Uncategorized
