Dr David Healy Discusses SSRI Drugs, Suicide and Sexual Dysfunction - Latest What Your GP Doesn't Tell You Podcast

Without full access to drug data neither patients or doctors can have an accurate view of a drug's effectiveness

The latest episode of What Your GP Doesn’t Tell You - Dr David Healy Discusses SSRI Drugs, Suicide and Sexual Dysfunction is now available on Spotify Apple and other podcast platforms. And you can sign up to the podcast mailing list at What Your GP Doesn't Tell You, where you can also find out more about the pod.

Dr Healy is a psychiatrist with a particular interest in drug safety and was one of the first doctors to suggest that while the antidepressant drugs - the SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) - may reduce the risk of suicide for some patients, in other very rare cases, they might actually increase the risk. He discusses this and the surprising fact that someone on the placebo arm of a drug trial, may actually have taken the medication.

And Healy describes how although results have not been positive for SSRI drugs tested in children, that has not been reflected in the published data.

And he argues that although the drug regulators such as the Food and Drug Adminstration (FDA) or Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) are responsible for approving drugs, both doctors and patients need to understand that it’s a mistake to think the agencies are systemically following up individual reports of potential side effects.

Healy says he is not anti-pharm, that he is pro-medicaton, but that it is equally crucial to know when not to prescribe drugs as it is to know when to prescribe them.

Psychiatrist David Healy is a professor in the Department of Family Medicine at McMaster University in Canada.  He is also founder and CEO of Data Based Medicine Limited, which operates through its website RxISK.org and aims to make medicines safer through online direct patient reporting of drug side effects. He has been involved as an expert witness in homicide and suicide trials involving psychotropic drugs, and in raising issues with these drugs with the American and European regulators.

Prof David Healy's Blog RxIsk Blog

You can find out more about the podcast at What Your GP Doesn't Tell You and follow me on Twitter @lizctucker.

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