DOCTORS IN DISTRESS. The suicide rate is the highest of any profession. Why is this?

One doctor commits suicide every day in the USA, according to the WebMD website, the highest suicide rate of any profession, and more than double the general population. These were the findings presented at the American Psychiatric Association (APA) in 2018 . Yet this problem is not confined to America, studies from Finland, Norway, Australia, Singapore and China have shown an increase in anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts among medical students and health care professionals.

In England the situation is no different. In September 2018, Pulse (the GP's e-newsletter) outlined data that showed over 400 doctors had committed suicide in 4 years.

So why is being a doctor such a stressful occupation? Doctors are generously paid. They are respected members of local communities. They are portrayed positively in an endless stream of television series. And their social role is an aspiration for many young people. It is widely known that doctors work long hours, and they work daily with patients who are very sick. Yet even so, why do so many doctors feel it necessary to end their lives?

The main reason may reside within the performance of the conventional medical system, and our expectations of it.

• It is widely believed that conventional medicine, and pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines, are winning the war against illness and disease.
• When we are ill our first thought is usually to visit our doctor, who we confidently expect will be able to make us well again.

It is this that motivates people to enter the medical profession, and they do so full of hope and expectation of doing good, and helping people. Unfortunately, the reality is all too different.

• Sickness is increasing. Chronic disease, in all its many forms, is now running at unprecedented levels. Pharmaceutical drugs are causing serious side effects, which is making us sicker. Many drugs have been withdrawn or banned. Many more are failing.

• So patients are just not getting better. They get sick and they are prescribed a drug. The drug, if effective at all, has only short-term effects; so the patient needs more, repeat prescriptions. And the longer they take the drug, the more likely they are to suffer side effects. And these side-effect-illnesses then have to be treated - with more drugs.

• Doctors don't see their patients getting better. They actually get worse, month by month, often before their very eyes. The number of patients waiting outside the surgery door does not reduce, it grows, with older patients returning regularly because they are still ill, and new patients arriving all the time.

•  The pharmaceutical drugs that doctors prescribe are also failing, so doctors find that as time goes by they have fewer treatment options. Some drugs are banned or withdrawn. The drugs that remain are no safer, and more and more restrictions are placed on prescribing them.

• Yet patients are not part of this loop. They continue to believe the conventional medicine is the route to good health, that doctors have the answer to all their medical problems. After all, this is what patients are told, in the mainstream media, by leading health professionals, by pharmaceutical industry propaganda. They face expectations they are unable to meet.

• So patients demand the impossible of them. They demand that doctors prescribe - something, anything. Yet they have nothing safe or effective to prescribe. My recent blog about the Opioid scandal is a case in point. Doctors have been told to restrict opioid prescriptions: but they are actually prescribing more. Why? The study on which this finding was based said that doctors are limited in the choices they have for dealing with chronic pain.

• The same can be said about the prescription of antibiotic drugs. Patients are becoming resistant to them. Doctors need to prescribe less of them but they are actually prescribing more of them! Why? I outlined my answer here, 'Patients are demanding antibiotic prescriptions'. And doctors, again, have no alternative to offer them. The drugs cupboard is, indeed, getting bare!

* So whilst teachers teach - and reap the rewards of seeing their pupils learn.....

* Whilst the police undertake their duties, investigate crime - and keep the public safe.....

* Whilst carers care for their clients - and are rewarded by their gratitude.....

.... doctors treat their patients and they never get well; they get sicker, they are not able to meet their patients demands for drugs, they become grossly overworked by increasingly un-deliverable demands being made on their time.

It is the most depressing situation I can imagine.

On top of this, more recently, there have been problems in recruitment. For many years fewer people are wanting to become doctors. So whilst there is more demand for doctors most colleges are failing to recruit sufficient students to fill the number of places they offer.

So as doctors retire, many taking early retirement, or leave the profession, or indeed, commit suicide, those who are left are put under an even greater strain, and this seriously affects the mental health of many of the remaining doctors. So my conclusion, my answer to why so many doctors are taking their own lives, is almost inevitable.....

Doctors are in serious distress because they are in the front-line of a profession, a medical system, that is failing badly

For more information on doctor burn-out, where the problem is linked to the concept of "moral injury", watch this video, "Burned out doctors or broken system".

Suicide. The known links with pharmaceutical drugs,

Suicide is not an illness or a disease, but it is something that is contemplated, or actually happens when an individual’s mental health has reached its nadir. Life has become unbearable, and the person cannot contemplate going on with it.

What causes this level of despair? Of course, there are many social and emotional reasons, all connected with the life of any individual who is contemplating suicide. Suicide has been with us, no doubt, since time began. Likewise, the depression that causes suicidal ideation has been with us from the beginnings of time.

The World Health Organisation tells us this about the rates of, and the importance of suicide, and attempted suicide.

          “Over 800,000 people die due to suicide every year and there are many more who attempt suicide. Hence, many millions of people are affected or experience suicide bereavement every year. Suicide occurs throughout the lifespan and was the second leading cause of death among 15-29 year olds globally in 2012”.

WHO go on to explain that in the last 45 years suicide rates have increased by 60% worldwide, and that suicide is now among the three leading causes of death among those aged 15-44 (male and female). They also said that suicide attempts are up to 20 times more frequent than completed suicides, and that mental health disorders (particularly depression and substance abuse) are associated with more than 90% of all cases of suicide.

Yet there is another cause for concern, one which is seldom discussed or thought about, certainly not by the Conventional Medical Establishment. This is that there are a variety of conventional medical drugs are known to cause, and to increase the likelihood of suicidal thoughts, and suicide.

Antidepressant Drugs

If depression is a major cause of suicide, the conventional treatment of depression is known to increase it too! This paradox is common with pharmaceutical drugs, that their D.I.E.s can actually increase the disease they are given to treat!

This association is well recognised in the conventional medical world. For instance, the FDA requires all antidepressant drugs to include strong warnings about risks of suicidal thinking and behaviour, especially in children, adolescents and young adults. Many doctors seek to justify their use of these drugs on the basis that untreated depression can also be linked with suicide. Of course it can! But to give depressed people drugs that increase the likelihood of suicide seems to be an extraordinary policy, although one routinely practised by our conventional doctors!

One group of antidepressant, SSRI’s (Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitors), including drugs like Prosac, Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa, Lexapro and Luvox, have been particularly associated with an increased risk of suicide, especially in children and young people. Even in the drug tests that preceded their approval and introduction about 4% of patients were found to experience suicidal thinking or behaviour, as well as actual suicide attempts.

Yet prescribing antidepressant drugs has become routine, common practice, and the consumption of these drugs has mirrored the increase in suicide rates over the last 50 to 60 years. It has been estimated that some 164 million prescriptions were written for antidepressants in 2008 alone, and sales of SSRIs alone increased by 32% from 2000 to 2004. It is likely that they have increased significantly since then.

Antidepressants have also been linked to akathisia, which can cause extreme restlessness, an inability to be still. The discomfort of this ‘side effect’ are known to be so great that suicide can become a welcome alternative to such agitation.

Prosac, perhaps the best known SSRI antidepressant, is known to have a stimulant effect, similar to amphetamines, which can in turn lead to suicide. An FDA official, who was responsible for evaluating adverse drug effects during the approval of this drug, repeatedly warned that it could have this effect - without avail!

Drugs for Parkinson’s Disease

Drugs used to treat Parkinson’s disease are also implicated in causing suicide. Friends of Robin Williams have linked the drugs he was taking for Parkinson’s, alongside a plethora of other drugs, with his death. Unfortunately, this may have had an unfortunate consequence, in that it has triggered fierce denials from the conventional medical establishment, angry at this link being made. 

The denials are, as usual, that Parkinson’s disease is a condition that causes depression, and that suicidal ideation might be the result of this depression, and not the drugs.

Yet the prevalence of suicide amongst people with Parkinson’s is well known. And the link with drugs used for Parkinson's is also known, and in some cases is published on inserts in the boxes the drug is dispensed in. This one, for instance, is for the Levodopa drug, Cardidopa monohydrate.

          “Depression - you or your carer should seek medical advice if there are changes to your mental state or behaviour, if you are depress or have thoughts of committing suicide”.

Suicide is not always mentioned in websites as a ‘side-effect’ of Levodopa, but it is in others, such as this RxList website. One D.I.E mentioned is “confusion, hallucinations, anxiety, agitation, depressed mood, thoughts of suicide or hurting yourself”.

The study that produced the evidence of the drug being linked to suicide is here. It states the following in its abstract:

          “Little is known about the prevalence and correlates of suicidal behaviour in Parkinson's disease (PD). In the first part of the study, we followed a cohort of 102 consecutive PD patients for 8 years and found that the suicide-specific mortality was 5.3 times higher than expected. In the second part, we tested 128 PD patients for death and suicidal ideation and administered an extensive neurological, neuropsychological and psychiatric battery. Current death and/or suicidal ideation was registered in 22.7%…… In conclusion, the suicide risk in PD may not be as high as it is expected, but it is certainly not trivial. According to our data almost a quarter of PD patients had death and/or suicidal ideation, that may significantly influence their quality of life”.

As much as the Conventional Medical Establishment might like to attack this study, they are still unable to provide evidence that it is the Parkinson's, and not the drug used for Parkinson's, that is causing the high rates of suicide in Parkinson’s patients! So we just have to trust their denials, and their re-assurances!

But this attitude is also a hostage to fortune! If we follow their logic, that is, if you are depressed you are likely to have suicidal ideation, then any drug that causes depression (and there are plenty of these, and a later blog will point out) should be considered as a likely cause of suicide!

There are other conventional medical drugs known to create suicidal ideation, and I will outline just three here.

Accutane (Isotretinoin)

Accutane is a drug used for severe Acne. It is also marketed under the names Isotretinoin, Amnesteem, Claravis, Sotret, and probably others. The FDA’s has reported that this drug is the fifth most related to depression, and that it is also one of the top 10 drugs linked to an increased risk of suicide. Indeed, Accutane is linked to many serious D.I.E.s, including Crohn’s disease, liver damage, depression, miscarriage, and birth defects if taken during pregnancy.

Many Accutate users have reported depression and suicidal behaviour. From 1982 to 2005, the FDA received reports of 190 suicides by Accutane users.  In 2003 there were so many reports that Accutane was listed as one the top ten drugs associated with depression and suicide attempts.

Chantix

Chantix in the USA, Chanpix in the UK, is a drug prescribed to stop the smoking habit. The FDA thought the risk of suicide from this drug warranted a ‘black box’ warning on its packaging in 2009. Apparently, the symptoms of depression and suicide can appear shortly after taking Chantix, and that it can quickly progress to dangerous levels.

There is a Chantix lawsuit pending in the USA following hundreds of Chantix users reporting incidents following the drug's approval. Apparently, in one 18-month period, over 300 reports of Chantix suicide and depression incidents were reported directly to the FDA.

By 2014, the drug was linked to over 500 suicides. But obviously, the Conventional Medical Establishment still feels it is a suitable drug to continue selling and prescribing to us, as it is still not banned!

Darvocet, Darvan, Co-Proxamol

Darvocet or Darvan in the USA, Co-Proxamol in the UK, is an Opiate painkiller that was long associated with depression and increasing suicidal tendencies. Apparently, deaths occurring within one hour of overdosing with this drug were not uncommon. Over 3,000 reports of serious problems associated with Darvocet / Darvon were received by the FDA, including many suicide reports. The ‘Drug Abuse Warning Network’,  a US government database reporting on emergency room visits, showed 503 Darvon-related deaths just in 2007, with at least 20% of all deaths being reported as suicides.

Co-Proxamol was investigated by Oxford University’s ‘Centre for Suicide Research’, and their study found that “the risk of dying after co-proxamol overdose was 2.3 times that for tricyclic antidepressants and 28.1 times that for paracetamol”, the main ingredients of the drug”. 

As a result of this, and other findings, it was ‘withdrawn’ by the MHRA in January 2005.

However, the USA took another four years (during which time the drug was presumably still sold to unsuspecting patients) before the FDA finally banned the drug in November 2010. However, because of its addictive qualities, many young people are still taking the drug for ‘recreational’ purposes! 

Perhaps one of the longer lasting legacies of our much lauded pharmaceutical industry!

This is not an exhaustive list of the Big Pharma drugs known to cause suicide, but it is hopefully sufficient to ensure that anyone who is taking, or planning to take ANY pharmaceutical drug to undertake a thorough web search for possible associations. Your doctor won't tell you! And your life might depend upon it!

Failure of ConMed (12). Antidepressants

The dangers of antidepressants are beginning to be well-known - at least outside the ConMed Establishment. Meanwhile, within it, they seem to be being given out liberally, without adequate or sufficient warning to patients.

In my book, 'The Failure of Conventional Medicine', I outlined the problem with antidepressant drugs. But even since writing this, a couple of years ago, what we now know about the dangers of antidepressants have increased and multiplied.

The Increased Prescription of Antidepressants
First, the number of people taking antidepressants is increasing at an alarming rate. This recent article, from the Guardian newspaper (usually slavishly pro-drug, and anti-CAM), states that there has been an increase of 20% in the last 3 years alone, with over 43 million prescription in 2009-2010. Unfortunately, in this article, and elsewhere in the mainstream media, there is little mention of the serious adverse reactions, and the DIEs (disease-inducing-effects) they cause.

It is also becoming clear that many (if not most), (if not all) do not need to be on antidepressant drugs. This study says that 70% of people on antidepressants are not even depressed! So why are they being prescribed? Perhaps it is just that they are good for Big Pharma profits - which is what seems to be driving most health issues at the present time.

The value and effectiveness of antidepressant drugs
There are now many studies that show these drugs to be ineffective. This article, for instance, suggests (in rather more careful language) that antidepressants are totally useless. There are many others!

This one describes a study that has found antidepressants to be not only ineffective, but that they make you even more depressed!

So with this background, what are we now learning about antidepressant drugs?

The links with Suicide
The link between antidepressants and suicide is now well documented. This article goes through the number of people taking these drugs, the numbers of people considering suicide, the ineffectiveness of antidepressants, and the evidence that they can actually increase suicidal tendencies. It also points out that other Big Pharma drugs can increase the risks of suicide, including the anti-smoking drug, Chantix, an anti-acne drug, Accutane, certain epilepsy and cholesterol-reducing drugs, and Tamiflu.

The links with Violence
Apologists for drug-based medicine hate individual stories about the adverse reactions to drugs. They call them, and dismiss them, as 'anecdotal'. In contrast, I describe them as examples of how Big Pharma drugs can damage and destroy people's lives! Take this one, for instance. A teenager is taking the well-known anti-depression drug, Prozac, and when he had his dosage increased he kills a 9 year old girl, apparently 'for the thrill of it'.

And in Canada, as this story of another drug-induced death seems to indicate, taking Prozac now appears to be an adequate excuse for murder! Yes, a young boy kills his close friend; and the reason given, and accepted by both judge and prosecution, is that the killer was taking this drug! And of course, there is no mention here, either, about whether such drugs should be prescribed in the first place!

So can these, and other similar stories, be dismissed as anecdotal, one-off occurrences? And just how many of these 'anecdotes' do we need before the ConMed Establishment, and Big Pharma, admit there just might be a problem?

In considering this, what needs to be borne in mind is that 1 in 25 adolescents in America are now on antidepressants. So if these drugs do cause gratuitous acts of violence, what will we end up with? A violent society? And this is certainly appears to be what is developing.

This webpage looks at the 'nightmares' created by one type of antidepressant drug, SSRI's, and then links to a long list of literally hundreds of incidents, where acts of extreme gratuitous violence has been associated with antidepressant, and other drugs, like antipsychotics.

And incidentally, whilst we are focussing on SSRI's, have you ever been told they cause severe high blood pressure in babies - when their mother's take these awful drugs?

Unfortunately for us, none of this appears to be admitted by the ConMed Establishment. Certainly, as has been seen, more and more patients are being prescribed these drugs, without being told by their GPs, or anyone else, about their DIEs.

Our brains are the most sensitive, an perhaps the most important of all our organs. They make us what we are, as people, as individuals. Big Pharma drugs, as usual, seek to interfere and change what is going on within our minds. And the consequences appear to be alarming.

Our mainstream media is also quite useless in warning us. This is about how good it gets! The BBC, another news organisation that usually slavishly adheres to the Big Pharma script on health issues, admits that antidepressants can cause falls in older people! Yes, they no doubt do this too. But are we not also to be informed that they can lead to suicide, or that they cause needless and unprovoked violence? There is not a mention of this anywhere!

It would appear that the only winner in all this is the drug companies - selling drugs to people who don't need them - selling drugs that are mostly ineffective in dealing with depression. And all this with total silence, and apparent unconcern, emanating from the ConMed Establishment.