News & Updates
In the News
September 18/13 — Suspect’s Past Fell Just Short of Raising Alarm.
- Aaron Alexis was on the antidepressant Trazodone at the time of the shootings.
- The timelines and his calm, organized behaviour are well aligned with someone experiencing an antidepressant-induced psychotic episode:
- Aug 23 - prescribed Trazodone for insomnia.
- Aug 28 - still not sleeping, dosage increased.
- Sept 14 - practiced shooting with shotgun and purchased shotgun.
- Sept 16 - shooting.
- The FDA has several reports on the connection between Trazodone and homicide (from the the Violence Zone at RxISK.org).
Bonnie's Story
Bonnie was a brilliant, creative, curious, kind person who took her life due to Benzodiazepine withdrawal. She had worked very hard to taper off of benzodiazepines for over 21 months then took her life 4 weeks after completing her taper.
Bonnie's Story (PDF–84KB) is a tribute to Bonnie's struggle to recover from benzodiazepines.
Recent News
December 3/13 — Relabeling the medications we call antidepressants.
November 22/13 — Antidepressant use in Canada among highest in world: OECD.
November 22/13 — Dramatic increase of mass shootings in America: The role of prescription psychiatric drugs?
September 25/13 — Anti-depressants linked to type 2 diabetes.
September 14/13 — Too much medicine is bad for our health.
September 6/13 — The psychiatric drug crisis.
September 3/13 — Report: corporate crime in the pharmaceutical industry is common, serious and repetitive. (PDF–175 KB)
July 31/13 — Despite risks, sedatives called 'benzos' widely used across Canada, experts say.
July 19/13 — Lynn Evans: Drop boxes part of prescription drug abuse battle.
July 1/13 — Drug reactions and the effectiveness of antidepressants.
July 1/13 — Health Canada announced changes to the system for reporting adverse drug reactions (extended interview).
June 11/13 — Rise in off-label use of antipsychotic drugs for B.C. youth soars, study says. See also:
- Effect of antipsychotic drugs on children (including the rise in deaths with second generation antipsychotics); and
- List of antipsychotic drugs for adults prescribed to children.
May 31/13 — Time for a paradigm shift in psychiatric diagnosis
May 21/13 — Benzodiazepines may increase risk of CAP, mortality
May 21/13 — Hypnotics' association with mortality or cancer: a matched cohort study
Archived News
Older stories are archived on the Older Stories page.
www.psychmedaware.org/index.html
Updated: December 3, 2013
