Keep Taking the Tablets but Don't Catch the Side Effects!

[Jill]

There used to be a psychiatric drug where one of the listed side effects was 'instant death'. Now an item in The Telegraph says that reading the side effects on a bottle of tablets can increase your chances of having them. Research also shows that if you think you will die during surgery you are more likely to do so. According to scientists negative thoughts can increase your chances of becoming sick.

"The idea that believing you are ill can make you ill sounds far-fetched, yet rigorous trials have established beyond a doubt that the converse is true - the power of suggestion can improve health," reported New Scientist magazine.

Here is the rest of the item:

"The placebo effect has an evil twin: the nocebo effect, in which dummy pills and negative expectations can produce harmful effects."

For example in clinical trials for new drugs a quarter of patients given placebos experienced the side-effects associated with the real thing.

In trials for blood pressure-lowering beta blockers, tiredness and loss of libido were just as common in those given dummy versions.

Dr Clifton Meador, of Vanderbilt School of Medicine in Nashville in the U.S, said negative thinking can become self-fulfilling.

"Bad news promotes bad physiology. I think that you can persuade people that they're going to die and have it happen. I don't think there is anything mystical about it.

"We're uncomfortable with the idea that words or symbolic actions can cause death because it changes our biomolecular model of the world."

The original item is HERE

[Rodney Yates]

It is a bit like picking up a newspaper, thinking you might learn something, I suppose Jill. Just doesn't happen. Trouble with modern media, its all mixed metaphors, and pulling wool over the eyes of readers. East Enders had a pop at us some years ago, with a character called Jo, from Bolton, who was taken away by the white-coats, drowning his voices out by playing heavy metal (the Ace of Spades) at full volume. These characters are carefully researched but all they care about is their friggin' show, not what mis-information they are putting about.

[Alec Morrison]

My parents used to watch Eastenders on public TV, but they cancelled it here. Not enough interest, I guess.

[Cruekid]

Umm, a pill with 'instant death' as a side effect. Many a times I would have liked one of them :-)

[Jill]

Hi

Changing the subject a bit and you won't have seen it because you don't get BBC 1 over there in Seattle I guess Alec! Anyway I just watched Eastenders (a popular UK soap) where Tracey has now gone manic. Her Mum has bipolar and has always been portrayed as a bit divvy with her daughter Tracey having to look after her and remind her to take her pills in between her needing regular trips off to the psycho ward. The Mum is portrayed as harmless and odd and everyone 'makes allowances' for her. Tracey on the other hand has always been shown as young tough and headstrong but is now throwing stuff through windows, throwing herself at every man who crosses her path and throwing away money like water. It is like they looked up all the common symptoms of a manic episode and crammed them all into a couple of half hour episodes of this soap which is watched by about 10 million viewers. And this is the way the general public learn about mental health disabilities I think. Not from anti stigma campaigns and not from scientific papers but from soaps like Eastenders. So do they have to portray us with quite so many stereotypes and black and white characters? It irritates me but then again I guess irritation is also just a symptom of my condition!

Bye for Now
Jill

[Alec Morrison]

"Our headaches are over. Here comes Moses with the tablets."

[Rodney Yates]

There used to be a psychiatric drug where one of the listed side effects was 'instant death'.

I think there still is, Jill, but no one tells you which ones are the offending items. We will never know until it is too late. My comment is that poly-pharmacy is the main source of the confusion, since the side-effects can never be traced back with any certainty and there is the added risk of taking disagreeable cock-tails. I know of one tablet which was implicated in sudden-death syndrome. It is called orap, or pimozide. My GP was so alarmed , he refused to continue prescribing it for me. Since which time I have never looked back (or forward). Any other experiences from anyone?