MEDIA / news
Adverse Drug Reactions and Medicines Related News, documentary films and articles
PLEASE SEE BBC 3 Film next Monday 26 November 9pm re tragic death linked to acne medication :
DYING FOR CLEAR SKIN
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00xxy87
Also hear a personal story: Jon Medland speaks about his medical student son's changed mood & suicide following Roaccutane being prescribed for mild acne: http://vimeo.com/groups/aprilcharity/videos/16759077
March 13 2012
Revealed: the prescription drugs and medications most likely to harm or kill you
article in: The Ecologist by Andrew Wasley & Bethany Hubbar mentions APRIL charity and Millie Kieve
http://www.theecologist.org/search.php?q=prescription+drugs&offset=0&submit=Go
Dr David Healy blog - http://davidhealy.org/
2012 - if you can follow Dr David Healy's blog, you will learn a great deal. (He is a professor of psychological medicine adn leading expert on suicide and violence linked to adverse reactions to prescribed medicines, especially SSRI and similar antidepressants.
Recent posts on his blog mention the attitude of head of mental health in the UK, Professor Louis Appleby. Millie Kieve for APRIL has posted comments on the postings 'Platonic lies' and 'Pills and the man' which follow on from 'Margaret's story (about Margaret's son's suicide linked to Citalopram)'
October 2010
A groundbreaking International conference held in Amsterdam 7 - 8 October 2010, was the first of its kind in the world.
Selling Sickness was a conference aimed at everyone with an interest in pharmaceutical information and promotion. Speakers included those from the pharmaceutical industry, concerned health professionals and patient advocates.
The host was Healthy Skepticism (Netherlands) assisted by the Dutch Institute for Rational Use of Medicine and Healthy Skepticism (International). The sponsors were the Dutch Ministry of Health and the Dutch Health Care Inspectorate, the conference was co-sponsored by the World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe.
Thanks to the interesting and diverse views and presentations the event was very successful and details are on the Healthy Skepticism (Gezonde Scepsis) web site.
Look at Conference attendees or Presentations - SlideShare for more information about the visitor's list and the content of the presentations.
Time Table Programme | Conference Booklet (3Mb)
http://www.gezondescepsis.nl/conference-2010.html
August 2010
EU agency allows access to drug side effects data
LONDON | Wed Aug 11, 2010 4:13pm BST
LONDON (Reuters) - The European Medicines Agency has agreed to provide access to studies about drug side effects, following criticism over data secrecy from the European Ombudsman.
The move could help people hoping to take legal action against drugmakers and highlights the pressure on healthcare regulators to make more information about drug safety available to the public.
A spokeswoman for the agency said on Wednesday that the London-based watchdog would release the information requested about Roche's acne drug Accutane by an Irish citizen whose son committed suicide "within the next few weeks."
The EMA had argued that European transparency rules did not apply to serious adverse reaction reports, given the need to protect patient confidentiality.
But, in a change of heart, the organization has now agreed to release such reports, after first deleting personal data that would allow identification of individual patients.
The agency said the same principle would be applied to other requests for access to individual drug reaction reports.
Accutane, or Roaccutane, which Roche said last year it would stop selling because of generic competition, has had a controversial history since its launch in 1982.
While powerful at clearing acne, the drug has been linked to birth defects if taken during pregnancy and has also been suspected of causing mental side effects, although Roche has vigorously defended personal injury claims in this area.
(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Louise Heavens)
This news was spotted on the following site:
http://news.patient.co.uk/newspaper.asp?ss=10&pc=178999#12971
For more information about adverse drug reactions (ADRs) put the words into the PatientUK search box.
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06.02.09 Murder linked to adverse effects of Prozac
A teenager bludgeoned his father to death with a hammer and crowbar weeks after a GP prescribed him the controversial anti-depressant Prozac.
Edward Belben, 15, battered his father Gary at least 30 times with the weapons before plunging a knife into his head. Daily Mail report