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What People Need to Know | Recent News
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About This Site
This site is dedicated to providing accurate information about psychiatric medications including their addictive nature and how to get help.
These pages are a good starting place:
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What People Need to Know About Psychiatric Drugs
What People Need to Know About Psychiatric Drugs
by Dr. Janet C. Currie, M.S.W., PhD. (revised 2022)
COVID Increased Use
The COVID pandemic has led to an increased use of sleeping pills and drugs for depression and anxiety.
Our belief is that all Canadians have the right to have independent, objective and accurate information about prescription drugs so that they can have informed discussions with their healthcare providers and make the best decisions about their health.
Consumer Information Lacking
In Canada and elsewhere, much of the information available to consumers on prescription drugs comes directly or indirectly from the companies that manufacture them. Even the package insert that is included with some medications lists only a few potential side effects.
This booklet provides information to consumers about the use and safety of the most commonly prescribed sleeping pills and drugs for mental health conditions in Canada.
Six of the most widely used SSRIs antidepressants were studied in clinical trials that only lasted six weeks. Yet SSRIs are commonly prescribed for months or years.
The booklet also discusses non-psychiatric medications that can cause mental health symptoms, the risks of a prescribing cascade, how to discuss prescription drugs with your doctor and guidelines for safe tapering and withdrawal, where this is possible.
Learn how to obtain the booklet…
Recent News
January 18/23 — Your Consent Is Not Required is a new book by Rob Wipond.
Thoroughly researched, with alarming true stories and hard data from the US and Canada, Rob Wipond's Your Consent Is Not Required: The Rise in Psychiatric Detentions, Forced Treatment, and Abusive Guardianships builds an unassailable case for greater transparency, vigilance, and change.
How Psychiatric Fraud Drives Forced Hospitalizations is the first in a new YouTube series based upon the research for his book. More….
October 18/22 — For one year, I desperately chased sleep. Once I stopped trying, it found me.
September 14/22 — More than 1 in 5 residents in long-term care given antipsychotics without a diagnosis, data shows.
The medication is intended to sedate, and is used off-label to combat a variety of behaviours, from wandering to insomnia.While there are questions about when and where these medications are appropriate, there is little disagreement that the current levels of use are higher than they should be.
Archived News
Older stories are archived on the Older Stories page.
