Podcasts about risperdal

Former pharma reporter for the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, investigative reporter Gardiner Harris, discusses his new book “No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson and Johnson.” It details the unethical practices and numerous scandals that have plagued Johnson & Johnson over the decades, including the asbestos contamination in baby powder, the misuse of the antipsychotic drug Risperdal, the dangerous outcomes of vaginal mesh implants, and the controversial development and deployment of their COVID-19 vaccine. Harris provides a comprehensive overview of the corporate malfeasance within the pharmaceutical giant, shedding light on the regulatory failures and systemic corruption that have allowed these issues to persist.

Join us as we discuss a second generation antipsychotic, Risperidone (Risperdal). We will also cover some the long-acting injectable formulations such as Consta, Uzedy and Perseris. Answer to Poll Question Below (SPOILER) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Answer: D (Low-dose Aripiprazole)

Episode 170: Schizophrenia: An OverviewFuture Dr. Chng explains the diagnostic criteria and describes how to treat schizophrenia. Dr. Arreaza mentions additional risk factors and social aspects of schizophrenia.  Written by Tiffanny Chng, MSIV, Ross University School of Medicine. Comments by Hector Arreaza, MD.You are listening to Rio Bravo qWeek Podcast, your weekly dose of knowledge brought to you by the Rio Bravo Family Medicine Residency Program from Bakersfield, California, a UCLA-affiliated program sponsored by Clinica Sierra Vista, Let Us Be Your Healthcare Home. This podcast was created for educational purposes only. Visit your primary care provider for additional medical advice.Schizophrenia may be an intriguing disease for many, even for health care providers. Schizophrenia is frequently misunderstood and stigmatized. Receiving a diagnosis of schizophrenia can be life-altering and cause significant distress in patients and their families, but it can also impact their work, relationships, and even their communities.Epidemiology of schizophrenia: Schizophrenia has a prevalence of about 1% worldwide, and a prevalence of about 0.6% in the US. Although the distribution between males and females is comparable, males will typically present with their first episode, sometimes known as a “psychotic break” in the early 20's as opposed to women who may present in their late 20s or early 30s. Despite having a low prevalence, the NIH lists schizophrenia as one of the top 15 leading causes of disability and disease burden in the world. In 2019 the economic burden of schizophrenia in the US was $343 billion. For comparison, in 2019, diabetes had an economic burden of $760 billion in the US, however, the prevalence of diabetes that year was 11.6%, more than 10 times that of schizophrenia. Patients who are diagnosed with schizophrenia are also at increased risk of a multitude of co-occurring medical conditions: alcohol and substance abuse disorders, mood disorders, and metabolic disturbances (diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and obesity, which may be exacerbated with the use of antipsychotics). These patients have a two-to-four-fold increased risk of premature mortality with an estimated potential life loss of ~28.5 years. Of note, 4-10% of patients with schizophrenia die secondary to suicide.Pathogenesis:The exact pathogenesis of schizophrenia is unknown, but we do know that it is a combination of genetic, neurological, and environmental factors. Genetics: Twin studies conducted in mono and dizygotic twins have shown that schizophrenia is highly inheritable (~80%). Although there are no specific genes that directly cause the disease state, genome-wide association studies have shown polygenic additive effects of 108 single nucleotide polymorphisms. This includes genes involved in the dopaminergic and glutamate pathways, which are the basis of antipsychotic medications. Epigenetics: Studies have also shown that epigenetics is a potential factor that plays into the risk of developing schizophrenia. Having a history of obstetric complications, for example, has an almost two-fold increased risk of schizophrenia in the child during early adulthood. Such complications include maternal infections, preterm labor, and fetal hypoxia. Certain infections and pro-inflammatory disease states, such as Celiac and Graves' disease have also been associated with schizophrenia. The suggested pathophysiology is thought to involve pro-inflammatory cytokines crossing the blood-brain barrier inducing or exacerbating psychosis or cognitive impairment. Trauma: As in many other psychiatric conditions, childhood trauma or severe childhood adversities, especially emotional neglect, have also been shown to increase the risk of schizophrenia later in life.Cannabis and Immigration: So, you mentioned the role of genetics, epigenetics, and inflammation. I'd like to mention the use of cannabis as a risk factor for developing psychosis as well, more specifically the THC component of cannabis. Something to keep in mind during these times when cannabis is being studied in more detail. Also, this is interesting: immigration puts you at risk for schizophrenia, and the risk can be as high as four-fold, depending on the study. Some explanations for this are increased discrimination, stress, and even low vitamin D. Tiffany, how do we diagnose schizophrenia?DSM-5 Diagnostic Criteria: The DSM-5 identifies 5 diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia: Patient must have two or more active phase symptoms for one month or longer: (1) Delusions, (2) Hallucinations (auditory, visual, or tactile) (3) Disorganized speech, (4) Negative symptoms (flat affect, avolition, social withdrawal, anhedonia), or (5) Catatonic behavior (which can be a collection of abnormal physical movements, the lack of movement or resistance to movement, psychomotor agitation). For the first criterion to be met, the patient must have delusions, hallucinations, or disorganized speech as one of their two presenting symptoms. Arreaza: The 1-month duration can be less if the patient is successfully treated.The symptoms experienced by the patient must impair their level of functioning in one or more major areas (professional career, relationships, and self-care). In addition, the disruption must be present most of the time since the onset of symptoms. There must be continuous signs of disturbance for at least 6 months. Within these 6 months, there must be at least 1 month where the patient experiences symptoms mentioned in the first criteria (delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, negative symptoms, or catatonic behavior). The disturbance may only be negative symptoms or attenuated positive symptoms (unusual perceptual experiences, odd beliefs, etc.)Mood disorders must be ruled out. This includes bipolar disorder with psychotic features, depressive disorder with psychotic features, and schizoaffective disorder. The behavioral disturbances must not be attributable to any substance use or medical conditions. After the diagnosis of schizophrenia has been made for 1 year or more, specifiers can be added to further categorize the disease state, according to the DSM-V: Acute episode: a period in which all symptomatic criteria are met.Partial remission: a period in which symptomatic criteria are only partially met and symptoms are improved from a previous episode.Full remission: a period in which no symptomatic criteria are met (for a minimum of 6 months).Continuous: symptoms prevalent for the majority of the illness course.Goals of Treatment: Reduce acute symptoms to allow patients to return to their baseline level of functioning. Prevent recurrence and maximize a patient's quality of life using maintenance therapy.There are 2 components of treatment: Pharmacotherapy and Psychosocial Intervention.Pharmacotherapy.Pharmacotherapy is initiated with second-generation antipsychotics as first-line agents due to their decreased risk of extrapyramidal side effects, compared to our first-generation antipsychotics. Commonly used medications include aripiprazole (Abilify), lurasidone (Latuda), risperidone (Risperdal), and quetiapine (Seroquel). These antipsychotics also have a more favorable side effect profile, showing a lower incidence of seizures, orthostatic hypotension, QT prolongation, weight gain, impaired glucose metabolism, and hyperlipidemia. Of note, younger patients being treated for their first psychotic episode are more likely to experience metabolic side effects while on antipsychotics. Hence, it is important to start at lower doses in these patients and slowly titrate to a therapeutic dose. Antipsychotics are implicated in the development of obesity, and obesity is one of my favorite topics. As a PCP, you need to have close communication with the psychiatrist before you change any doses of any antipsychotics, in my case, I just avoid making changes.Older patients, who are likely on other medications should be started at doses that are ¼ to ½ the adult dose initially to monitor for any potential drug interactions. After therapy initiation, routine monitoring for symptomatic response is done weekly for the first 3 months. Signs of any extrapyramidal symptoms should also be evaluated at each visit. Special care must be taken to patients with risk factors, for example, a metabolic profile should be ordered every 6 to 12 weeks depending on a patient's comorbidities, and an EKG should be done before and 3 months after therapy initiation to monitor for QT prolongation.QT prolongation is higher with ziprasidone, quetiapine, chlorpromazine, and intravenous (IV) haloperidol. Normal QTc intervals: Before puberty: NORMAL

This is the 15th podcast episode for the Psychiatric Medication Podcast Series. Series Description: Current literature indicates that podcasts can be an effective educational format to reach health professionals across the continuum of medical education, addressing a myriad of topics pertinent to providers. This episode serves as an overview of Risperidone/Risperdal & Paliperidone/Invega. This podcast season is the second released by East Carolina University's Office of Continuing Medical Education and may be beneficial for physicians, residents, fellows, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and nurses. This podcast season is comprised of approximately 30 episodes, each focusing on different psychiatric medications for the non-psychiatric provider. Those tuning into the podcast's second season will receive a primer on the "bread and butter" behavioral health medications for primary care: antidepressants, antipsychotics, and mood stabilizers. Episodes will be released weekly on Wednesdays.Jennifer B. Stanley, MD & Maxwell Miller, DO

(From the archives) When a drug impacts a child's feeling about sex and gender. I dive into the strange case of the antipsychotic Risperdal, prescribed to many children for autism, ADD and other disorders; and the alleged link to breast growth in boys. This podcast was first published April 23, 2021. Subscribe to my two podcasts: “The Sharyl Attkisson Podcast” and “Full Measure After Hours.” Leave a review, subscribe and share with your friends! Order “Slanted: How the News Media Taught Us to Love Censorship and Hate Journalism” by Sharyl Attkisson at Harper Collins, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books a Million, IndieBound, Bookshop! Visit JustTheNews.com, SharylAttkisson.com and www.FullMeasure.news for original reporting. Do your own research. Make up your own mind. Think for yourself. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sharylattkissonpodcast/message

A while back, we did a mini-series on peptides and sexual wellness. We covered PT-141 (bremelanotide), a peptide therapy used to help women and men with low sex drive. And Kisspeptin-10, a peptide that helps with increased arousal and may help with infertility. But we really didn't focus on what causes a low sex drive. So today, we'll touch on the possible mental and physical causes that may affect your sex drive, but we'll focus on medications that may lead to a decreased interest in sex. It's important to know that a low sex drive can affect both men and women. Medical conditions like depression, hypothyroidism, diabetes, and high blood pressure, may all cause a low sex drive. Even hormonal changes (e.g., during pregnancy, after childbirth, or while breastfeeding) can decrease interest in sex. And some people who use alcohol, have relationship issues, or certain infections (e.g., vaginal yeast infections, urinary tract infections) have a low sex drive. Certain medications may cause low sex drive as a side effect. But remember that not everyone taking certain medications will have the same issues.  Some antidepressants and antipsychotics are more likely to cause a low sex drive than others. For example, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) like Paxil, Zoloft, and Proac are more likely to cause a low sex drive than Wellbutrin or Remeron. While older antipsychotics like Haldol, used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, are more likely to cause a low sex drive than Risperdal.  Benzodiazepines like Xanax, Ativan, and Valium, used to treat anxiety and seizure disorder, can lower your sex drive. Many people with heart failure report having a low sex drive. This is because people with heart failure need different medications to reduce how fast or hard their heart has to work and medications that get rid of extra fluid. Unfortunately, some heart failure medications like Digoxin, Spironolactone, beta-blockers, and other water pills like hydrochlorothiazide can lower their sex drive. Acid reflux or "heartburn" happens when stomach acid travels back into the esophagus. And people who take medications for "heartburn" (e.g., Pepcid and Zantac) have reported a lower sex drive. Even medications that affect sex hormones (e.g., estrogen, testosterone, and progesterone) can decrease libido. Examples of these medications include birth control and Lupron (used to treat prostate cancer). And lastly, people who use opioids like Norco and Ultram to treat pain can also have a lower sexual desire. How to improve sex drive caused by medications? Always talk to your healthcare provider first. They can determine if your low sex drive is due to your medications or if there's another cause, like an infection or hormonal changes. If your medication is causing a low sex drive, your healthcare provider may have you stop the medication if it's not needed. Or they may switch you to an alternate medication that doesn't cause a low sex drive. But don't stop your medication without speaking to your healthcare provider first. Your healthcare provider may suggest other medications or peptides like PT-141 or Kisspeptin-10.  What is PT-141? PT-141 (bremelanotide) is a melanocortin receptor agonist peptide. Melanocortin is a natural hormone in your body that works on receptors in your brain and nervous system to cause sexual arousal and influence sexual behavior. However, we don't know exactly how it works to improve sex drive. It can also work on receptors in cells that produce skin color (melanocytes). You may know PT-141 as Vyleesi. This medication was originally FDA-approved in 2019 to help low sex drive in women who haven't gone through menopause yet. While it's not approved for low sex drive in men, some may use it off-label.  In these cases, men also use PT-141 to help improve erections, libido, sex drive, and performance. What is Kisspeptin-10? Kisspeptin-10 is a neuropeptide involved in reproduction, sexual behavior, and sexual attraction. It helps increase activity in the brain associated with sexual attraction and arousal.  Kisspeptin-10 also stimulates the hypothalamus to release gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), which in turn signals the pituitary gland to release luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH). These hormones play a role in the production of both testosterone and estradiol.  Thanks again for listening to The Peptide Podcast. You can find more information at pepties.com. We love having you as part of our community. If you love this podcast, please share it with your friends and family on social media. Have a happy, healthy week! Pro Tips We're huge advocates of using daily collagen peptide supplements in your routine to help with skin, nail, bone, and joint health. But what do you know about peptides for health and wellness? Giving yourself a peptide injection can be scary or confusing. But we've got you covered. Check out 6 tips to make peptide injections easier. And, make sure you have the supplies you'll need. This may include syringes, needles, alcohol pads, and a sharps container. They work to kill bacteria (bactericidal) by preventing them from making their own protective coating in your body.

Autism Expert and pioneer in the field of Autism, Psychologist and BCBA, Dr. Doreen Granpeesheh is discussing How can we tell if our child is having health issues that are impeding their progress and answering viewer questions! Tune in and check it out! Recorded Live on January 17, 2023 Ask Dr. Doreen is live every Tuesday @ 10am PT/11am MT/12pm CT/1pm ET! 6:20 How can we tell if our child is having health issues that are impeding their progress? 17:20 Will hummin stop if language develops? I have a question concerning a child who does have a diagnosis and is non verbal, has a few words can say ABC's. but hums alot. Will humming stop if language is developed? 22:35 Omega-3's My son is 11 years old and his language is getting so much better. I recommend a high quality omega-3's 24:01 Risperdal Could you discuss the use of Risperdal as a treatment for a 4 year old, minimally verbal boy who has great trouble focusing. 29:10 What does it mean when a child starts to say random words? Hi Dr Doreen, my son has started saying real words randomly since December and he still does it every day and with a new word or repeat what he said previously. It is not functional but what does this mean? 32:37 Does brain function ever get better for our kids? 34:53 My son doesn't hum but he does make some noises. NOW, I am finally able to ask him and he gives me answer as to what he is doing. Like he'll say “Im thinking about jump scares on Five Nights at Freddy”. That is some video game be is really into. He plays it one hour a day but I'm just happy he's able to tell me why he's doing the “noises” and “hand flapping” now. He didn't used to be able to tell me the why. 37:56 Does tongue tie impede his speech as growing? It was not a problem in my son's earlier age. Could you give any tips recovering from the tongue tie surgery? 40:27 What about Stem Cells Therapies? 42:11 Noah is still non verbal now 13 years old How to I encourage Noah to go outside the house. 49:18 Using the Toilet how do I get my 4year old do number 2 in the toilet. he is good at standing to pee. but won't do #2 , he goes to get me a pull up so he can go in it. He doesn't have a problem sitting on the toilet, he just won't go.  51:51 Encouraging Parents after lack of progress Any ideas on how to convince my grandchild's parents? They are discouraged at his lack of progress and are afraid they will miss the window for teaching him necessary skills and language. 55:08 Potty Training (Standing up vs Sitting Down Do you have opinions on teaching boys to stand up to pee vs sitting down. ABA originally taught my son to sit down. So that's what he does, but times change and I had another BCBA tell me I need to teach him standing up. She made some valid points so now I'm wondering do I need to go that route now? He's 14. 55:47 Any suggestions on how to stop head banging? It's decreased 70% in the last 3 years but we haven't been able to extinguish it completely. 1:01:39 Coming up this week! Autism Network Website TikTok: @AskDrDoreen Instagram: @AskDrDoreen YouTube: Ask Dr. Doreen

Like any prescription medication, Abilify, Risperdal, Clozapine, and other anti-psychotics have side effects. And like any medication, they are prescribed to help a person manage an illness. Anti-psychotics can help with a number of different illnesses, but often used to help manage a person's symptoms of schizophrenia, including paranoia, delusions and hallucinations. However, there's a movement that wants to shift mainstream thinking away from using medication to manage the symptoms of a serious mental illness. It's encouraging people to accept and live with the symptoms of serious mental illness, symptoms like voices, hallucinations, and other symptoms. It's a controversial topic and we've brought back a familiar voice from our first season – Dr. Diane McIntosh, Psychiatrist and Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia. In this episode, we talk about the use of medications in treating serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia. Resources:Dr. Diane McIntosh - BioBlindsided - Dr. Diane McIntosh's podcastAntipsychotic Selection Is Important for Reduced Nonadherence in SchizophreniaLook Again Season 1, Episode 5: The Truth Behind Psychiatric MedicationAnti-Psychotic Medication - CAMHSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Terry Dunken is a serial entrepreneur and mass torts business practitioner. He is currently managing partner of the Dunken Law Firm, founder of the Mass Tort Institute, and author of Mass Tort Secrets. As a young native Texan, Terry was an exceptional baseball and football player with professional prospects, but his entrepreneurial aspirations drove him to become a CPA instead. Despite his natural grasp on financial planning, Terry knew he could do more to help others than to crunch their numbers, and soon got his law degree from the University of Houston. He has secured favorable settlements for victims in thousands of complex and high-profile cases including Transvaginal Mesh, Risperdal, and Roundup®. Terry approaches mass torts from a business perspective because “unless you just get lucky, understanding the numbers will determine your success or failure in the mass tort universe.” Listen to this informative Tax-Alpha Solutions episode with Terry Dunken about insights from decades in the Mass Tort industry. Here is what to expect on this week's show: Terry was part of distribution for Donkey Kong video game by Nintendo Starting a company: capital versus intellectual property The current working generation is different from the past The mass tort industry has big returns but big barrier to entry Terrys firm has a HUGE marketing budget to reach those affected Companies are out there still bringing dangerous products to market regardless   Connect with Terry: Links Mentioned: https://www.masstortinstitute.com/ Matthew Chancey is a Registered Representative of Coastal Equities, Inc. and an Investment Advisory Representative of Coastal Investment Advisors, Inc. Neither Coastal Equities, Inc. nor Coastal Investment Advisors, Inc. is affiliated with Micel Financial LLC. Investment Advisory Services are offered through Coastal Investment Advisors, Inc., and securities are offered through Coastal Equities, Inc., Member FINRA/SIPC, 1201 N. Orange St., Suite 729, Wilmington, DE 19801. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Carroll, who is one of the boys, joins me for probably the most fucked up episode I've made to date. Medical horror abound, this one is certainly dark. If you think illegally marketing a drug to be used off-label for disabled children is bad, it's literally not even scratching the surface of how bad the rest of it gets. Strap in for the longest episode script I've made thus far all about geriatric abuse, simping for the FDA, and body changes that are so shocking that I waited until 30 minutes in to tell Dan where the episode was going. Oh also, you get some lore about me! Follow @DanCarroll__ on twitter, hug your people tight, and thanks again for listening to this podcast. Love you all! B) FOOTNOTES: 1. America's Most Admired Lawbreaker, Steven Brill, Huffington Post DocuSerial 2016 2. Johnson & Johnson to Pay More Than $2.2 Billion to Resolve Criminal and Civil Investigations, DOJ 2013 3. https://risperdalboys.com/ 4. https://thenationaltriallawyers.org/2014/03/risperdal-lawsuit-montana-5-9-million-settlement/ 5. https://www.drugwatch.com/risperdal/lawsuits/ 6. https://www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/news/jj-janssen-risperdal-lawsuit/ 7. https://web.archive.org/web/20180804183932/https://newbrunswicktoday.com/article/jj-biochemist-testifies-company-never-gave-fda-risperdal-safety-analysis-it-knew-about-years 8. https://web.archive.org/web/20180804183827/https://newbrunswicktoday.com/article/latest-risperdal-verdict-jj-hit-70-million-compensatory-damages 9. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1256452/?page=3

Autism Expert and pioneer in the field of Autism, Psychologist and BCBA, Dr. Doreen Granpeesheh answers questions from live viewers about waking up int the middle of the night, Anxiety, Socializing and much more! Check it out! Make sure you get a chance to join us LIVE on Tuesday's at 10am PT! #AutismSpectrumDisorder #Autism #autismpodcast   2:55 Does Dr. Doreen see clients overseas over zoom?   5:11 I'm new immigrant with my autistic 9 years son in Florida when I went to register him in autism school, they redirected me to elementary public school. why my son cannot be in that autism school? what steps will be done for him after the individual plan is set? I know there is a class in that elementary public school for autistic student but isn't preferable if he registered in the autism.  school? please advise? Also, he loves swimming can the school provide him this sport activities   13:26 What would you describe as an autism friendly co-working space?   22:26 my son is often sleeping an hour after taking his meds not always does Guanfacine for ADHD he has combine type and he's also on desmopressin for a diabetes insipidus would this be something that would cause I'm gonna be tired or is it just because he moved all the time and it's just a coincidence what are your thoughts?   24:22 My Child Consistently Wakes Up in the Middle of the Night My child 3yrs old wakes up in the middle of the night. 2am-4:30am. Especially around when there is a full moon. Any suggestions?   27:02 How can I get more speech therapy and OT for my son currently he only gets one 30 min session a week of week. it's not enough.   27:33 How can I contact Dr Doreen for the zoom consultation?   28:21 Our BCBA at school doesn't specialize in ABA.   36:39 My Teenage son, with ASD and Anxiety, Struggles with Socializing My 17 year old Asd son, with anxiety, struggles with socializing. He has a learning disability which adds to his struggles in trying to make sense of situations. I'm trying to get him out and about and bit by bit try to build his confidence. Social clubs are really difficult and he doesn't enjoy, he's constantly on edge. People are saying that I should make him go, how do I make him go to a situation that he finds so difficult? what are your thoughts on this?   40:10 My Child Consistently Wakes Up in the Middle of the Night Continued   44:38 My Teenage son, with ASD and Anxiety, Struggles with Socializing Continued   48:35 My son is always agitating and restless, 21year and he has be on Risperdal treatment for 6 years now please what will I do? I want to stop the tablet. advice please.   51:08 My ASD twins are 22 and need to start work programs. They both live in residential facilities. My son's regional center social worker is on top of it but my daughter's is lagging even when I call or email her weekly. Should I ask to speak to her supervisor? I don't want my daughter just sitting at home all day.   52:51 Dr. Doreen I have a question! My Son is 4 years old and has half a day of school (ABA at school, one to one). And then has ABA at home for 5 1/2 hours. This next year the school would give us full day in the fall (Preschool) but I don't know what would be benefit more full day of school or half school and half home ABA at home? What would you suggest? PS next fall 2023 he'd start kindergarten.   59:45 Coming up on Autism Live this week   Shannon Penrod's book is out now! Order from the link below! https://www.fhautism.com/shop/autism-parent-to-parent     Link Tree https://linktr.ee/AutismLive   Pre-Order the book written by the host of Autism Live, Shannon Penrod! https://www.amazon.com/Autism-Parent-Sanity-Saving-Spectrum/dp/1949177858   Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/autism-live/id827968203   Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/autismlivepodcast   Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0TXbDFs8cLP0UQbNVqHThf?si=VbEfw4_oRjqJY3vK2pgmFg   IHeartRadio.com https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-autism-live-51537613/   Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/Autism-Live-Podcast/B08JJN7B28?qid=1611965289&sr=1-1&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1&pf_rd_p=83218cca-c308-412f-bfcf-90198b687a2f&pf_rd_r=M68PFW27AP000G4N9CCJ   Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/search/autism%live  

Vicki J. Maniatis is a partner at Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman who has worked on mass tort cases involving pharmaceuticals and medical devices for seventeen years. She is a frequent invited lecturer and moderator on a wide variety of pharmaceutical and mass tort cases including, Opioids, Trans Vaginal Mesh, Fosamax, Ortho Evra, Risperdal, Propecia, Avandia, Onglyza, as well as several medical devices. Vicki has been appointed by State and Federal Judges to serve as lead counsel and on Plaintiffs' steering committees. She has significant experience performing all levels of bellwether trial case-specific work up including, plaintiff, spouse and family member depositions, implanting, explanting, treating physicians, sales representative, and expert depositions, for over 30 cases in several mass torts including TVM, Mirena and Propecia cases. Vicki serves as a founding member of Mass Tort Med School, an annual medical seminar for Plaintiffs' attorneys that offers numerous physician speakers and cutting-edge medical issues. In May 2022, along with the Trial Lawyers of Puerto Rico, Mass Tort Med School is hosting Mass Torts Puerto Rico, a first-of-its-kind program where attorneys will have the opportunity to learn from and connect with world-class trial lawyers and experts – the Mass Tort Med School program will be bigger and better than ever. Remember to subscribe and follow us on social media… LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mass-tort-news Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/masstortnewsorg Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/masstortnews.org

SUMMARY In Part 2 of this podcast on Schizophrenia, we're joined again by Katrina Tinman (peer support worker with lived experience of schizophrenia), Chris Summerville (CEO of the Canadian Schizophrenia Society), and Dr. Phil Tibbo (clinical/research psychiatrist who specializes in psychosis-related illnesses). They dig deep into emerging holistic recovery approaches that integrate biological, psychological, social, vocational, and spiritual supports. They also explore stigma, impacts of COVID-19, needed changes to public policy and the mental healthcare system, and the world of schizophrenia 20-30 years from now. TAKEAWAYS This Part 2 podcast will help you understand: Emerging diagnostic practices and medications Integrated healing that incorporates biological, psychological, social, vocational, and spiritual recovery supports Benefits of meditation/mindfulness and positive lifestyle choices Benefits of creative therapies that use art, music, drama, and writing Advances in personalized/precision medicine Advances in technology and the Internet to support recovery Effects of COVID-19 Stigma's impact on recovery Challenges for families of people with schizophrenia What medical professionals need to know about schizophrenia What public policy changes would support recovery Why changes should be made to the mental healthcare system What the world of schizophrenia could look like in the future SPONSORS RESOURCES RECOVERY: Research Into Recovery Recovery Model of Mental Illness: A Complementary Approach to Psychiatric Care A National Framework for Recovery in Mental Health Recovery-oriented Practice − An Implementation Toolkit PEER SUPPORT: Peer Support  The Future is Peer Support Using Peer Support in Developing Empowering Mental Health Services MENTAL HEALTH STIGMA: Fighting Stigma and Discrimination Is Fighting for Mental Health Stigma and Discrimination Addressing Stigma Five Ways to End Mental Health Stigma SCHIZOPHRENIA: Hope and Recovery Schizophrenia Treatment and Self-help   GUESTS  Katrina Tinman Katrina Tinman is a peer support worker for Peer Connections Manitoba, formerly the Manitoba Schizophrenia Society, and is located at the Mental Health Crisis Response Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Katrina is currently working toward formal peer support worker certification with Peer Support Canada, though she already has peer support certification through the Ontario Peer Development Initiative. Katrina received a university education in journalism and political science in 1998, from North Dakota State University in Fargo, North Dakota. Since then, she's had a wide range of life experiences from working in the professional arena, extensive travel, motorcycle riding, alpine skiing, and SCUBA diving, to homelessness and mental illness. Regardless of some negative life experiences, Katrina's greatest achievement was a sense of fearlessness that carried her through along with hope for the future. Now she's able, through her peer support work, to use her life's insights to help others in their recovery from crisis and mental illness. Email: k.tinman@peerconnectionsmb.ca Website: www.peerconnectionsmb.ca  Facebook: www.facebook.com/katrina.tinman.5 Twitter: https://twitter.com/tinman_katrina Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/katrinatinman Chris Summerville, BA, MDiv, M.Miss, D.Min, LLD (Honorary) Chris Summerville is from a family with mental health challenges (father and brother with bi-polar disorder, a brother with schizophrenia, siblings living with depression, and two suicides). He has also received mental health care himself, which has informed and inspired his work as CEO of the Schizophrenia Society of Canada since 2007. Chris has been involved with the schizophrenia-recovery movement for nearly 30 years, having served on the boards of the Mental Health Commission of Canada, Mood Disorders Society of Canada, National Network for Mental Health, and Psychosocial Rehabilitation Canada. Chris earned a doctorate from Dallas Theological Seminary, is a certified psychosocial rehabilitation recovery practitioner (CPRRP), and received an honorary Doctor of Laws from Brandon University in 2014. He is a regional, provincial, and national leader and advocate for a transformed, person-centered, recovery-oriented mental healthcare system, and believes mental health concerns should be addressed using integrated bio-psycho-social-spiritual-vocational approaches.  Email: Chris@schizophrenia.ca Website: www.schizophrenia.ca Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SchizophreniaSocietyCanada Twitter: https://twitter.com/SchizophreniaCa LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/schizophrenia-society-of-canada Phil Tibbo, MD, FRCPC Phil Tibbo was named the first Dr. Paul Janssen Chair in Psychotic Disorders, an endowed research chair, at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He is a professor in the Department of Psychiatry with a cross-appointment in psychology at Dalhousie University, and an adjunct professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Alberta. He is also director of the Nova Scotia Early Psychosis Program (NSEPP) and co-director of the Nova Scotia Psychosis Research Unit (NSPRU). Dr. Tibbo is funded by local and national peer reviewed funding agencies and well published in leading journals. His publications are primarily around schizophrenia, and his current foci of study include individuals at the early phase of, and individuals at risk for, a psychotic illness. Dr. Tibbo's areas of research include application of in vivo brain neuroimaging techniques, to study psychosis as well as research interests in co-morbidities in schizophrenia, psychosis genetics, addictions and psychosis, stigma and burden, pathways to care, education, and non-pharmacological treatment options. Dr. Tibbo is president of the Canadian Consortium for Early Intervention in Psychosis (CCEIP), helping to advance early intervention care at the national level. He is a recipient (2015) of the Michael Smith Award from the Schizophrenia Society of Canada for research and leadership in schizophrenia, recipient of the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health's Champion of Mental Health Research/Clinician award in 2017 and, most recently, recipient of the 2018 Regional Prix d'excellence – Specialist of the Year – Region 5 by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Email: phil.tibbo@nshealth.ca LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phil-tibbo-62170b18/ HOST Jo de Vries is a community education and engagement specialist with 30 years of experience helping local governments in British Columbia connect with their citizens about important sustainability issues. In 2006, she established the Fresh Outlook Foundation (FOF) to “inspire community conversations for sustainable change.” FOF's highly acclaimed events include Building SustainABLE Communities conferences, Reel Change SustainAbility Film Fest, Eco-Blast Kids' Camps, CommUnity Innovation Lab, Breakfast of Champions, and Women 4 SustainAbility. FOF's newest ventures are the HEADS UP! Community Mental Health Summit and HEADS UP! Community Mental Health Podcast. Website: Fresh Outlook Foundation Phone: 250-300-8797   PLAY IT FORWARD The move toward optimal mental health becomes possible as more people learn about the challenges, successes, and opportunities. To that end, please share this podcast with anyone who has an interest or stake in the future of mental health and wellness. FOLLOW US For more information about the Fresh Outlook Foundation (FOF) and our programs and events, visit our website, sign up for our newsletter, and like us on Facebook and Twitter.   HELP US As a charity, FOF relies on support from grants, sponsors, and donors to continue its valuable work. If you benefited from the podcast, please help fund future episodes by making a one-time or monthly donation. Katrina Tinman, Chris Summerville, Phil Tibbo Interview Transcript You can download a pdf of the transcript here. The entire transcript is also found below: RICK  0:10 Welcome to the HEADS UP Community Mental Health podcast. Join our host Jo de Vries with the Fresh Outlook Foundation, as she combines science with storytelling to explore a variety of mental health issues with people from all walks of life. Stay tuned. JO  0:32 Hey, Jo here. Thanks for joining me again with my three incredible guests as we continue our conversation about schizophrenia, this time focusing on integrated recovery support, emerging science, and advancing technology. We'll also touch on the stigma faced by people with the illness, and gaps in the current mental health care system. But before we dig back in, a big shout out to our amazing sponsors, the Social Planning and Research Council of BC, Emil Anderson Construction, WorkSafe BC, and AECOM Engineering Canada. We celebrate them as their continued support is fueling our passion for improving mental health literacy. Again, my three guests are Katrina Tinman, a peer support worker with Peer Connections Manitoba, Chris Summerville, Executive Director of the Schizophrenia Society of Canada, and Dr. Phil Tibbo, a Canadian psychiatrist who studies, treats, and advocates for people with psychosis and schizophrenia. In Part 1 of this podcast, we heard personal stories and learned about signs of the illness, myths, and recovery movements. Dr. Phil Tibbo also talked about past diagnostic practices. To start this episode, we'll connect with Phil again about diagnostic practices today, and what research is telling us about them. PHIL  2:06 It's a big area of research. And I think I mentioned earlier, we're still not at a point where we can do a blood test similar to other medical illnesses, and from that result in a diagnosis. So there's still a lot of work going on here, and especially at early phases of illness as well. And so a lot of the research is looking at multimodal or multifaceted approaches to diagnosis, that can include not only from interview and behavioral, looking at symptoms, but as well as what we call the biological markers, biological indices, which can be some of the neuroimaging research. Some very exciting work going on even EEG type of research within brainwaves, but as well as in genetics too. The one difficulty with schizophrenia, and again, different from some other medical illnesses where it's a single gene, and something wrong with that gene causes a medical illness. We know that's not the case for psychosis and schizophrenia. And often what it's called is an illness with multiple genes of small effect. Research is active in here, but really that focus is to really help us to identify early. But it'll probably be, like I say, multifaceted or a multimodal sort of approach to diagnosis. I wish I can kind of drop in in 20 30 years time and see what the approach is going to be. I think we're going to see a difference from how we're approaching things now to what it will be in the future, which is of course, the way that it should be. I mean, we're doing things differently than what we were doing 20 30 years ago as well. JO  3:38 Let's now hone in on current treatment strategies that focus on integrating biological, psychological, social, and vocational support, as well as psychosocial rehabilitation. And we're gonna break that down, so don't worry about all those big terms. Starting with biological support, Phil from what I understand, biological or brain-related effects are still best treated with anti-psychotic medications, which ideally, are only one part of an overall treatment plan. Is that what you're seeing? PHIL  4:17 Yes, you still have to consider that schizophrenia is a brain illness which needs to be treated, and medication can be a cornerstone of that treatment. But as a result of the illness, there are other things that may be needed when we were looking at other non-biological therapies. Definitely have psychotic medications are a cornerstone. Now that said, the amount of medication or the length that somebody is on a medication really depends on the individual and really what their needs are as well. Because I have individuals that I see that may need medications for actually a fairly short period of time, and they've been doing well with no medications at this point. It really is kind of individual, but yet yes from biological standpoint, the anti-psychotic medications are a cornerstone treatment. JO  5:04 Kat and Chris, in your personal experience and as shared by your peers, what are the pros and cons of anti-psychotic medication? And are people's responses changing over time as the medications change? KATRINA  5:21 It gets to symptoms versus side effects. As I went through the process of finding what medication would work, it was a journey that lasted about 10 years. And I'd ran the gamut of, well, three I can remember Lexapro, Risperdal, and Zyprexa. But nothing really fit. Remember the description of the spectrum, and trying to find where things fit. And for me, it wasn't until 2013 when I ended up fortunate enough to have a doctor to work with me at length, to find the right medication that would actually be the best fit for me, in communication with me. And it turned out it was one of those that hadn't even been invented until right around that timeframe. Abilify turned out to be the right one for me. CHRIS  6:15 Well, certainly, antipsychotics and antidepressants can address the symptoms of psychosis and mood disorders and minimize them. But as one of our former chiefs of psychiatry here in Manitoba said, "If only the medications did everything that we hoped that they would do." Unfortunately, as Katrina stated, there can be significant side effects. And there are many side effects that we don't have time to go into. But the two that I would mention most pronounced are cardiovascular illnesses and metabolic illnesses. And that's one reason why many people don't want to take the medications or discontinue after a while, because of that fear. JO  6:57 Phil, what advances are being made to make these medications more accessible and effective with fewer side effects? PHIL  7:05 There's a lot of research and development going into newer medications. And I think we always have to be careful in our discussion around this. Because while there may be cardiovascular, may be metabolic side effects, it's not a given. Significant number of individuals that I see that do not have any side effects with their medications. That's with our open and honest discussions. But we have to be mindful of when that can occur, and just be able to catch it early. I know we'll talk about stigma, but there is a stigma about medication that has resulted and it's probably from the older medication. The research and development these days, the focus is on developing an effective medication with little to no side effects. With a better understanding of the illness, with better understanding of brain receptors, there's more targeted, more focused research on the development of these types of medications. I have to agree that there was a period of time where there's a lot of sort of what I call 'me to' medications being developed, very similar to ones that are already out there. But what we're seeing now is just that more focused, more targeted development. JO  8:14 Phil, what about options for people who might forget to take their medications, or choose not to take them for whatever reason? PHIL  8:21 We've had, I'll use the term LAI's, long-acting injectable medication. We've had them for a while. But for similar reasons Katrina and Chris mentioned, you know, they've kind of fell out of favor because of their side effect profile. But recent developments have allowed us to have newer medications in that particular format with much fewer side effects. People can just be on a once-a-month injection medication, or once every three months. And there's product and development for other medications for once every two months. I have this conversation with individuals that I see. It allows them to focus on their recovery, because they don't have to remember to take their medication. And I think that's an important piece. What some of young adults tell me is that they have to take a pill every day that just reminds them that they have an illness. But if they just need to come into the clinic once a month, or every three months for an injection, that helps them focus on their recovery as well. JO  9:18 And Phil, while doing research for this episode, I came across information about using cannabis to treat psychosis. Is that legitimate? PHIL  9:27 No. First of all, a couple of points around that. When we talk about cannabis, keep in mind if we're talking about just overall cannabis plant, there's over 100 active compounds within that. The two most common compounds people hear about, of course, are THC and CBD. And we know that THC is actually more of the risk factor with respect to psychosis development, and poor outcomes after the development of psychosis. There have been some studies trying to look at CBD, cannabidiol, and its potential role within a psychosis, but honestly, there's not a lot. And we just recently published a position statement for the Canadian Psychiatric Association as well as a systematic review and meta-analysis, examining this literature and looking at randomized, controlled trials of different cannabis or cannabinoid products. There's actually only six studies in schizophrenia where they've looked at cannabinoid products, really not much effect. I'm not being negative about it. But just highlighting that we do need a lot more research into this area. And we have to be very clear on what sort of cannabinoid product that we're talking about. JO  10:39 Let's talk about another piece of the recovery puzzle, which is psychological support. Psychological or mental and emotional effects associated with schizophrenia can include depression, anxiety, substance-use, suicidal ideation, and others. These often respond well to treatments such as cognitive behavior therapy, and other emerging approaches such as reality therapy and cognitive remediation. Phil, how do these work? And how can they be integrated with biological solutions? PHIL  11:16 Well first of all, our approach is integrated. We look at, say, medication plus as well as the psychotherapy and psychosocial treatments as well. Having more tools in our toolkit to be able to address the illness. We will have some people who will definitely benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy for psychosis. And that really allows an individual to learn how to adapt, and respond, and develop strategies to work with their symptoms, for example, so that an individual is not as stressed by their symptoms or able to manage them so that they can do what they want to do, basically, in their day-to-day lives. There's a number of different strategies and therapies along these lines. Some are more similar to each other than not. We have a sort of service and commitment therapy as well, ACT, plus as you mentioned, CBT. But they're really there to help augment that individual's experience with their symptoms, or for example, with comorbid symptoms as well, such as depression and anxiety. JO  12:17 So Chris and Kat, are your peers ever hesitant to add these therapies to their recovery plans? KATRINA  12:25 I know I wasn't. In talking with peers, we usually do touch on some of these possibilities. And there's usually enthusiasm at the idea. Oh yeah, I heard of that, or along those lines where they are willing to engage. CHRIS  12:43 I don't think there would be a hesitancy in general, if people were aware of what their various therapies are. There are many what I call, talk therapies that we can utilize today. Some have been mentioned, cognitive remediation, cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, and acceptance commitment therapy, and family therapy. People in general, I think, have a fear of going into therapy because someone's going to try to fix me, and I have to expose them to, and I have to reveal all of my problematic thinking or what have you. So, I think the goal of these therapies have to be clearer for the patient or the client, and that is helping one to manage difficulty in the area of cognition and their thinking, helping them in their executive skills, helping them to improve their communication skills and relationships. So, the therapy has to be explained to people that it will be more than a supplement to the medication, where the medication is not able to address certain issues. Talk therapies have been demonstrated to promote the recovery process. JO  13:47 What are the biggest barriers to people not receiving the psychological support they need? CHRIS  13:53 Well number one, here in Canada, psychological support services are not covered by our health care system unless you're a patient in the hospital. But once you're out in the community, you have to shell it out of your own pocket, and most people can't afford psychological support therapies. And also, the lack of awareness about the role that trauma can play in psychosis and recovery. A lot of people don't know about that. And many service providers may not actually be trained in trauma informed care, due to the lack of trauma informed services. So all those things that I've just mentioned, can be great barriers to people receiving the appropriate psychological supports that they need. PHIL  14:32 I'll have to step in and agree with that. Access and availability is a big thing. The other thing to consider as a barrier. Families talk to me about this kind of at the beginning, when is psychotherapy going to start? And sometimes the barrier, of course, is the illness itself and that person to be able to engage and work within some of these therapies, they have to get to a certain cognitive level to be able to do that. And that's where sometimes we have to wait a little bit of time until we get some better control on some of those symptoms, so that people are then able to engage in some of the psychosocial and talk therapies that would be helpful. JO  15:08 What about creative therapies that use art, music, drama, and writing? KATRINA  15:14 Those, speaking from a person of lived experience and pure perspective, can be very, very useful for meditations and journaling, because really it helps somebody walk through and process thoughts, feelings, and experiences. And I personally think that can be very valuable, as it's really helped me in many ways. PHIL  15:40 I'd have to agree. We've been researching areas of this as well, and we published on this too in a number of different formats and looking at mindfulness-based support groups for families looking at self compassion, and mindfulness, in relation to depression and anxiety. And interestingly too, we've even published on claymation art therapy in our youth and young adult population and the benefits of that. One person may do well with claymation art therapy, and another person not interested at all. So, it helps to be able to investigate and to know that these types of therapies and creative therapies can be helpful. JO  16:14 In your stories and insights, I'm hearing that social support is also vital for people recovering from schizophrenia, this being available through peer support, self-help programs, and family education and support. Chris, what are the biggest barriers to people receiving the social support they need? CHRIS  16:35 Society in general and the media as well, they tend to think that it's just all about medication. You wouldn't believe how many times I've been asked this question through the over 1500 media interviews that I've done, in which I will be asked, "well, how do we make sure these people stay on their medication?" As if medication was the cure all? Again, education is needed that, quote, the treatment of mental illness, and particularly schizophrenia that we're talking about today, is very holistic, so a holistic approach. And that means, what do we do to help people when they're in the community, back at home, back in the community? What kinds of social supports do they need? Whether it's peer support, support groups, whether it's accommodations in pursuing education, accommodation and getting a job, adequate housing, decent income, all those factors. As a society, I think we get it with most other illnesses. These kinds of questions didn't come up when my wife was experiencing breast cancer. There was pure support, there was family engagement, there was family education. There was not just attempts but helping her to connect with various community agencies. One of the things that perhaps gets in the way, which we'll talk about later, is that this profound stigma and prejudice towards people who have a mental illness that live in our community, that affects our policies, that affects our funding. It's a great misconception out there that to address mental illnesses is just a matter of the medical. But as we've listened to Dr. Tibbo and Katrina, they've articulated well that psychological, social, the communal aspects involved in recovery are equally important. JO  18:35 Kat, can you share a story of how important social support is? KATRINA  18:40 The way I'll share it is actually to state that sometimes we hear feedback as peer support workers from our peers, as we're going through the process and discussing with them where they're at and where they're going, and what they're working on, and what they're trying to accomplish. And one of my peers sent back the message, for instance, that I made them feel comfortable, and that I connected with her, that I was nurturing, and calming, and helped that peer make their own decisions that were right for them. And that's, I think, an important piece, that connection to the recovery process and that non-aloneness. And I think that is something that peer support is demonstrating. What we're doing right now at the Mental Health Crisis Response Center is a pilot program. The feedback that we're getting is huge, phenomenal to positive that, yes, this is worth it. JO  19:41 I know you're researching the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical treatment options like therapy and peer support. What have you learned so far? PHIL  19:52 Well, I think the high-level approach to this question is really important. And that we need to continue with our research in looking at non-pharmaceutical options, and the different types of therapy and peer support. Specifically finding out what we can use, what has the best effect, will be important for the population that we work with as well. We have researched peer support and we have found, yes definitely, it is needed and people, as Katrina mentioned, do benefit from it in many varieties of ways. JO  20:21 Chris as a recovery practitioner, you're very familiar with psychosocial rehabilitation, which I've learned among other things, includes case management, advocacy, structured living residences, and rehab centers, for example. Tell us more about that. And what are the biggest barriers to people receiving the rehabilitation they do need? CHRIS  20:46 We have here in Canada, what's called Psychosocial Rehabilitation Canada, an organization that promotes psychosocial rehabilitation of all mental health service providers. So it's not just limited, let's say, to social workers or mental health workers. So let me just define it. First of all, psychosocial rehabilitation, also sometimes called psychiatric rehabilitation, it promotes personal recovery, successful community integration, the satisfactory quality of life for persons who have a mental health problem or mental illness. Psychosocial rehabilitation services and supports, they're what we call collaborative, person directed, individualized, and we believe they're essential element of human service prospective. And so the goal of psychiatric rehabilitation, or psychosocial rehabilitation is focused on helping individuals develop skills, and access the resources needed to increase their capacity to be successful and satisfied, in what we would call living, working, learning, and social environments of their choice. And so you need a wide continuum of services and supports. The approaches, they are evidence based. And they are promising practices in key life domains of, let's say, employment, education, leisure, wellness, and basic living skills. And family involvement, family peer support, individual peer support are very important aspects of psychosocial rehabilitation. JO  22:18 Chris, what needs to be in place for this to happen? CHRIS  22:22 Truly integrated comprehensive mental health services in which the various sectors are endorsing and creating relationships with each other. So whether that's psychiatrists, social worker, a mental health worker, spiritual health care director. The team of support around the patient, they're not in competition with each other. They are to be working as a team when they have their meetings, and hopefully, with the patient there, listening to the patient. Again, that's that question. What do you feel would help you? What do you feel you need at this point? And as well as offering, what I want to say as wisdom through listening, offering a wisdom back to the patient in helping them to find the various supports and services in and outside of the hospital, that can promote the recovery experience. JO  23:15 Let's expand upon that and look at vocational rehabilitation, and or training that prepares people with schizophrenia for work that best meets their individual wants and needs. Chris, can you tell us more about that? CHRIS  23:31 So let me just tell you a story to illustrate this point about vocational training. This individual's true-life story who had schizophrenia and he had gone through four mental health workers. Well, what happened with the fourth mental health worker? Began to listen to the individual because he was always very persistent with his mental health workers, that he wanted to be an astronaut. They would just dismiss that, "There's no way you can do that, because you have schizophrenia." Well, the fourth mental health worker began to listen to him and ask him, let's just assume that his name is Joe, and said, "Joe, why would you like to be an astronaut?" And he had seen the first moon landing and other things, and he was very enchanted that he wanted to be an astronaut. So, she asked him then in the course of not just in one conversation, but as they developed their relationship. "Well Joe, what do you think would help you to be able to reach that goal?" And they talked about that, and perhaps hygiene could be a problem. Of course, they began to focus on education. "And so what school do you think there might be, and where would you like to go to school to learn more about this?" And so she encouraged him. "Well, why don't you try for one course?" And he took the course and guess what happened? He failed. But that's not the end of the story. She continued to encourage him about other options, and again, a true-life story. He eventually found work and began to work in a space aeronautics museum, welcoming guests and introducing them to the museum. So did he fulfill his goal and his dream? Yes, but it had to be adjusted. But she didn't give up hope on him in terms of his vocational desire. JO  25:06 What a great story. In my research, I continually came upon the term personalized medicine. Phil, what is personalized medicine? And how could it revolutionize diagnosis and treatment strategies for schizophrenia? PHIL  25:24 Personalized medicine, and sometimes people refer to it as precision medicine as well. So sometimes you hear those terms interchangeably. And really what it is, is the tailoring of the medical treatment to the individual, to the individual characteristics of each patient. It does rely on research, it does rely on an understanding of a person's own unique, molecular, and genetic profile as well, and how that can influence treatment. If you think about a personalized medicine, it is really what's going to be appropriate, what's going to work for you specifically based on who you are, both biologically and otherwise. And really, this sort of came out of the advent of trying to figure out from a genetic perspective, how can we use an individual's unique genetic makeup to guide treatment decision? We're not quite there yet, in that respect, but it allowed us to be able to step back, though, and still think about, okay, what is appropriate for this person that's sitting in front of me. And I think that's a little bit more of a holistic approach to our treatment, and that is truly personalized. Now, if we get to that stage where we can do a cheek swab, get a genetic makeup, and then say, okay, this particular treatment, either medication or otherwise, this is specific to you and will work the best. Obviously, that's a great outcome. Are we there yet? No. But research is going in that direction. JO  26:46 One topic I didn't come across in my research is the role of lifestyle choices in recovery. Healthy habits, like getting enough sleep, eating well, and exercising regularly. Kat, how important have lifestyle choices been in your recovery? And do you teach life skills as part of your work with peers? KATRINA  27:09 Lifestyle choices are very important in my recovery. It's something I pay very close attention to. As far as teaching life skills, we do workshops that do some form of teaching, but teaching as an agenda. It's more of an exploration type discussion. JO  27:30 Phil, what do you see in your research and hear from your patients about the importance of lifestyle choices? PHIL  27:36 Research obviously has shown that it's very important, these lifestyle choices. What are lifestyle choices? These could be anything from smoking, cannabis use, to sedentary lifestyle, activity, diet, a number of different choices. We know that individually each of those, and accumulatively each of those can have an effect on outcomes. And the research is pretty solid with respect to that. And so a lot of our focus, so once we get to some of the early sort of phases is, okay really, how can we improve lifestyle, what kind of healthy choices we can help people with lived experience make. We do things, we have a project where we got some funding currently from our Mental Health Foundation, where we're trying to target our rural population. So we got Fitbits. So that allows us to measure and monitor some things along the lines of sleep and steps and exercise. But to be able to send that to their clinicians and to be able to have those discussions, that's sort of great talking points about lifestyle. CHRIS  28:36 Let me combine that question about lifestyle choices and the previous one about personal medicine. Personal medicine, in terms of consumer movement or people who live with mental illnesses, it was really first introduced in early 2003 as a result of qualitative research conducted by Dr. Patricia Deegan. Now, Patricia Deegan is a psychologist, PhD, has lived experience of schizophrenia and experience of recovery. And so personal medicine along with what Dr. Tibbo said, is also about what we do that's medicinal for us in managing, let's say, my depression. What are those lifestyle choices that I know helped me in terms of managing all the stress associated with living with a mental illness? And stress can lead to relapse, we know. So it's not necessarily something prescribed by a doctor or nurse. It comes from within, and it's finding that right balance of what to do and what we take in our pathway to recovery. So that can be mindfulness, can be spirituality, it can be running and exercise. Those things that you know help you to manage your illness in terms of stress management, increasing your resiliency, and your mental health as well, because people with a mental illness can have positive mental health. We know that. And so that word as Patricia Deegan has written about it, personalized medicine has to do with those things that we know that are uniquely medicinal for us, and helping us move forward in our recovery. JO  30:16 Thanks Chris, great comments. Phil, is there any science to support the role of practices such as meditation in recovery? PHIL  30:26 Yes, there is research on this. It's not necessarily for everyone. But for people who can do mindfulness-based practices and meditation, it definitely has been shown to be quite helpful in a number of different ways. I don't say for individuals with lived experience, but we published actually on mindfulness-based techniques for family members, and definitely see the benefits within that group as well. JO  30:50 Advancing technology is another thing I'm hearing a lot about for diagnostic and treatment purposes. Phil, from your perspective and in your practice, can you bring us up to speed on that? PHIL  31:02 Our advances of technology, we're trying to utilize those as best as we can, as quickly as we can as well. And also moving from research to clinical applications, of course, is really quite important. Kind of alluded to this a little bit earlier. We have had advances in the various brain imaging techniques to help us with diagnosis. And there's a lot of different types of brain imaging techniques that are focused either on brain structure, but as well as brain function, and of course, the different parts of the brain, white matter and gray matter. And then other types of diagnostic technologies are there, treatments as well, such as rTMS. There's a lot of this that's happening. And I don't want to minimize that there's a lot of research that have gone into the development and use of smartphone apps as well, and their utility within helping people move forward with their lives and on their treatment to recovery goals. JO  31:56 Chris, what about that technology for social support services? CHRIS  32:01 Well, there are two things that COVID has surfaced for us. Number one has placed mental health definitely on the radar. Ninety-eight percent of Canadians are more concerned about the impact of mental health. Secondly, the use of virtual technology, and that will not go away after the pandemic. In fact, about a year and a half ago, I had my first FaceTime experience with my GP. I never thought that would happen. So use of Zoom and other technology to offer peer support individually, to offer support groups. Many of the schizophrenia societies across Canada are doing education with family members through virtual technology. So that's not going to go away after the pandemic. It is all in a state of development. I think Dr. Tibbo, when he and I've had discussions on this, we have to look at safety, confidentiality issues, privacy, and having good standards. And then, are the various apps that have been developed and ought to be developed, are they evidence based and effective? So I'm excited about where virtual technology can lead us, especially for people who live outside of urban areas. But the great challenge is that many people with mental illnesses, especially if they're on income security, they don't have access to internet, they can't afford a laptop or an iPhone. JO  33:24 Kat, how willing are your peers to take advantage of advancing technologies? KATRINA  33:30 It's hard to conjecture, because every peer is different. As Chris pointed out, even the ability of some might be limited. But from what I'm hearing as we compare notes, peers and I, now hey I have that app, this app that works really good for me. It comes up. So I think, for the most part, it's very favorable in that direction. JO  33:53 Chris mentioned COVID-19, and just a very quick question. Phil, how has COVID affected your patients with schizophrenia? PHIL  34:03 Keep in mind that for my particular patients that I see, it's mainly youth and young adults, and actually the resilience there is really quite high. And the adaptation to virtual technologies, such as Zoom and having meetings along those lines, they're actually fairly quick to adapt to. However, what is also interesting is that a lot of the youth and young adults that I see actually didn't want to have their meetings via Zoom. They'd rather be in person. So we've tried our best to work with that. We obviously want to make sure that nobody is going to have relapse or have any ill effects because of COVID. I think we did a pretty good job of pivoting and shifting service delivery and care to accommodate that. COVID-19 overall in the general population, there's a lot of research that has gone into that and we have seen an increase in, for example, substance use in this population. We've also studied acute care admissions to the inpatient units, and I've seen a shift during the height of COVID in states of emergency declarations, where the substances have played a role, a more significant role in admissions than they did before, as well as in a little bit older age group than what we would normally see in a non-COVID year. JO  35:15 Chris, what are you seeing with your peers and their families as a result of COVID? CHRIS  35:22 Each of my workdays, two to three hours now, have been devoted to taking phone calls and answering emails since the pandemic began, by individuals and family members who are looking for additional help. There is evidence that people with schizophrenia are more likely to develop the illness resulting from COVID-19, as opposed to the general population. I think fundamentally, what some recent reports have indicated is that it's become somewhat harder for people with pre-existing mental illnesses to consistently get not only psychiatric care, but also primary health care. JO  36:02 Kat has the pandemic been difficult for you? KATRINA  36:07 It's been challenging in ways for myself and for my peers. For instance, some describe that it slammed them when they were in healthy spaces. It actually slammed them right back into illness because it looked the same. Now, we were isolating, so they were isolated, again, or still. And that just took them back into it. Just as one example alone. For me, I have to admit riding buses to commute to and from work is a challenge because of what I see. And it causes me a little stress. The people that pull their masks down on the bus when they're supposed to have it up, and stuff like that. But for the most part, I think it's, we're just all hanging in there. JO  36:57 Before moving on to talk about stigma, I'd like to thank our major sponsors again, the Social Planning and Research Council of BC, Emil Anderson Construction, WorkSafeBC, and AECOM Engineering Canada. As a registered charity, we rely on support from sponsorships, grants, and donations. If you'd like to support our HEADS UP programming, please visit freshoutlookfoundation.org/donations. As I say on every podcast, you can't have a conversation about mental health, without talking about stigma. Phil, how does stigma affect people you've researched and treated biologically and psychologically? PHIL  37:40 Stigma can be a huge part of the illness. There are a number of elements to stigma as well. And I'm sure Chris and Katrina will elaborate on these as well, and some we've already alluded to as well within our discussion. Because stigma can affect people's entry into care. And that because of the stigma around the illness, or stigma actually even towards mental health, either themselves or even within their family members as well, can actually affect their pathways to care. And we've done some research on that and have been able to show that. And then when somebody is in care too, and we do have to work with what we sometimes call self stigma, people's perceptions and ideas of what a diagnosis of schizophrenia means and what it can mean. And so there's those elements as well. And of course, we're trying to be the best advocates that we can for patients and our families. And that's where we try to work with the stigma in other areas around society towards the illness, towards mental health, of course, in general. Being those advocates and supports towards vocational or educational pursuits as well. We've definitely gotten a lot better with respect to that over the last number of years, but there still exists some of that stigma out there. JO  38:54 Kat, how would you describe stigma from the perspective of a person with schizophrenia? KATRINA  38:59 I would describe it as a belittlement. And a discreditation is a way of writing somebody off to make them not count. It's even, now how many times do you see it on TV used in a court of law, theoretically, to discredit somebody so much that that witness doesn't even count. It's a write off, and that's not fair. JO  39:21 Chris, what about the impacts of social and vocational stigma on the people you're advocating for? CHRIS  39:28 Well, first of all, we need to understand that all stigmas are built on the same formula. And that is misconceptions and myths, plus lack of education multiplied by fear, results in prejudice, and none of us are immune from prejudice. We all as a human experience. And what we need to do is to be able to look at our attitudes, confront them, and be willing to grow up, to change. Because there is societal stigma, and then when an individual with a mental illness internalizes society's stigma, we call that self stigma. So they think, well, I must have a broken brain and I'm not deserving. And then there's structural stigma in terms of laws, and policies, and practices that result in unfair treatment of people with a mental illness. Now, what does it all result in? It's not just about hurt feelings. Stigma results in a reluctance to seek out treatment. It delays treatment, it increases morbidity and mortality, it results in social rejection, avoidance, and isolation. It results in worse psychological well-being for individuals living with a mental illness. There's poor understanding amongst friends and families. Stigma can lead to harassment, violence, and bullying, poor quality of life, increased socio-economic burden. That's above and beyond the shame and the self doubt that the individual may face. That is perhaps our greatest enemy in promoting comprehensive mental health services and recovery oriented mental health services. That's why we have to advocate as Martin Luther King did, as other leaders and various other movements did, to claim our voice and to identify injustices where they are, and what impedes our being able to see people with mental illnesses as our brothers and sisters, our neighbor, and the fact that we should love one another as we love ourselves. JO  41:33 Kat, you and Chris have both experienced the mental health care system. Just wondering what you've seen, as far as stigma goes within that system. CHRIS  41:43 Well, the Mental Health Commission did a study a number of years ago amongst mental health service providers, and it found that stigma is alive and well within our mental health system, and those who provide psychiatric supports and services. So that might be surprising to people. None of us are immune to stigma, it has to be addressed. And whether you're a doctor, a psychiatrist, a police officer, a correctional guard in one of our prisons, people have to receive supportive education, which helps them to identify their attitudes, which leads to actions of discrimination, or improper behavior, or working with clients, patients, prisoners, etc. So this is a huge issue. JO  42:36 So we're on the homestretch. Now, given what you've learned over the years, what would you say to give hope to people who are early in their recovery journeys? CHRIS  42:48 What I would say is, I want you to meet Katrina. Katrina has lived experience of psychosis. But she also has found ways to move forward and live beyond the limitations of mental illness. She's a peer support worker. And so Katrina, through her lived experience, she will listen. And she will give you realistic hope. Because the hope for recovery is possible. I know this is a difficult time for you right now. And the next couple of years, it may seem like you're not coming out of this deep, dark hole. So what I'm saying here is that I think introducing patients to a peer support worker as soon as possible, can help with the depression and the forlornness that a person may be experiencing by receiving a diagnosis of psychosis or schizophrenia. We need to be realistic, but also, we need to communicate hope that things can get better. And the person who can communicate that the best is a peer support worker who's been down that road and knows what helps and hinders recovery. JO  43:53 Kat, what have you learned about hope? KATRINA  43:56 I've learned that it is the most wondrous and beautiful thing in existence to have hope, and that life without hope, isn't life at all. JO  44:06 Chris, what would you say to family members who are confused, fearful, and frustrated? CHRIS  44:13 I would say that it's normal. It's very normal to be confused, and frustrated, and fearful, and to feel shame. It's normal. And that is not your fault. But that help is available. We know more than we've ever known before about schizophrenia, psychosis, treatment modalities, what helps in the recovery process. And so I would encourage the family who's new at all of this, that there are individuals known as family navigators, or family peer support workers, and that there's family education. There are support groups because the family is in recovery too. The individual with schizophrenia or psychosis, they're not the only one in recovery. But the family is also on a recovery journey, in terms of dealing with their stigma. Dealing with their fears and their frustration, learning communication skills with their loved one who has a mental illness, and that there's hope for the entire family. And things can get better, but not minimizing the barriers and the frustrations that are there. JO  45:17 Phil, what would you say to medical and mental health professionals to help them better understand schizophrenia, and to respond more compassionately? PHIL  45:26 A lot of it is that storytelling, and a lot of what we're doing here tonight too, as well, and just appreciate that a diagnosis of schizophrenia is not necessarily a negative diagnosis, and that people can have great outcomes. And its outcomes based on the individual and what they perceive that their own personal sense of well-being and psychological well-being. And so appreciating and having them appreciate the various outcomes that can exist within schizophrenia and psychosis. So it really comes down to still a lot of that education, that's important. It's not necessarily education, for example, from me from the medical community. It's also education for family members. It's education from people with lived experience, as well. And these are very important stories for the medical community to hear. JO  46:08 How would you pitch the need for wholesale change in mental health care to the people making those policy and funding decisions, Chris? CHRIS  46:18 Well, in terms of policymakers and politicians, I think that we not only point out to them, and most the time they know this already, that our current mental health system is not adequate. And it fails many people. And that most people struggling with a mental health problem or mental illness, are not getting the kinds of supports and services that we've talked about on this podcast today. But then I would move forward, promoting transformation of the mental health system through the recovery philosophy. Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, England, has moved towards recovery oriented mental health services. In fact, the fastest growing occupation in the mental health system in England is that of peer support workers, embedding peer support workers in the mental health system, which can help transform the mental health system. We have to educate those who make policy, in politicians. And we have to get to administrators and hospitals and other domains, and not just write recovery into policies, but develop toolkits to help practitioners to move towards a recovery environment. We have to be patient, but we have to be persistent. And we have to be consistent in our advocacy. And we have to speak with one voice. The best advocacy is collaborative advocacy. Unfortunately, there is still much debate within the mental health community about the medical model versus the recovery philosophy. But we have to persist, we have to be determined we can overcome. PHIL  47:57 So it's a great question. And I guess I kind of go back to some of a little bit what I mentioned earlier, it shouldn't be me doing this pitch for wholesale change. And sometimes I really think it needs to come from those individuals who are living it, both the individuals with lived experience, and their family members. And oftentimes, our major changes in either service delivery, or funding, or policy have come because of the advocacy of family and individuals with lived experience as well. We can be there in the medical community to help support, and give that research, and give the data, and look at cost analysis. But the pitch needs to be unified with all the important stakeholders. JO  48:38 And what would you say to those of us who may not know enough about schizophrenia, but who are willing to explore our ignorance and our conscious and or unconscious biases? CHRIS  48:50 Well, it's all about contact-based education. So what I would say to a person is get to know someone, get to know that relative who has schizophrenia, and get to know that neighbour who is experiencing psychosis the same way I had to do when I was a racist in the deep south. In the first part of my life, as a child, as a teenager and young adult, I had to confront my racism. And the way I did that was by moving out of my supposed circle of safety. And that was getting to know people different from me, people of colour. Eating with them, praying with them, interacting, listening to their hopes and dreams. And then you see a person. So we have to do the same thing in terms of going beyond our comfort zones, to learning the truth about the reality of people who live with psychosis or any mental illness. JO  49:44 Kat, any comments? KATRINA  49:46 To those who are willing to explore, you'll find a whole new world because you'll rediscover people that were there the whole time. JO  49:56 What I've discovered is a whole new world of potential. So, not only for people with schizophrenia, but for collaborative change. CHRIS  50:06 Exactly. You mentioned a wonderful word, their potential. In fact, that is the mission of the Schizophrenia Society of Canada. Build a Canada, where people living with psychosis and schizophrenia achieve their potential. And that's what recovery is all about. JO  50:26 So in closing, I have just one more question for each of you. Given what you've learned, personally and professionally, and what we're collectively learning through research and advancing technology, how do you envision the world of schizophrenia changing over the next 20 or 30 years? Kat, let's start with you. KATRINA  50:48 That there won't be the fear of the illness to stop people from finding out if they need help, how to do it. That there won't be this belittlement that can lead to the self stigma, which feels horrible. That there will be treatments that encompass the wholeness of who you are, working together in greater capacity than where we're at now. We have made some progress, but we're not there yet. JO  51:23 Chris, your vision? CHRIS  51:24 We will live in a society in which no one is left behind. Not because they have schizophrenia or psychosis. That stigma will basically be a thing of the past, and it will not be our big albatross. That in fact, that treatments will go beyond anti-psychotics and won't even have to use antipsychotics. And that the recovery philosophy will be fully ingrained within our mental health system. That's what I hope for. PHIL  51:56 I think we'll have a better understanding of the illness and understanding, for example, from the biological underpinnings of the illness. That will in itself help us to understand the best treatments for schizophrenia. So I think we'll see some advancement there within the biological treatments, but as well as the psychosocial or psychotherapy type of treatments, as well. And I think really what we're seeing as well, is just that better understanding and appreciation. I think in 20 or 30 years, we'll see some of the stigma being reduced as well. I think what will continue to happen is that understanding of illness, and it's really getting back to that early intervention piece. And people understanding that if things aren't really quite right, they should get it checked out. And I do make that analogy when I do some public speaking about skin cancer, and that we've had enough education at this point to realize, okay, if we have a funny looking mole, we should get it checked out. May not be anything, but it may be something that needs a little bit more attention. Hopefully, we will be in 20 or 30 years with mental health and wellness as well, is that enough education there to say, okay, if things aren't really quite right, then we should get it checked out. Again, maybe nothing, but it may be something that needs attention. The earlier that attention is there and the treatment than the better the outcomes. JO  53:10 Thanks so much to all of you for your profound insights, ideas, and passions for making the world a much better place for people with schizophrenia, their families and friends, their employers, and society at large. Phil, I so admire and applaud your attention to the ever-changing details of diagnosis, and both pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical treatment options. Your boundless curiosity will certainly make schizophrenia less mysterious, and perhaps one day even curable or preventable. PHIL  53:46 Thank you so much for that. And importantly, as these venues, these educational opportunities, these podcasts, are really going to help us to those eventual goals as well. Thank you very much for this opportunity. JO  53:58 Kat and Chris, your willingness to be vulnerable so that others might be helped, is truly inspiring. And I'm sure will help to inform and transform the evolving conversation around social support and advocacy. KATRINA  54:14 It's a pleasure to help. I know, if I would have had peer support years ago, things would have been different. And that's why I'm working so hard to be a peer support worker is to make that difference. JO  54:31 Chris? CHRIS  54:31 I hope that the listeners of this podcast will be inspired and motivated to take a different approach to seeing people who have a mental illness. And here's the statement, ask not what illness a person has, ask what person the illness has. See a person, not an illness. JO  54:53 Thank you both. This is one of the most robust and powerful discussions I've had. The three of you, what you bring to the conversation individually is astounding, but how well you blended your experiences and insights is really truly remarkable. This has been a wonderful, wonderful experience for me. That's a wrap on Part 2 of our podcast on schizophrenia. Be sure to catch Part 1, which focuses on stories, signs, myths, and recovery philosophy. Huge thanks again to our guests for sharing their amazing minds and spirits. To connect with Kat, Chris, or Phil, check out the episode show notes at freshoutlookfoundation.org/podcasts where you'll find contact info, complete bios, and a transcript. I'd appreciate you leaving a review as well. I'm also grateful for all you listeners and hope this information inspires and mobilizes you along the rapidly changing road to recovery. If you haven't already signed up for monthly HEADS UP e-blasts about new episodes, please visit freshoutlookfoundation.org. And for ongoing information, follow us on Facebook at FreshOutlookFoundation and Twitter at FreshOutlook. In closing, be healthy and let's connect again soon. Episode Reviews

Grape seed extract found to extend lifespan of old mice Chinese Academy of Sciences and Mayo Clinic, December 7, 2021 A team of researchers affiliated with a host of institutions in China and the U.S. has found that injecting procyanidin C1 (PCC1), a chemical found in grape seed extract, into older mice extended their lifespan. In their paper published in the journal Nature Metabolism, the group describes the link between PCC1 and extended lifespan in mice and the experiments they carried out with the material. The researchers screened 46 plant extracts looking for anti-aging capabilities. They came across PCC1. Initial tests during screening showed it reduced the number of senescent cells in the human prostate. Such cells are known to contribute to aging. Intrigued with their results, the researchers tested it further. They found that at low doses it prevented senescent cells from contributing to inflammation, and at higher doses killed them outright without harming other cells. (NEXT) Gratitude may improve your health University of Michigan and University of California, San Francisco, December 6, 2021 Be thankful for what you have—it might improve your physical and mental health, according to a new global study that uses cell phone data. People who were more grateful had lower blood pressure and heart rate, as well as greater feelings of appreciation toward others. The study found that optimism was also linked to health and mental benefits, such as better sleep quality and more positive expectations and reflections. The findings showed that gratitude and optimism are positive psychological dispositions associated with beneficial outcomes. Gratitude highlighted the positive aspects of the day, whereas optimism minimized the negative aspects of the day, the study indicated. In addition, optimism was a better predictor of sleep quality and stress frequency and intensity than gratitude. (NEXT) Higher physical activity is associated with a better metabolic health risk factor profile in menopausal women University of Jyvaskyla (Finland), November 29, 2021 A study conducted at the University of Jyväskylä shows that menopausal transition is associated with unfavourable changes in metabolic health that may be mitigated with a physically active lifestyle. Especially, physical activity alleviated the increase in systolic blood pressure. In the study, the women were divided into three groups based on the change in their menopausal status during the follow-up period and the groups were compared to each other. Body composition, waist circumference, blood pressure, blood lipids and glucose and physical activity were measured twice during the four-year follow-up time. In all groups, the levels of several metabolic health indicators deteriorated. (NEXT) Could glucosamine and chondroitin support a healthy colon? Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, December 6, 2021 Use of the supplements, which are used for joint health support, was associated with a 23% reduction in the risk of colorectal cancer, according to data from the Nurses' Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study published in the International Journal of Cancer . “Results of this study suggest a potential beneficial effect of glucosamine and chondroitin supplementation on risk of colorectal cancer, and further support the previously observed association between use of these supplements and risk of colorectal cancer in the VITAL study,” wrote the researchers. “Additional study is needed to better understand the association between use of glucosamine and chondroitin and risk of colorectal cancer, and the mechanisms by which these supplements may affect risk of colorectal cancer.” (NEXT) Cannabis impacts sperm counts, motility in two generations of mice Washington State University, December 2, 2021 An intense but short-term exposure to cannabis vapor lowered sperm counts and slowed sperm movement, or motility, not only in the directly exposed male mice but also in their sons. The Washington State University study, published in the journal Toxicological Sciences, builds on other human and animal studies, showing that cannabis can impede male reproductive function. The current study uses more controlled circumstances than human studies, which often have to rely on surveys, and is the first known reproductive study to use vaporized whole cannabis in mice, which is the more common form humans use. (NEXT) Study suggests giving kids too many toys stifles their creativity University of Toledo, December 6, 2021 A team of researchers at the University of Toledo has found that children are more creative when they have fewer toys to play with at one time. In their paper published in the journal Infant Behavior and Development, the group describes their observational study of toddlers at play, what they learned and offer some suggestions for parents. The researchers found that the toddlers playing with four toys engaged in more creative activities than did the toddlers who had 16 toys to choose from. They also found, unsurprisingly, that toddlers with fewer options tended to play with each of the toys available to them for a longer amount of time. Much of that additional time, the researchers noted, was taken up with finding news ways to play with them. (OTHER NEWS NEXT) TO WATCH THE VIDEO PART OF THE GARY NULL SHOW GO TO PROGRESSIVERADIONETWORK.COM (NEXT) Rap Sheets for Pfizer and J&J PFIZER Rejected the government for distributing the vaccine… will do it itself CEO Albert Bouria – before reining the closing bell at stock exchange.. stated that those who do not vaccinated will be the weak links in stopping the pandemic Pfizer – second largest drug/biotech co in world – 4th highest earner in vaccines Product safety – it is heart valves were defected and caused a hundred deaths – investigation found company intentionally misled regulators knowing about hazards Celebrex.. in wake of vioxx – painkiller.. admitted in its trials the drug increased heart problems.  Settled 894 million – for Celebrex and Bextra (painkiller that causes cardio and GI risks) More recent – 1000 lawsuits or birth defects associated with its drug Zolof… Price fixing – as far back as 1950s with antibiotics. Such as tetracycline Price fixing over the years… AIDS drug, Lipitor (cholesterol drug) In 2016 the Justice Department announced that Pfizer would pay $784 million to settle allegations that it underpaid rebates to Medicaid on two of its drugs. 20 million paid to 4500 doctors for speaking on behalf of its drugs Busted for false Centrum claims for breast and colon health Racketeering fraud over Neurtonin – epilepsy drug Bribery – payments to foreign government officials.. and  bribing overseas doctors to increase foreign sales Selling off label Kickbacks from medicare Tax avoidance – using paper work to “relocate” to Ireland , tax haven Repeatedly paid fines for environmental violations at its research and manufacturing plants. In 2009 - dubious distinction of paying the largest-ever criminal fine at the time — $2.3 billion — for fraudulent and illegal promotion of four drugs, including a painkiller marketed at “dangerously high” doses. In 2016, a British regulator levied a $106 million fine against Pfizer for a 2600% increase in the price of a widely prescribed anti-epilepsy drug that increased the National Health Services' expenditures from one year to the next — for a single drug—from $2.5 million to $63 million. Pfizer is the top drug company spender in state elections, even outspending the industry's own lobbying group, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRM). In 2014 Pfizer launched an effort to take over AstraZeneca that was designed not only to swallow a competitor but also to cut its tax bill by locating the headquarters of the combined operation in Britain. When AstraZeneca resisted the controversial move, Pfizer abandoned the bid. Then in November 2015 Pfizer announced a similar deal, worth $160 billion, to merge with Allergan and move the headquarters of the combined company to Ireland. The plan was dropped when the Obama Administration introduced new tax rules. JOHNSON AND JOHNSON In 2004 J&J agreed to pay up to $90 million to settle lawsuits linking the prescription heartburn medication Propulsid to several hundred deaths and many more cases of cardiac irregularity. During 2009 and 2010 the company had to announce a string of recalls of medications, contact lenses and hip implants. The most serious of these was the massive recall of more than 136 million bottles of liquid Tylenol and Motrin for infants and children after batches of the medications were found to be contaminated with metal particles. The company's handling of the matter was so poor that J&J subsidiary McNeil-PPC became the subject of a criminal investigation and later entered a guilty plea and paid a criminal fine of $20 million and forfeited $5 million. It also came out during a Congressional investigation of the matter that in 2008 J&J had engaged in what was labeled a "phantom recall." When faced with Motrin IB caplets that were not dissolving property, McNeil hired contractors to buy up the products in stores while making no announcement to the public. In 2013 J&J reached a deal with plaintiffs lawyers under which it would pay nearly $2.5 billion in compensation to an estimated 8,000 people who had received flawed hip implants. In 2016 two juries awarded a total of $127 million damages to women who sued J&J claiming that their ovarian cancer was caused by the talc in J&J Baby Powder. An award of $417 million was made by a California jury in 2017 and a verdict of more than $4 billion was awarded in Missouri in 2018 (an appeal court later reduced that to $2.1 billion). The New York Times reported in December 2018 that internal company memos from the 1970s discussed the possibility that its talcum powder could contain asbestos. In 1996 J&J reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission under which the company agreed to stop making what the agency called false claims about the failure rates of condoms in the marketing of its K-Y spermicidal lubricant. In 2010 J&J subsidiaries Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical and Ortho-McNeil-Janssen had to pay $81 million to settle charges that they promoted the epilepsy drug Topamax for uses not approved as safe by the Food and Drug Administration The following year, J&J subsidiary Scios Inc. had to pay $85 million to settle similar charges relating to its heart failure drug Natrecor. In 2013 the Justice Department announced that J&J and several of its subsidiaries would pay more than $2.2 billion in criminal fines and civil settlements to resolve allegations that the company had marketed its anti-psychotic medication Risperdal and other drugs for unapproved uses as well as allegations that they had paid kickbacks to physicians and pharmacists to encourage off-label usage In a related Risperdal civil lawsuit, a jury later awarded $8 billion in damages but a Philadelphia judge reduced that by more than 99 percent to $6.8 million. In 2019 J&J and its subsidiary Ethicon, Inc. agreed to pay over $116 million to 41 states and the District of Columbia to settle litigation alleging deceptive marketing of transvaginal surgical mesh devices. In a separate suit brought by California, a state judge ordered the company to pay $344 million. In 2021 J&J reached an agreement with a group of states under which it would pay $5 billion to resolve litigation brought against its subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals alleging improper sale of pain medications, contributing to the national opioid epidemic. In 2001 J&J agreed to pay up to $860 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging that the company had misled consumers into prematurely throwing away disposable Acuvue contact lenses. The suits argued that the company drove up sales of its 1-Day Acuvue soft lenses by recommending that consumers use them only once, even though the product was identical to regular Acuvue lenses, which could be worn as long as two weeks. In 2011 J&J agreed to pay a $21.4 million criminal penalty as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department resolving allegations of improper payments by J&J subsidiaries to government officials in Greece, Poland and Romania in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. (NEXT) Weapons trade booms as profits hit record $531bn in 2020 Swedish think tank says world's 100 biggest arms firms were largely shielded from the effect of the pandemic. AL JAZEERA. 6 Dec 2021 Sales of weapons and military services by the world's 100 biggest arms companies reached a record $531bn in 2020, an increase of 1.3 per cent in real terms compared with the previous year, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The Swedish think tank said 2020 marked the sixth consecutive year of sales growth by the top 100 firms, and came even as the global economy shrank. Overall sales were 17 percent higher than in 2015 when it first included data on Chinese firms. “The industry giants were largely shielded by sustained government demand for military goods and services,” Alexandra Marksteiner, researcher with the SIPRI Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme, said in a statement on Monday. “In much of the world, military spending grew and some governments even accelerated payments to the arms industry in order to mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 crisis.” Firms in the United States continue to dominate the industry, with total sales of $285bn from 41 companies accounting for about 54 percent of all arms sales among the 100 biggest companies. The top five companies in the ranking since 2018 have all been based in the US, SIPRI said. Arms sales from the top Chinese firms amounted to an estimated $66.8bn in 2020, 1.5 percent more than in 2019. Chinese firms accounted for 13 percent of the Top 100 arms sales' total, ahead of the United Kingdom, which had the third-largest share. “In recent years, Chinese arms companies have benefited from the country's military modernization programmes and focus on military-civil fusion,” said Nan Tian, SIPRI senior researcher. “They have become some of the most advanced military technology producers in the world.” The seven UK companies recorded arms sales of $37.5bn in 2020, up by 6.2 percent compared with 2019. Arms sales by BAE Systems – the sole European firm in the top 10 – increased by 6.6 percent to $24bn. (NEXT) You'd Better Watch Out: The Surveillance State Has a Naughty List, and You're On It John W. Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead, December 7, 2021 No longer does the all-knowing, all-seeing, jolly Old St. Nick need to rely on antiquated elves on shelves and other seasonal snitches in order to know when you're sleeping or awake, and if you've been naughty or nice. Thanks to the government's almost limitless powers made possible by a domestic army of techno-tyrants, fusion centers and Peeping Toms, Santa can get real-time reports on who's been good or bad this year. This creepy new era of government/corporate spying—in which we're being listened to, watched, tracked, followed, mapped, bought, sold and targeted—makes the NSA's rudimentary phone and metadata surveillance appear almost antiquated in comparison. Tracking you based on your health status. In the age of COVID-19, digital health passports are gaining traction as gatekeepers of a sort, restricting access to travel, entertainment, etc., based on one's vaccine status. Whether or not one has a vaccine passport, however, individuals may still have to prove themselves “healthy” enough to be part of society. For instance, in the wake of Supreme Court rulings that paved the way for police to use drug-sniffing dogs as “search warrants on leashes,” government agencies are preparing to use virus-detecting canine squads to carry out mass screenings to detect individuals who may have COVID-19. Researchers claim the COVID-sniffing dogs have a 95% success rate of identifying individuals with the virus (except when they're hungry, tired or distracted). These dogs are also being to trained to ferret out individuals suffering from other health ailments such as cancer. Tracking you based on your face: Facial recognition software aims to create a society in which every individual who steps out into public is tracked and recorded as they go about their daily business. Coupled with surveillance cameras that blanket the country, facial recognition technology allows the government and its corporate partners to identify and track someone's movements in real-time. One particularly controversial software program created by Clearview AI has been used by police, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security to collect photos on social media sitesfor inclusion in a massive facial recognition database. Similarly, biometric software, which relies on one's unique identifiers (fingerprints, irises, voice prints), is becoming the standard for navigating security lines, as well as bypassing digital locks and gaining access to phones, computers, office buildings, etc. In fact, greater numbers of travelers are opting into programs that rely on their biometrics in order to avoid long waits at airport security. Scientists are also developing lasers that can identify and surveil individuals based on their heartbeats, scent and microbiome. Tracking you based on your behavior: Rapid advances in behavioral surveillance are not only making it possible for individuals to be monitored and tracked based on their patterns of movement or behavior, including gait recognition (the way one walks), but have given rise to whole industries that revolve around predicting one's behavior based on data and surveillance patterns and are also shaping the behaviors of whole populations. One smart “anti-riot” surveillance system purports to predict mass riots and unauthorized public events by using artificial intelligence to analyze social media, news sources, surveillance video feeds and public transportation data. Tracking you based on your spending and consumer activities: With every smartphone we buy, every GPS device we install, every Twitter, Facebook, and Google account we open, every frequent buyer card we use for purchases—whether at the grocer's, the yogurt shop, the airlines or the department store—and every credit and debit card we use to pay for our transactions, we're helping Corporate America build a dossier for its government counterparts on who we know, what we think, how we spend our money, and how we spend our time. Consumer surveillance, by which your activities and data in the physical and online realms are tracked and shared with advertisers, has become big business, a $300 billion industry that routinely harvests your data for profit. Corporations such as Target have not only been tracking and assessing the behavior of their customers, particularly their purchasing patterns, for years, but the retailer has also funded major surveillance in cities across the country and developed behavioral surveillance algorithms that can determine whether someone's mannerisms might fit the profile of a thief. Tracking you based on your public activities: Private corporations in conjunction with police agencies throughout the country have created a web of surveillance that encompasses all major cities in order to monitor large groups of people seamlessly, as in the case of protests and rallies. They are also engaging in extensive online surveillance, looking for any hints of “large public events, social unrest, gang communications, and criminally predicated individuals.” Defense contractors have been at the forefront of this lucrative market. Fusion centers, $330 million-a-year, information-sharing hubs for federal, state and law enforcement agencies, monitor and report such “suspicious” behavior as people buying pallets of bottled water, photographing government buildings, and applying for a pilot's license as “suspicious activity.” Tracking you based on your social media activities: Every move you make, especially on social media, is monitored, mined for data, crunched, and tabulated in order to form a picture of who you are, what makes you tick, and how best to control you when and if it becomes necessary to bring you in line. As The Intercept reported, the FBI, CIA, NSA and other government agencies are increasingly investing in and relying on corporate surveillance technologies that can mine constitutionally protected speech on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in order to identify potential extremists and predict who might engage in future acts of anti-government behavior. This obsession with social media as a form of surveillance will have some frightening consequences in coming years. As Helen A.S. Popkin, writing for NBC News, observed, “We may very well face a future where algorithms bust people en masse for referencing illegal ‘Game of Thrones' downloads… the new software has the potential to roll, Terminator-style, targeting every social media user with a shameful confession or questionable sense of humor.” Tracking you based on your phone and online activities: Cell phones have become de facto snitches, offering up a steady stream of digital location data on users' movements and travels. Police have used cell-site simulators to carry out mass surveillance of protests without the need for a warrant. Moreover, federal agents can now employ a number of hacking methods in order to gain access to your computer activities and “see” whatever you're seeing on your monitor. Malicious hacking software can also be used to remotely activate cameras and microphones, offering another means of glimpsing into the personal business of a target. Tracking you based on your social network: Not content to merely spy on individuals through their online activity, government agencies are now using surveillance technology to track one's social network, the people you might connect with by phone, text message, email or through social message, in order to ferret out possible criminals. An FBI document obtained by Rolling Stone speaks to the ease with which agents are able to access address book data from Facebook's WhatsApp and Apple's iMessage services from the accounts of targeted individuals and individuals not under investigation who might have a targeted individual within their network. What this creates is a “guilt by association” society in which we are all as guilty as the most culpable person in our address book. Tracking you based on your car: License plate readers are mass surveillance tools that can photograph over 1,800 license tag numbers per minute, take a picture of every passing license tag number and store the tag number and the date, time, and location of the picture in a searchable database, then share the data with law enforcement, fusion centers and private companies to track the movements of persons in their cars. With tens of thousands of these license plate readers now in operation throughout the country, affixed to overpasses, cop cars and throughout business sectors and residential neighborhoods, it allows police to track vehicles and run the plates through law enforcement databases for abducted children, stolen cars, missing people and wanted fugitives. Of course, the technology is not infallible: there have been numerous incidents in which police have mistakenly relied on license plate data to capture out suspects only to end up detaining innocent people at gunpoint. Tracking you based on your mail: Just about every branch of the government—from the Postal Service to the Treasury Department and every agency in between—now has its own surveillance sector, authorized to spy on the American people. For instance, the U.S. Postal Service, which has been photographing the exterior of every piece of paper mail for the past 20 years, is also spying on Americans' texts, emails and social media posts. Headed up by the Postal Service's law enforcement division, the Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP) is reportedly using facial recognition technology, combined with fake online identities, to ferret out potential troublemakers with “inflammatory” posts. The agency claims the online surveillance, which falls outside its conventional job scope of processing and delivering paper mail, is necessary to help postal workers avoid “potentially volatile situations.” Fusion centers. Smart devices. Behavioral threat assessments. Terror watch lists. Facial recognition. Snitch tip lines. Biometric scanners. Pre-crime. DNA databases. Data mining. Precognitive technology. Contact tracing apps. What these add up to is a world in which, on any given day, the average person is now monitored, surveilled, spied on and tracked in more than 20 different ways by both government and corporate eyes and ears. Big Tech wedded to Big Government has become Big Brother. Every second of every day, the American people are being spied on by a vast network of digital Peeping Toms, electronic eavesdroppers and robotic snoops. In an age of overcriminalization, mass surveillance, and an appalling lack of protections for our privacy rights, we can all be considered guilty of some transgression or other. So you'd better watch out—you'd better not pout—you'd better not cry—‘cos I'm telling you why: this Christmas, it's the Surveillance State that's coming to town, and you're already on its naughty list. (NEXT) Vitamin D: Government Should Have Promoted to Combat Pandemic Joel S. Hirschhorn, December 06, 2021 There seems to be an endless refusal by the public health establishment to fight the pandemic with the best science-based tools.  Instead, they keep pushing vaccines. Great German research provides unequivocal medical evidence that the government should be strongly advocating two actions: 1. Take vitamin D supplements and 2. Have your blood tested for vitamin D. The title for this October 2021 journal article says it all: “COVID-19 Mortality Risk Correlates Inversely with Vitamin D3 Status, and a Mortality Rate Close to Zero Could Theoretically Be Achieved at 50 ng/mL 25(OH)D3: Results of a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.”  [25(OH)D3 refers to metabolite of the vitamin in blood] In other words, there is clear evidence that the lower your vitamin D level the greater your risk of dying from COVID infection.  Moreover, the data clearly show that you need a blood level of at least 50 ng/mL. Odds are, however, that very, very few people have been tested for their vitamin D level.  This is a situation where waiting for testing is not the prudent approach.  Vitamin D pills are pretty cheap and it is perfectly safe to take a healthy daily dose to maintain a good immune system.  I take 4,000 IUs twice daily. Here are a number of highlights from this research and other sources; the discussion is aimed at informing people with information not provided by Big Media, Big Government and Big Pharma. Vitamin D is an accurate predictor of COVID infection.  Its deficiency is just as significant, and perhaps more so, than more commonly discussed underlying medical conditions, including obesity. To be clear, there is a level of vitamin D for an effective strategy at the personal and population level to prevent or mitigate new surges and outbreaks of COVID that are related to reduced vaccine effectiveness and new variants. In the German study, fifteen other studies were cited that showed low vitamin D levels were related to cases of severe COVID infection, and seven studies that found positive results from treating ill patients with the vitamin. The German study noted: “The finding that most SARS-CoV-2 patients admitted to hospitals have vitamin D3 blood levels that are too low is unquestioned even by opponents of vitamin D supplementation.” The German study “followed 1,601 hospitalized patients, 784 who had their vitamin D levels measured within a day after admission and 817 whose vitamin D levels were known before infection.  And the researchers also analyzed the long-term average vitamin D3 levels documented for 19 countries.  The observed median vitamin D value over all collected study cohorts was 23.2 ng/mL, which is clearly too low to work effectively against COVID.” Why does this vitamin work so well?  The German study explained: A main cause of a severe reaction from COVID results from a “cytokine storm.” This refers to the body's immune system releasing too many toxic cytokines as part of the inflammatory response to the virus.  Vitamin D is a main regulator of those cells.  A low level of the vitamin means a greater risk for a cytokine storm.  This is especially pertinent for lung problems from COVID. Other studies On a par with the German study was an important US medical article from May 2021: Vitamin D and Its Potential Benefit for the COVID-19 Pandemic.  It noted: “Experimental studies have shown that vitamin D exerts several actions that are thought to be protective against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infectivity and severity.  … There are a growing number of data connecting COVID-19 infectivity and severity with vitamin D status, suggesting a potential benefit of vitamin D supplementation for primary prevention or as an adjunctive treatment of COVID-19.  … there is no downside to increasing vitamin D intake and having sensible sunlight exposure to maintain serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D at a level of least 30 ng/mL and preferably 40 to 60 ng/mL to minimize the risk of COVID-19 infection and its severity.” This confirms the German study and its finding of a critical vitamin level of 50 ng/mL. Daniel Horowitz has made this correct observation about vitamin D supplementation: “An endless stream of academic research demonstrates that not only would such an approach have worked much better than the vaccines, but rather than coming with sundry known and unknown negative side effects.“ There are now 142 studies vouching for the near-perfect correlation between higher vitamin D levels and better outcomes in COVID patients. From Israel came work that showed 25% of hospitalized COVID patients with vitamin D deficiency died compared to just 3% among those without a deficiency.  And those with a deficiency were 14 times more likely to end up with a severe or critical condition. Also from Israel, data on 1,176 patients with COVID infection admitted to the Galilee Medical Center, 253 had vitamin D levels on record and half were vitamin D-deficient.  This was the conclusion: “Among hospitalized COVID-19 patients, pre-infection deficiency of vitamin D was associated with increased disease severity and mortality.” Several studies have come from the University of Chicago.  One found that a vitamin D deficiency (less than 20 ng/ml) may raise the risk of testing positive for COVID-19, actually a 7.2% chance of testing positive for the virus.  And that more than 80% of patients diagnosed with COVID-19 were vitamin D deficient.  And Black individuals who had levels of 30 to 40 ng/ml had a 2.64 times higher risk of testing positive for COVID-19 than people with levels of 40 ng/ml or greater. On the good news side is a new study from Turkish researchers.  They focused on getting people's levels over 30 ng/mL with supplements.  At that level there was success compared to people without supplementation.  This was true even if they had comorbidities.  They were able to achieve that blood level within two weeks.  Those with no comorbidities and no vitamin D treatment had 1.9-fold increased risk of having hospitalization longer than 8 days compared with cases with both comorbidities and vitamin D treatment. (NEXT) The explosion of Covid PTSD cases is a mental health crisis in the making The Guardian, 7 Dec 2021 When the Covid-19 pandemic began, people working in the trauma field knew the psychological toll would be colossal. In the spring of 2020, I began interviewing professionals about the mental health fallout of the pandemic, specifically its impact on frontline medical staff. During the first wave, two in every five intensive care staff in England reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. That work continued for almost a year, during which time a second wave hit and the initial traumas were exacerbated. But it wasn't only frontline workers who were experiencing trauma symptoms: Covid has posed perhaps the biggest threat to mental health in England since the second world war. Now, at the tail end of 2021, the pandemic is still not over. The NHS forecasts that nationally, there will be 230,000 new cases of PTSD as a result of Covid-19. It is not only social care and medical staff who will be affected. Those who lost loved ones, and those who have been very ill or hospitalised (35% of Covid-19 patients who were put on a ventilator go on to experience extensive symptoms of PTSD) may also suffer. Then there are those living with the effects of domestic and sexual abuse, which may have worsened due to lockdown, and children and young people whose lives changed immeasurably due to our shift to a state of emergency. I imagine that some women whose birthing experiences were marked by the pandemic will also be experiencing symptoms. The explosion of post-traumatic stress disorder is a medical emergency, and a further strain on our creaking services. Without proper action and investment, it is a national mental health crisis in the making.

In this episode, we hear from Heather McCarthy, mother of O'Shea McCarthy, known as Shea, who was born in December of 1988. His love of art and music was apparent from an early age, and by the time he reached adolescence, he had become proficient in a variety of instruments and was the recipient of numerous art awards. Shea excelled in his studies throughout his K through 12 education, especially in his love of nature and science. Upon graduation from high school, he was admitted to Purdue University where he was accepted in the Earth and Atmospheric Science Program. Prior to undergoing corrective surgery for a deviated septum the summer before his sophomore year, Shea was prescribed an extremely large dose of the antibiotic Levaquin. After a three-week course of this veritable atomic bomb of antibiotics, Shea's life would never be the same. Heather remembers that her son became a shadow of the “intelligent, curious, beautiful young man” he was as he was suddenly struggling with anxiety, cardiac issues, insomnia, and a host of other adverse effects caused by Levaquin. Despite telling his treatment providers that he believed his condition was the result of an adverse effect of Levaquin, they chose a diagnosis of bipolar disorder and subsequently prescribed a host of psychotropic drugs that included Risperdal, Lamictal and Ativan. [Heather McCarthy] I think these drugs are so insidious on how they affect your spirit and your mind and, my belief, your soul, because it's such a slow walk. It's such a slow chipping away at who he was. And his anxiety was all the time. He, you know, was twitching a lot and he had so much anxiety. And I think he just got tired. And how degrading it is to not be listened to and to not be believed. I mean, we have medical records that says, “I'm afraid,” he's telling his therapist, “I'm afraid I'm going to crash my car." In hindsight, it's just this ridiculous, to me, belief that he was — you know, he's going, he's getting the treatment, he's going to get better. Like, this is going to pass. This is a brilliant young man. You know? Like, this is going to pass.” Heather McCarthy is an attorney from Northwest Indiana who holds advanced degrees in public administration and English lit. Prior to establishing a private law practice, she was an executive in the mental health industry. She served in the role of vice president at the administrative services organization for Regional Mental Health Center, the facility that treated her son, O'Shea. After his death, Heather pursued an eight-year legal case alleging medical malpractice of the mental health treatment providers in the wrongful death of her son. She also testified, with numerous other victims, at the 2015 FDA hearings that resulted in additional black box warnings for the antibiotic Levaquin and the acknowledgment of a disability, Fluoroquinolone Associated Disability, of which symptoms include cardiac issues, insomnia, restlessness, and psychosis, some of which can be permanent. Heather also supports the efforts of MISSD in creating awareness about akathisia, a condition that was fatal for Shea after receiving mental health treatment.In this episode we hear two interviews with Heather, the first of which was recorded in late 2019, following the MISSD organization's silent auction in Chicago. At that time Heather's lawsuit was in progress and she was not permitted to make mention of it. Later, we hear an interview recorded just last month, following resolution of that litigation.

On today's episode of Mass Tort News LegalCast, I sat down with Dena Young and John Albanese of the law firm of Berger Montague. Dena is Senior Counsel in the firm's Philadelphia office with significant experience in the mass tort space, involving dangerous and defective medical devices, pharmaceutical, and consumer products including Talcum Powder, Transvaginal Mesh, Roundup, Risperdal, Viagra, Zofran, and Xarelto. She discusses her work on the Allergan BIOCELL textured breast implant products liability litigation, and explains how she recognized an opportunity to help victims when other lawyers shied away from doing so. For Dena, her work is a passion project that allows her to connect on a very personal level with her clients. John is an associate in the firm's Minneapolis office. Like Dena he got his start with mass torts at an early stage in his career. John talks with me about the positive work culture at Berger Montague, where every single team member's voice matters. John is fueled by his passion for the practice of law and his desire to help his clients seek justice. As always, please remember to subscribe and follow us on social media. Enjoy the show. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mass-tort-news Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/masstortnewsorg Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/masstortnews.org

All I can say is, 'Are you okay with this?' 274,000 babies aged 1 and younger were given psychiatric drugs — Of these, 249,699 were on anti-anxiety meds like Xanax; 26,406 were on antidepressants such as Prozac or Paxil, 1,422 were on ADHD drugs such as Ritalin and Adderall, and 654 were on antipsychotics such as Risperdal and Zyprexa In the toddler category (2- to 3-year-olds), 318,997 were on anti-anxiety drugs, 46,102 were on antidepressants, 10,000 were prescribed ADHD drugs and 3,760 were on antipsychotics Among children aged 5 and younger, 1,080,168 were on psychiatric drugs I hope not. Please if you or someone you know are on psychiatric drugs, talk to your prescribing doctor and do NOT go off the meds on your own. Please direct your questions, comments and suggestions to drspodcastshow@gmail.com and don't forget to rate and subscribe. Until next time, take care of yourself.

Antidepressants, mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, benzodiazepines, stimulants.....READY SET GO!Med cheat sheetSSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors)-- Prozac, Lexapro, Paxil, Celexa, Zoloft, Luvox, Trintellix, Viibryd-- They are generally NOT antidepressantsMainly helpful for OCD, body dysmorphia,  panic (if not from trauma), depression if postpartum or fueled by neuroticism or ruminative anxietySNRIs (serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors)-- Effexor/venlafaxine, Cymbalta/duloxetineMostly helpful for combined depression/anxiety, especially with insomniaWellbutrin/bupropion-- very stimulating (prison crack!), true antidepressant; can trigger/worsen anxietyMAO  (monoamine oxidase) inhibitors-- powerful antidepressants, lots of side effects and med interactionsLamictal/lamotrigine-- definitely ALL THAT and a bag of chips (see My Desert Island Meds in Season 1)Atypical antipsychotics-  Abilify/aripiprazole, Latuda/lurasidone, Seroquel/quetiapine, Saphris/asenapine, Vraylar/cariprazine, Risperdal/risperidone, Zyprexa/olanzapine, Geodon/ziprasidone, Invega/paliperidone Generally good mood stabilizers (in contrast to the putative "mood stabilizers" below); typically more helpful for severe depression and bipolar disorder than true psychosis (Zyprexa and Risperdal excepted)"Mood stabilizers"- (big misnomer, most effective for  mania/agitation, not depression)-- Depakote/valproic acid, Trileptal/oxcarbazepine, Tegretol/carbamazepineLithium- it's not clozapine, but gets the silver medal as a true mood stabilizer (see My Desert Island Meds in Season 1)Clozapine- the winner of the psychiatric med decathlon in most every event; needs weekly blood monitoring and has a few very serious potential side effectsBenzodiazepines- Xanax/alprazolam; Klonopin/clonazepam, Librium/chlordiazepoxide, Ativan/lorazepam, Valium/diazepamStimulants- Adderall/amphetamine; Vyvanse; Ritalin/Concerta/Focalin/methylphenidateAmphetamines are more euphoria-inducing, thus more abused and addictive and also tend to have more side effects; both amphetamines and methylphenidate are roughly equally effective for ADD/ADHDBFTAhttps://www.craigheacockmd.com/podcast-page/

When a drug impacts a child's feeling about sex and gender I dive into the strange case of the antipsychotic Risperdal, prescribed to many children for autism, ADD and other disorders; and the alleged link to breast growth in boys. Subscribe to my two podcasts: “The Sharyl Attkisson Podcast” and “Full Measure After Hours.” Leave a review, subscribe and share with your friends! Order “Slanted: How the News Media Taught Us to Love Censorship and Hate Journalism” by Sharyl Attkisson at Harper Collins, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books a Million, IndieBound, Bookshop! Visit JustTheNews.com, SharylAttkisson.com and www.FullMeasure.news for original reporting. Do your own research. Make up your own mind. Think for yourself. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/sharylattkissonpodcast/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/sharylattkissonpodcast/support

In this episode I interview Attorney Michael Mosher who has 30 years of experience. Mr. Mosher has an extensive background in pharmacokinetics, the adverse reactions of various drugs as well as the proper administration of each psychotropic drug including anxiolytics (eg. Xanax, Ativan, Klonopin), hypnotics (Halcion, Dalmane, Restoril), stimulants (eg. Ritalin, dexedrine, Adderall), anticonvulsants (eg. Tegretol, Depakote, Neurontin), antidepressants (eg. all the SSRIs, Effexor and the tricyclic antidepressants), and neuroleptics, (eg. Zyprexa, Risperdal, Seroquil, Abilify). Mr. Mosher has also settled numerous cases against doctors and drug companies involving illnesses and damage due to addiction/dependence via the use of Xanax, Klonopin and other benzodiazepines as well as injuries resulting from SSRIs.

Why Should We Trust a Vaccine from a Condom Maker?   Richard Gale and Gary Null PhD Progressive Radio Network, March 5, 2021     For decades, according to a Guardian article, “consumers worldwide have named the $347 billion pharmaceutical behemoth Johnson and Johnson (J&J) as one of its most trusted brands.” From its humble beginnings in the 1880s, making cotton gauze dressings and eventually band aids, baby powder and shampoo, J&J  has expanded into one of the most powerful multinational pharmaceutical and medical device companies in the world.  In 1959, it entered the world of Big Pharma as a leading player after succeeding in getting Tylenol approved as an over-the-counter drug.  Shortly thereafter J&J commenced with a flurry of acquisitions to increase its product line, which included Neutrogena, Cordis, DePuy, Janssen Pharmaceutica and Centocor.  Today, in most American home medicine cabinets one will find a popular J&J product:  Listerine, Tylenol and Benadryl, Neutrogena skin cream, Rogaine, Neosporin antibacterial ointment, or Destin to treat diaper rashes.   Now, people are eager for J&J’s “one shot and you’re done” Covid-19 vaccine despite health officials’ fears it may be less effective than Moderna’s and Pfizer’s mRNA competitors. Nevertheless, vaccination centers and pharmacies are racing to get their hands on the new adenovirus-based vaccine.  And as we will further note below, this is from a company that has absolutely no past experience in vaccine development and manufacturing.    However, we need to seriously challenge J&J’s reputation. A 2019 report by the British intelligence firm Alva has noted that J&J’s reputation has sunk dramatically during the past years, from 9th place among 58 major pharmaceutical firms to 57th. Certainly, this is not a company with a clean ethical record.   A review of J&J’s rap sheet over the past three decades presents a dire and contrary image that should lead us to question the company’s claims about its Covid-19 vaccine given the lucrative market the pandemic has created for the most aggressive medical corporations.    Similar to its equally over-sized competitors Glaxo, Merck and Pfizer, J&J too has had to pay out billions of dollars over the decades for civil settlements and criminal activities.  As the pharmaceutical giant receives applause across the mainstream media for the release and FDA emergency approval for its Covid-19 vaccine, Brazil’s Public Prosecution Service started an investigation into J&J’s antitrust activities under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) for “possible improper payments in its medical device industry.” This was part of an FBI bribery scheme investigation that included Seimens, General Electric and Philips acting as a larger cartel to illegally payoff government officials in return for securing contracts with Brail’s national health programs.  The charges also include price gouging, inflating prices up to 800 percent the market price to cover bribes.    This is not the first time J&J has violated FCPA laws. In 2011, J&J was charged by the Department of Justice with conspiracy for paying off Greek doctors to advance its product sales.  The SEC also charged civil complaints. The company had to pay out a $70 million penalty for buying off officials in Greece, Poland and Romania. In 2010, an executive for J&J’s subsidiary DePuy was sentenced to a year in prison for corrupt payments to physicians within the Greek national healthcare system.     As one of the world’s leading medical device companies, J&J has had its share of recalls for faulty products including contact lenses and hip implants  In 2013, it paid nearly $2.5 billion to compensate 8,000 recipients for its flawed hip implants  Again in 2016, another $1 billion was awarded to plaintiffs injured from this device.   One particular dubious activity the company became involved with in 2008 was to launch a “phantom recall.” When its Motrin IB caplets were discovered to not properly dissolve, it hired outside contractors to buy up store supplies in order to avoid making public declaration. No one would have known of this activity and it would have gotten past the eyes of FDA inspectors had the deception not been exposed during a Congressional investigation.   Other major J&J lawsuits and recalls for faulty products include:   1995 - $7.5 million fine for destroying documents to cover up an investigation into wrongful marketing of its Retin-A acne cream to remove wrinkles   1996 – An undisclosed settlement on false claims over condom protection claims to protect against HIV and other STDs.   2000 – J&J’s subsidiary LifeScan was found guilty for selling defective blood glucose monitors and failed to inform the FDA.  All total, $105 million was paid out.    2001 – Paid out $860 million in a class action lawsuit for misleading customers about prematurely discarding its 1-Day Acuvue soft contact lens.  J&J recommended they should only be worn once although it was discovered the lenses were no different than the regular Acuvue lens that would last for two weeks   2010 - $81 million settlement for misbranding its anti-epileptic drug Topamax to treat psychiatric disorders and hiring outside physicians to join its sales force to promote the drug for unapproved conditions.  The following year, J&J paid $85 million for similar charges against its heart drug Natrecor   2011 – Several of its baby products were discovered to contain carcinogenic ingredients   2013 – The US Justice Department charged the company $2.2 billion in criminal fines for marking its autism and anti-psychotic drug Risperdal for unapproved uses. Forty-five states had filed civil lawsuits against J&J in the scandal   Risperdal is  horrendous drug that contributes to rapid weight gain and a condition known as gynescomastia, irregular enlarged breasts in men. Semmelweis reports that J&J’s subsidiary Janssen also had an aggressive campaign to market its use in children with behavioral challenges.  Other serious adverse effects from Risperdal reported by the FDA include diabetes mellitus, hyperprolactinaemia, somnolence, depression, anxiety, psychotic behavior, suicide and death.    The company’s legal problems over Risperdal do not appear to have ended. In October 2019, a Philadelphia jury awarded a man $8 billion in punitive damages for failing to warn that the drug could cause young men to grow breasts. Other recent suits include litigation over its blood thinner Xarelto risks of internal bleeding, and a $775 million settlement to 25,000 plaintiffs.    2016 -  Two women were awarded $127 million in damages for the talc in its J&J Baby Powder causing ovarian cancer.  Later, over 1,000 similar cases came forward. During the trial it was discovered that J&J suspected a link between talcum and ovarian cancer back in the 1970s.  A Missouri verdict fined the company over $4 billion but it was later reduced to $2.1 billion.  A New York Times investigation into internal J&J memos uncovered evidence that the talcum powder may have contained asbestos. These cases continue. In July 2019, J&J made efforts to dismiss 14,000 lawsuits over the talcum-cancer risk.   More recently, J&J has been in the spotlight for its role in contributing to the deadly opioid crisis.  The company holds the patent for a unique strain of opium poppy commonly named Norman. It is the leading provider of the opioid for Purdue Pharma’s painkiller OxyContin. An Oklahoma court ordered a $465 million fine. This opened the door for other states to follow suit.  To fully realize how insane the system is, the half a billion dollar civil fine was good news on Wall Street, which anticipated the verdict would be in the billions of dollars. Consequently, J&J’s stock rose 2 percent after the judge’s ruling.  And despite J&J being Purdue’s major supplier, and a major contributor in the US’s opioid epidemic, the latter was forced to file for bankruptcy due to mounting lawsuits for overdose deaths.   Finally, we might ask why a 140 year old company, with no history whatsoever in vaccine development, has now become among the heroes in the immunological war against Covid-19?  J&J is not a household name in the vaccine industry. It is utterly absent, let alone ranks among the world’s 20 major vaccine makers. Among the 53 vaccines for other infections approved and licensed by the CDC, not one is manufactured by the nation’s leader in mouthwash and baby powder.  It is therefore no surprise that the company had to partner with Merck to manufacture its Covid vaccine to meet demand. It has no history or expertise in this medical field.    However, the Covid pandemic is a cash cow for the drug industry’s taking. Bernstein market analyst Ronny Gal predicts Covid-19 vaccine sales will reach $40 billion this year.  A more realistic figure is likely higher since together Moderna and Pfizer project their revenues at $32 billion. Then there are the other major vaccines by AstraZeneca, J&J and Novavax entering the competition.  According to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine’s vaccine research tracker, over 200 vaccines against Covid-19 are in development worldwide. It is an enormous pumpkin pie and everyone in the medical universe wants a slice from it.  So why shouldn’t we expect a non-vaccine player such as J&J to be eager to leap into the frenzy?     Finally, there is a disturbing question that we have no certain answer for.  How is it that a drug and household health product company, with no prior history in vaccine development, can develop and rush to market its first vaccine against a viral strain that was only identified 14 months ago?  Developing a vaccine requires many years and necessitates the establishment of an R&D infrastructure vastly different than conventional drug development.  The other major companies developing Covid-19 vaccines have been in the business for decades. But not J&J. There is something more to this story that demands investigation.  And if the company’s long rap sheet offers any warning, it is that we must be wary of any claims J&J publicly states about the efficacy and safety of its products.  Especially when the pandemic promise to increase the profits of numerous shareholders. 

I dive into the strange case of the antipsychotic Risperdal, prescribed to many children for autism, ADD and other disorders; and the alleged link to breast growth in boys.Subscribe to my two podcasts: “The Sharyl Attkisson Podcast” and “Full Measure After Hours.” Leave a review, subscribe and share with your friends!Order “Slanted: How the News Media Taught Us to Love Censorship and Hate Journalism” by Sharyl Attkisson at Harper Collins, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books a Million, IndieBound, Bookshop!Visit JustTheNews.com, SharylAttkisson.com and www.FullMeasure.news for original reporting. Do your own research. Make up your own mind. Think for yourself.

Many of us who have medical conditions are all to familiar with the long list of adverse effects that comes along with pharmaceuticals, this is why so many end up being cannabis card holders in the first place! But what happens if that pharmaceutical product is a vaccine? October is Vaccine Injury Awareness Month and Mom's on High believes these families should have a voice! .......Join us as we chat with our next guest Brandy Williams who filed a claim in the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program on behalf of her Vaccine injured son Logan. Logan's case went on to being a world renown case in the VICP. Brandy is also joined by friend, fellow advocate, special needs parent, Medical Cannabis patient and Former Law Enforcement Officer AJ. Brandy has spent the last nine years dealing Government Scientist from HHS, Special Masters in the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, DOJ Lawyers, Neurologists, Neuroscientists, Infectious Diseases Exsperts, Immunologists, Toxicologists & beyond. Because of this she has received information most people from the public are not privy too! YOU CAN NOT SUE THE VACCINE MANUFACTURERS when something goes wrong thanks to the national Vaccine injury act that was signed by Congress in 1986!!!!!!!!!!! Logan had serious life treating self injury and agression towards care givers. He was smashing his head 75-150 times per day and his mom knows it is brought on by the pain caused by encephalopathy (brain inflammation) seizures, stroke damage, enterocolitis, inflammatory bowel disease and other conditions brought on by his twelve month round of vaccines. When Logan's pediatrician handed Brandy a script for a helmet and Risperdal, a hard core Antipsychotics, she knew knew THIS was NOT going to be good enough for her young son who was only THREE! The same pharmaceutical company that made the vaccines that harmed her son was the same pharmaceutical company who makes the antipsychotic. And how is a antipsychotic going to address the damage that the vaccines caused? This was the pivitol moment that lead Brandy's family on a journey to the path of healing and advocacy. Logan received his card when he was five years old because of a seizures diagnosis his family wanted to address more naturally and what they got was so much more! Brandy has been Advocating the use of medical cannabis for Autism for the last five years. She is a part of a Grassroots National Organization Called Mother's Advocating Medical Marijuana for Autism. MAMMA was founded in 2014 by two Conservative Mother's while at church in Texas. Brandy started one of the first MAMMA state chapters here in Arizona and is the Petition Specialist for MAMMA USA. While Brandy may not have gone through Medical school she has earned the letters MD following her name. Mother Determined! Mother's Advocating Medical Marijuana for Autism http://www.mammausa.org/ National Vaccine Compensation Program https://www.hrsa.gov/vaccine-compensation/index.html Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System https://vaers.hhs.gov/

For All Abilities – The Podcast Episode Twenty Eight - Kristine Toon - A Mom Helping Her Son Find Employment with Autism and ADHD.   In this episode, I interview Kristine Toon - mom of Michael. On the podcast, Kristine and I discuss Michael’s early years, his strengths and his college experience. We also discuss her dreams for his future employment.  To connect with Kristine, please email her at jankdn@gmail.com. Join me on episode 29 when I interview her son Michael.  Go to our website www.forallabilities.com for information on our software that enables employers to support their employees with ADHD, Dyslexia, Learning Differences and Autism. Thanks for listening!  Betsy     Thanks for listening to For All Abilities today!    Share the podcast with your friends, they’ll thank you for it!   Get our newsletter and stay up to date! The newsletter link is on our website www.forallabilities.com   Follow me   Twitter: @betsyfurler   Instagram: @forallabilities   Facebook: @forallabilites   LinkedIn: @BetsyFurler   Website: www.forallabilities.com   Full Transcription from Otter.ai     Betsy Furler  0:05   Welcome to for all abilities, the podcast. This is your host, Betsy Furler. The aim of this podcast is to highlight the amazing things people with ADHD, dyslexia, learning differences and autism are doing to improve our world. Have a listen to for all abilities, the podcast and please subscribe on whatever podcast app you're listening to us on. Hi, everybody. Welcome back to for all abilities, the podcast. This is your host, Betsy Furler. And today I'm doing something a little different. I am talking to Christine toon, and she is the mom of two adult children with neuro diversity and we're going to talk a little bit about what their lives have been like and they're both kind of at a turning point of going from education to employment. So we're going to talk a bit a little bit about that. So, hi, Christine, thank you so much for being on the show. Hi. Nice to be here. Yes. And why don't you just introduce yourself a bit to my audience?   Kristine Toon  1:14   Sure. I My name is Christine. And as she had said, I have two adult children that are moving to adulthood. They have had different challenges. One has had mostly autistic type symptoms, and that very high functioning but that comes with a whole nother set of problems when the world sees him because he looks very typical of other people. But then you find that he doesn't always understand things and they didn't know he didn't understand. And then my younger one is 23. And he has almost done with college. He'll graduate in December. But then we are now moving into a new part of his life where He's going to be looking for a job and trying to find the right employer for him.   Betsy Furler  2:07   Awesome. And how old were they when they were diagnosed or you realize there was something different going on?   Kristine Toon  2:13   Sure. Stephen was always the 25 year old was always quirky is what we called him. He did some odd things, but he was very bright and responsive to everything. He didn't speak until he was about a year old and they were odd words like I want this and that, and dog but he didn't say mommy and daddy and he pointed at most things. He was very fearful. And then when we put them in kindergarten, that's when everything kind of fell apart. I thought it was this perfect normal child as anyone who bought their first kid. And the first week of school, I got a phone call from the kindergarten teacher asking me to come into our conference. He was running away, not wanting to transition to anything, but just At home was fine, you know he they kind of train you in a way. And so, by the end of his kindergarten year, he was diagnosed with Asperger's. And then we started understanding the type of things he really needed to succeed. Michael on the other hand, he was older, he seemed more typical than Stephen did, but things fell apart in third grade. Bipolar started entering into his life, and he wouldn't remember things that he had done. And we were seeing some autistic tendencies also. So it was a long journey for us to get the right medications for the boys. Once they were put on the correct medications life did smooth out for us. It's still a challenge, but the out of control behaviors stopped by the time they hit junior high.   Betsy Furler  3:56   Oh, that's a blessing because sometimes that's the worst time   Kristine Toon  4:00   Yes, the medication route took from for Steven from kindergarten to fifth grade. And I know not everyone is into medications. But I must say today he started Risperdal. They're running away from school stopped. And Michael was probably third to sixth grade before the medications were evened out on him.   Unknown Speaker  4:23   Wow, that's a long time long road.   Kristine Toon  4:26   It was but thankful that we got there. So I'm not complaining because I know a lot of people give up or just don't want to get to that time period.   Betsy Furler  4:38   So tell us what you have gone through talking with them and the rest of the family about what, what they might want to do as they transition out of school and into the workplace.   Kristine Toon  4:52   That's been really difficult. Um, they both really like art. They love to draw. They like music. The problem with that is that there aren't always careers for that, of course, they wanted to design video games and they wanted to do web design in the typical things that we see with our kiddos. But that market is flooded a lot of times. So what I had suggested was they do those things as a side project and if it turns into something fantastic. If it doesn't, we need to have another plan also that that can be like a hobby to bring in extra money. That has gone well for my oldest Steven. We tried college with him but with his organizational skills, it wasn't really doable. And so he does music and art on the side and he does get some commission off of it. He does also work part time and receive a disability check to supplement. Michael doesn't really know what he wants to do right now. He is getting the degree So that he has something to fall back on. But, you know, we're concerned about finding the right employer that's willing to work with him.   Betsy Furler  6:09   So for Michael, what type of job like he want to do? Like, would it be an office based job? Like, kind of what his skills be? And what do you think the accommodations he would need would be   Kristine Toon  6:23   that I would assume he would really need an office job. The accommodations he would need would be clear instructions. Once he was comfortable with the job, he would be able to think outside the box. But in the beginning, he would meet clear direct instructions, and not to vary a bit. So our thoughts are, we're not sure how this is going to work. But our thoughts are get an entry level position in the larger company. Start from the bottom. Let them see he is a hard worker. He's willing to do things He is bright, and let them find the position for him. And like many of us, we didn't always know what we wanted to do when we got out of college. Some people have a clear direction on what they want. Maybe the employer can help guide him and then being in the workforce, he'll be able to find what he really enjoys doing.   Betsy Furler  7:24   Yeah, that sounds I mean, and I don't you think that's pretty typical of a lot of people. I mean, I know when I was in college, my majors were psychology and sociology. And then I kind of landed, I kind of happened into a speech pathology program or communication disorders program and ended up kind of fat falling into my lap. But I think many people have at that age have no idea really what they want to do with the rest of their lives.   Kristine Toon  7:52   I completely agree with you that our school districts now they're on kind of a track program where they they want them to pick His career in eighth grade and start molding them for that. And that's terrific, if you know what you want to do from an early age, but they're a little more lost sometimes. And I know that I am still some days trying to figure out what I want to do. I mean, I've been in the same jobs, banking for 15 years, and now I'm doing ministration work, but I think we kind of fall into what's good for us. And I'm really hoping that an employer is going to find his value, because it is there.   Betsy Furler  8:38   What all have you done so far? Or is he done and looking for positions?   Kristine Toon  8:45   that's been very difficult for Michael. Stephen, the older child is very outgoing, extremely social. The problem is Stephen doesn't have a filter, which doesn't seem to get him in trouble because people think that he's funny. Michael is more reserved and doesn't always give eye contact. And so he has looked for jobs and for two years, he was really unable to find anything. He'd have a job for a little bit. And they let him go for one reason or another. And recently the COVID thing, he did have a job as a dishwasher and was enjoying it. He was doing a good job, he they would call him and he he was getting lots of hours actually. But then COVID hit and of course that position went out of business. So it's it's not an easy finding, even part time jobs that were willing to work with, with him. And then we have the added problem of he needs to take medication, and the medication does today and so a lot of jobs for teens and young adults once you work to midnight. The hours or hours don't work for kids with disabilities. He needs to be home by 10 minutes. To take the medication so he can get up to do his classes The next morning, so he's not asleep now.   Betsy Furler  10:07   Yeah, that is so true. That's a very good point. What are some other things like what do you think that employers could do to make a position   Unknown Speaker  10:20   more appropriate for someone like Michael?   Kristine Toon  10:25   Well, that's hard I, I work in a business office. And I have interviewed a few folks that I thought were on the spectrum. And when I do I desperately want to give them a chance because I know what what a valuable boy they would be. And then I have to weigh can they can they communicate with the people outside the office? How is that going to be perceived? It's so difficult when they don't look disabled. For people to not put too high of a standard on them, that they can't achieve, just the stress of the timelines are, are overwhelming. And, you know, right. Getting the top sternly to by an employer can destroy them where you and I would go, Well, they're having a crummy day. And for them, it could send them home. Really?   Unknown Speaker  11:29   Yeah. I think sometimes it's the right boss. That's the right position.   Kristine Toon  11:36   Yes. And I think that's going to be our largest challenge. And we have to, I must say, we have tried the government type programs where they help you find a job and we have found them in our area to be low level employment, that he would not be able to move out on his own and succeed. And that's our ultimate goal for kinos is for them to live the fullest life possible. But when they're only offering them minimum wage, you're never going to move up job. It's it's concerning?   Betsy Furler  12:11   Yes. Right. I think that the other thing we talked about on the phone in the pre interview was talking about the fact that also he's going to need kind of some, you know, the ability, the freedom to take a day off here or there when he feels overwhelmed and needs that stress release, which I think you know, now more employers, I think are offering that but, you know, when you think about the entry level jobs, sometimes that type of accommodation isn't offered. But yet, it's so valuable, it might be more valuable for those employees than for the executives.   Kristine Toon  12:48   Oh, absolutely. If I need a mental health day, I can take one, and I wouldn't call it that probably just like I need a day off. I can't take any more of this right now. Where they can't say that you come in, we need you now an hourly position that's just gonna be tolerated.   Betsy Furler  13:10   Right. Right there. So, you know, I think I'm gonna hopefully interview Michael also for a podcast episode. I can't wait to hear his point of view. Yeah. And, you know, I think this is helpful information for employers out there who are looking to, you know, there's a really big push now for a lot of employers to to employ people with disabilities, and especially in our diversity, especially autism.   Kristine Toon  13:43   And if they could really see the value of these kids, adults, they are dedicated. They want to work, they're driven, and most of all, they're pleasers, they, more so than entitlement. We see a lot of coming in and out. There's not a lot of entitlement because they haven't had a lot of entitlement. Right. Right a ton to offer and their rule followers, tell them this, it's going to be done what you say.   Betsy Furler  14:15   Right. Right. And I think employers can make the accommodations that people need and kind of be also the flexibility. I think the flexibility is a huge piece that's very important for employers to think about. Is there anything else that you want to add, that might help an employer?   Kristine Toon  14:36   The only other thing would be the importance of health insurance with these individuals with out good behavioral health care, and it's going to be hard for them to pay for that on the road. That's a concern.   Betsy Furler  14:57   Right and also for many people Disability if they if they get SSI, and they're in Medicaid because of their SSI, which is a security income and kind of disability income for people who don't know that, and they may get a very small check for the SSI, but you know, $500 a month or something like that, but they also get Medicaid. And if you go to work, you lose that Medicare. Absolutely. And if you can't afford the private insurance to make up for that,   Kristine Toon  15:31   you really can't work,   Betsy Furler  15:32   even if you desperately want to work. And I think that's another factor that people need to realize that are often not not taken into account.   Kristine Toon  15:43   Because the psych meds are not cheap. They they do, you do have to have a prescription for them. They have to be taken on a regular basis and insurances needed for those medications.   Unknown Speaker  15:54   Right? Right. They're really prohibitive to pay out of pocket for especially for someone that entry level positions,   Unknown Speaker  16:01   correct?   Betsy Furler  16:03   Yeah. So Well, this was, I am so grateful that you have been willing to come on and be so candid. What is there anything else you want to tell us about your boys?   Kristine Toon  16:17   They are incredibly intelligent and a lot of fun. I mean, we we laugh all the time. And I just wish everybody could see the joy that these people with autism in our case have that it is not so much disability as entertainment excitement. something new every day.   Betsy Furler  16:40   Yes, and a different ability.   Kristine Toon  16:42   Oh, absolutely. Yes. It's   Betsy Furler  16:44   it. That's what I want people to realize. I even hate the word disability because it to me it's just a different ability. It's not less, that is just   Unknown Speaker  16:53   different.   Kristine Toon  16:55   Yes, they have things that I would never be able to see the world. in a beautiful way, and I just, I wish everyone could see what   Betsy Furler  17:04   we get to see. Yeah, that's wonderful. Well, thank you so much for joining us. And if people want to connect with you, um, you know, maybe other moms or other people within our diversity or maybe employers who want more insight, how could they do that? The best way to connect with you?   Kristine Toon  17:23   Absolutely, they can email me at jankdn@gmail.com I'll be happy to speak with them. And thank you so much for having me.   Betsy Furler  17:37   Yes. And I will put that information in the show notes and, and listeners. Thanks so much for tuning in today. And please share this podcast with other people subscribe rate review, on in whatever podcast platform you're listening to. And please join us again as we talk about the amazing gifts that people have to think differently and work differently, and how our world is so much better when we all think and work differently. Thanks so much for listening to the for all abilities podcast. This is Betsy Furler, your host and I really appreciate your time listening to the podcast. And please subscribe on any podcast app that you're listening to us on. If you'd like to know more about what we do and our software that helps employer support their employees with ADHD dyslexia, learning differences in autism, please go to www dot for all abilities calm. You can also follow us on Instagram. And you can follow me on LinkedIn at Betsy Furler f as in Frank, you are elhuyar Have a great day and we will see you soon

Johnson & Johnson has paid out $4.2 billion in penalties paid out since 2000. While we see an example of them doing the right thing when people laced their Tylenol with cyanide we see many examples of them doing the opposite. Then Attorney General Eric Holder said they “recklessly put at risk the health of some of the most vulnerable members of our society -- including young children, the elderly and the disabled" for their marketing of the anti-psychotic Risperdal. Judge Balkman said J&J spread “false, misleading, and dangerous marketing campaigns” that had “caused exponentially increasing rates of addiction, overdose deaths” with opioids. There's the $21.4 million for conspiracy in bribing officials and doctors in foreign countries. And in the headlines today is their Asbestos contaminated baby powder which they've known had problems since 1971, but have worked to cover up ever since. Show notes at https://healthsovereign.com/33

EPISODE #327 Anti-Depressants and Mass Shootings Pt. 2 Richard welcomes an expert in serotonergic medications to talk about the possible violent side effects of anti-depressant medications. GUEST: Dr. Ann Blake Tracy is the director of the International Coalition for Drug Awareness. She has specialized for 22 years in adverse reactions to serotonergic medications (Antidepressants such as Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Luvox, Effexor, Celexa, Lexapro, Cymbalta, Pristiq, Serzone, Anafranil, etc. and the diet pills Fen-Phen, and Redux and the newer Atypical Anti-psychotic medications such as Zyprexa, Geodon, Abilify, Risperdal, Seroquel, etc.) and has testified before the FDA and congressional subcommittee members on Prozac. She has testified since 1992 as an expert witness in Prozac and other SSRI related court cases around the world. Her first book on the issue was published in 1991. During the last twenty years she has participated in innumerable radio, television, newspaper and magazine interviews on this subject. She is the author of Prozac: Panacea or Pandora?   PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS!! C60EVO.COMThe Secret is out about this powerful anti-oxidant. The Purest C60 available is ESS60.  Buy Direct from the SourceUse the Code RS1SPEC for special discount. Ancient Life Oil Organic, Non GMO CBD Oil.  Big Relief in a Little Bottle! The Ferrari of CBD products. Strange Planet's Fullscript Dispensary - an online service offering hundreds of professional supplement brands, personal care items, essential oils, pet care products and much more. Nature Grade, Science Made!   Life Change and Formula 13 Teas  All Organic, No Caffeine, Non GMO!  More Energy!  Order now, use the code 'unlimited' and your first purchase ships for free.

EPISODE #325 Anti-Depressants and Mass Shootings Richard welcomes an expert in serotonergic medications to talk about the possible violent side effects of anti-depressant medications. GUEST: Dr. Ann Blake Tracy is the director of the International Coalition for Drug Awareness. She has specialized for 22 years in adverse reactions to serotonergic medications (Antidepressants such as Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Luvox, Effexor, Celexa, Lexapro, Cymbalta, Pristiq, Serzone, Anafranil, etc. and the diet pills Fen-Phen, and Redux and the newer Atypical Anti-psychotic medications such as Zyprexa, Geodon, Abilify, Risperdal, Seroquel, etc.) and has testified before the FDA and congressional subcommittee members on Prozac. She has testified since 1992 as an expert witness in Prozac and other SSRI related court cases around the world. Her first book on the issue was published in 1991. During the last twenty years she has participated in innumerable radio, television, newspaper and magazine interviews on this subject. She is the author of Prozac: Panacea or Pandora? WEBSITES:   PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS!! Ancient Life Oil Organic, Non GMO CBD Oil.  Big Relief in a Little Bottle! The Ferrari of CBD products. C60EVO.COM The Secret is out about this powerful anti-oxidant. The Purest C60 available is ESS60.  Buy Direct from the SourceUse the Code RS1SPEC for special discount. Strange Planet's Fullscript Dispensary - an online service offering hundreds of professional supplement brands, personal care items, essential oils, pet care products and much more. Nature Grade, Science Made!   Life Change and Formula 13 Teas  All Organic, No Caffeine, Non GMO!  More Energy!  Order now, use the code 'unlimited' and your first purchase ships for free.

In this week's episode, I am discussing the jury's award of $8 billion in punitive damages to a young man who grew breasts after taking Risperdal as a child.  Risperdal is a drug that was approved by the FDA for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in adults but was prescribed off label to the Plaintiff when he was 9 years old for systems related to autism spectrum disorder.   It is alleged in the lawsuit that the same year he was prescribed the drug, the defendants conducted a study showing that young boys taking Risperdal could lead to the growth of breast tissue but that study was not disclosed to the FDA.  It is also alleged that J&J was marketing the drug to kids, while knowing of this elevated risk of breast growth and not disclosing it.  What does this verdict say to drug companies?  What does this case say about off label drug use in general?  All of this and more is covered in this episode. 

This episode is from the vault and was first released November 20, 2017. Dr. Newton wants to educate people on how medications can cause dementia. Also, how to avoid these medications. The only thing worse than having dementia is taking care of a loved one with dementia. Many people do not realize that many medications can cause dementia. Dr. Camille Newton is a home visiting physician. You may also know it as a traveling doctor or mobile doctor. It is such an important service for seniors that are not able to travel for the doctor’s appointments. She focuses on minimizing medications. Especially psychotropic pharmaceuticals, to help senior brains stay healthier longer. Medications get tested by the FDA to see if they are safe. But those medications are not really tested to see if they cause brain failure. While performing house calls, she has seen the effect psychotropic medications have on people who take them for a long period. Some examples of psychotropic drugs are: * Antipsychotics including Risperdal or Haldol * Sedatives especially the benzodiazepines such as Ativan, Xanax, or Valium * Anti-depressants * Antihistamines These are some staggering and scary statistics! According to Dr. Newton, using Benzodiazepine increases the risk of Dementia. Nearly tripling risk within 3 years. Quitting reduces risk over time, to only 10% increase in risk 3 years after quitting. Benzodiazepine use quadruples the risk of suicide in the elderly. In one study, Benzodiazepines and hypnotics increased suicide risk by 14 times. Antihistamines can have an anticholinergic effect. This means some of them block a certain neurotransmitter called acetylcholine. This can have a detrimental effect on the brain over a long period. This includes Benadryl. In monkeys, laboratory rats, and humans, antipsychotics such as Haldol showed a huge measurable shrinking of the brain within 8 weeks of use. A person goes to the drugstore and they have allergy symptoms. They could choose Claritin or Allegra (which are not anticholinergic). Also, they could choose Benadryl or Coricidin and end up with dementia within a few years. Maybe less is more? Dr. Newton tells a fascinating story about “Pam” who has a rare case of dementia reversed by getting her off of her medications. Although she has had only a few cases of ‘total cure’, she's had many patients improve when taken off from anticholinergics. These medications are so dangerous to our brains, and yet there is no warning label.  Many of them are over the counter. A lot of people ask Dr. Newton, “What Can I take?” Her response is, don't look for something to take when you are having a problem. Don't look for a pill to solve your problem and question every medication given. *Please note: Neither the Rock Your Retirement Show nor the host, Kathe Kline provides medical advice.  Please consult your own practitioner about any healthcare issues that you have. About Our Co-Host Dr. Newton cares for complicated elderly patients in their homes through her medical practice, Home Excel Physician’s Group. She is also the founder and former president of Pure Wick Corporation. It's a manufacturer of non-invasive, external urinary catheters for women. (Pure Wick was recently sold to C.R. Bard). An Attending Physician for Camp Pendleton Naval Hospital Residents in Family Medicine. Also, for Kaplan University School of Nursing. She is board-certified in family medicine. A Member of the American Academy of Home Care Physicians, and a Gulf War Veteran. She is also an Athena Pinnacle Award winner. This is an honor given to exemplary female executives in San Diego–for ‘Women who Champion Women’. She studied Genetics at U.C. Davis, where she graduated with honors. She completed her medical education at Saint Louis University and Residency at U.C. Irvine.

Johnson & Johnson est condamné à payer 8 milliards US pour un médicament controversé, le Risperdal.

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Yes. There is more to life than maximizing shareholder value. This probably doesn’t come as news to many of the human people who form the bulk of Free Money’s listener base. But corporations are people too, and the Business Roundtable recently convened about 180 CEOs from the world’s biggest ones to affirm something that really ought to be self-evident: customers, communities, employees, and suppliers matter. And while they do seek to create value for shareholders, they now intend to do it over the long term. The full statement (this PDF) is roughly 300 words followed by 11 pages of signatures. And there’s plenty for a cynic to sink their teeth into. For instance, a handful of individual statements were released on 19th August 2019, including this one from Alex Gorsky, who is Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Johnson & Johnson and Chair of the Business Roundtable Corporate Governance Committee:“This new statement better reflects the way corporations can and should operate today. It affirms the essential role corporations can play in improving our society when CEOs are truly committed to meeting the needs of all stakeholders.”Mr. Gorsky’s words are nice. But one week after issuing that statement, his company was ordered to pay a precedent-setting $572 million in penalties for intentionally misleading the public on the dangers of opioid painkillers and overselling their benefits. Here’s a quote from the New York Times: In his ruling, [Judge Thad Balkman] wrote that Johnson & Johnson had promulgated “false, misleading, and dangerous marketing campaigns” that had “caused exponentially increasing rates of addiction, overdose deaths” and babies born exposed to opioids.Mr. Gorsky began his career as a sales representative at Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies, the Johnson & Johnson subsidiary which manufactured and marketed opioid painkillers. J&J also supplied 60% of the active ingredients which went into opioid medication sold in Oklahoma. Since 1943, Johnson and Johnson’s corporate credo has begun “our first responsibility is to the patients, doctors and nurses, to mothers and fathers and all others who use our products and services.” These words (plus about 200 more) are engraved on the wall in the company’s corporate headquarters. And like Mr. Gorsky’s more recent words, they are nice. It just doesn’t seem like they’ve been translated into practice. The company is a party to more than 2,000 lawsuits related to the opioid epidemic. They seem used to this. In the past few years, I found that Johnson & Johnson have paid penalties of: $2.2 Billion (2013) - For misleading marketing of Risperdal, which Mr. Gorsky oversaw as chief executive of the associated division. $4.7 Billion (2018) - For misleading marketing and failing to warn customers about risks caused by asbestos in their baby powder. $775 Million (2019) - For misleading marketing and failing to warn customers about deadly bleeding episodes caused by a blood thinner. And I haven’t even looked that hard. Anyway, if you’ve read this far you should probably just listen to the podcast. Here are a few of the essays we reference in the discussion: Milton Friedman’s original essay on Creating Shareholder Value (Wayback Machine)Shareholder Value is Under Valued (AQR)Agenda Setting: A Wise Giver’s Guide to Influencing Public Policy (Philanthropy Roundtable)And here are the listener questions we answered: Has "fake news" affected the way people think about financial markets similarly to other media? Can extremist beliefs persist if markets are pushing the other direction?The treasury department says there's no demand for 50 or 100 year treasury bonds. How can that be true? Literally nothing is changing. Why do we keep waiting for rich people to fix our economy? Get on the email list at freemoney.substack.com

* Use coupon code PODCAST25 for 25% off this webcast * Webcast URL: https://www.theknowledgegroup.org/webcasts/navigating-mass-torts-litigation/ A large number of mass torts filed over the previous year involve drugs including Xarelto, Risperdal, Opioids and Pradaxa. One notable case is the mass tort against pharmaceutical giant Hoffmann La-Roche with over 500 lawsuits claiming that users of the company's acne drug Accutane, developed inflammatory bowel disease. The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hoffmann La-Roche with its dismissal of the mass tort case. The Court said that the plaintiffs failed to prove that Roche failed to provide internal research to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Understanding mass tort case verdicts such as this, as well as the upcoming ones, is critical in devising effective litigation strategies. Join a panel of key thought leaders and professionals assembled by The Knowledge Group as they bring the audience to a road beyond the basics of bringing or defending against a mass tort lawsuit and as they delve into the depth-analysis of the current trends and recent court rulings. Speakers will also provide the audience with practical strategies in bringing out the best in these lawsuits in a rapidly evolving legal climate. For anymore information please click on the webcast url at the top of this description.

Richard speaks with a court expert witness about the frightening connection between mass shootings and anti-depressant drugs.  In virtually all mass-shootings, the shooters were taking some type of anti-depressant or anti-psychotic medication. GUEST: Ann Blake-Tracy is the director of the International Coalition for Drug Awareness. She has specialized for 22 years in adverse reactions to serotonergic medications (Antidepressants such as Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Luvox, Effexor, Celexa, Lexapro, Cymbalta, Pristiq, Serzone, Anafranil, etc. and the diet pills Fen-Phen, and Redux and the newer Atypical Anti-psychotic medications such as Zyprexa, Geodon, Abilify, Risperdal, Seroquel, etc.) and has testified before the FDA and congressional subcommittee members on Prozac. Her first book on the issue, Prozac: Panacea or Pandora? was published in 1991

Listen NowIn early February the Human Rights Watch (HRW) published, "'They Want Docile': How Nursing Homes in the US Over-medicate People with Dementia."  The inappropriate or misuse of antipsychotics, e.g., Haldol, Seroquel and Risperdal, in nursing facilities to chemically restrain nursing home patients, moreover frail and elderly seniors, has been practiced for decades.  The HRW report found in 2016-2017 "massive use" or abuse, i.e., the report estimated in an average week over 179,000 long-stay nursing facility patients were administered antipsychotic drugs without a diagnosis for which the drugs are indicated or approved.  Despite efforts to reduce the abuse of these medications, in part via a CMS voluntary initiative (a link to which his provided below), the practice persists, in part, because the federal government has nominally enforced regulations and enforcement measures to remedy the problem.  The use of these drugs can and does cause serious patient harm.  In testimony before the Congress in 2007, the FDA's Dr. David Graham stated, "15,000 elderly people in nursing homes [are] dying each year form the off-label use of antipsychotic medications for an indication that the FDA knows the drug doesn't work."  Listeners may recall I initially discussed this topic in December 2012 with Diana Zuckerman.   During this 36 minute discussion Ms. Flamm explains what prompted the HRW study, the study's methodology, how widespread is the practice of misuse of antipsychotics in nursing facilities, how and why they are used inappropriately, that includes the the failure to obtain free and informed consent, the federal government's inadequate enforcement of federal laws and regulations to police the problem and how this practice violates not just US laws but international human rights agreements. Ms. Hannah Flamm is currently an immigration lawyer at The Door's Legal Services Center in New York. In 2016-2017, Ms. Flamm was New York University's School of Law Fellow at Human Rights Watch where she researched and wrote, "They Want Docile."  She interned with the Southern Poverty Law Center, South Brooklyn Legal Services and Schonbrun DeSimone, an international human rights and civil rights firm.  She is a graduate of NYU's School of Law and the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government.  As a student she participated in NYU's Family Defense Clinic and the Harvard International Human Rights Clinic.  Prior to attending law school, Ms. Flamm worked for the International Rescue Committee in Haiti. The Human Rights Watch report is at: https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/02/05/they-want-docile/how-nursing-homes-united-states-overmedicate-people-dementia.Two related 2012 and 2011 DHHS Office of the Inspector General reports are at: https://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-07-08-00151.pdf and https://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-07-08-00150.pdf.Information on CMS' "National Partnership to Improve Dementia Care in Nursing Homes" is at: https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Provider-Enrollment-and-Certification/SurveyCertificationGenInfo/National-Partnership-to-Improve-Dementia-Care-in-Nursing-Homes.html. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thehealthcarepolicypodcast.com

Dr. Newton wants to educate people on how medications can cause dementia and how to avoid these medications. The only thing worse than having Dementia is taking care of a loved one with Dementia. Many people do not realize that a large number of medications can cause dementia. Dr. Camille Newton is a home visiting physician. You may also know it has a traveling doctor or mobile doctor. It is such an important service for seniors that are not able to travel for doctor’s appointments. She focuses on minimizing medications, especially psychotropic pharmaceuticals to help senior’s brains stay healthier longer. When medications are tested by the FDA to see if they are safe, they are not really tested to see if they cause brain failure. While performing house calls she has seen the effect psychotropic medications have on people who take them for a long period of time. Some examples of psychotropic drugs are: * Antipsychotics including Risperdal  or Haldol * Sedatives especially the benzodiazepines such as Ativan, Xanax, or Valium * Anti-depressants * Antihistamines These are some pretty staggering and scary statistics! According to Dr. Newton, Benzodiazepine use is associated with an increased risk of Dementia. Nearly tripling risk within 3 years. Quitting reduces risk over time, to only 10% increase in risk 3 years after quitting. Benzodiazepine use quadruples the risk of suicide in the elderly. In one study, Benzodiazepines and hypnotics increased suicide risk by 14 times. Antihistamines can have the anticholinergic effect. This means some of them block a certain neurotransmitter called acetylcholine. This can have a detrimental effect on the brain over a long period of time. This includes Benadryl. in monkeys, laboratory rats, and humans, the antipsychotics such as Haldol, showed a huge measurable shrinking of the brain within 8 weeks of use. A person goes to the drug store and they have allergy symptoms. They could choose Claritin or Allegra (which are not anticholinergic) or they could choose Benadryl or Coricidin and end up with dementia within a few years. Maybe Less is more? Dr. Newton tells a fascinating story about “Pam” who is a rare case of dementia reversed by getting her off of her medications. Although she has had only a few cases of ‘total cure’, she's had numerous patients improve dramatically when their anticholinergics were stopped.  These medications are so dangerous to our brains, and yet there is no warning label.  Many of them are over the counter. A lot of people ask Dr. Newton,”what CAN I take.” Her response is, don't look for something to take when you are having a problem. Don't look for a pill to solve your problem and question every medication you are given. *Please note:  Neither the Rock Your Retirement Show nor the host, Kathe Kline provide medical advice.  Please consult your own practitioner about any healthcare issues that you have. If you would like to reach out to Dr. Newton, her email is docnewton@att.net Today's Freebie, Medications that can cause Dementia, Can be found at http://rockyourretirement.com/Medications Did you know medications can cause dementia? Are you or someone you love taking any of these? Tell us your story below in the comments This post about retirement and Retirement Lifestyle first appeared on http://RockYourRetirement.com Image already added

Like Autism Live on Facebook at http://facebook.com/autismliveRisperdal is a drug that has been surrounded by controversy.  TACA founder Lisa Ackerman talks about the recent 2 billion dollar fine against Johnson & Johnson involving  fraudulent claims around 3 drugs, one of them Risperdal.  While the fine had to do with Risperdal in seniors, it still raises questions about the drug being used in children and young adults to treat Autism.  This discussion includes some of the known side effects of Risperdal, including the potential development of lactating breasts in boys and men.  Parents are urged to look at all of their options before deciding to put their children on this and other psychotropic drugs to treat Autism.Autism Live is a production of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD), headquartered in Tarzana, California, and with offices throughout, the United States and around the globe. For more information on therapy for autism and other related disorders, visit the CARD website at http://centerforautism.com

Today in FirstWord:

Today in FirstWord:

With tracks from Nôze, Pawel, DJ Yashin, Lawrence, Seth Troxler, Pherox, Shahrokh Sound Of K, Azari & III, Stephan Bodzin Vs. Marc Romboy, Keinzweiter, Yes Wizard, Gay Marvine, Pawas & Matthias Keul, Alex Arnout, Martin Landsky, Art Department, Patrick Chardronnet, Shaboom, Psycatron, Vincenzo, Laurent Garnier, Madben and Lars Bartkuhn. Contact: dj@ribeaud.ch.

Did you or a family member take Risperdal and suffer from diabetes or another blood sugar disorder? If so, you have legal rights and are encouraged to contact Mark & Associates, P.C. today for a FREE legal consultation about your potential case.Eli Lilly, the manufacturer of Zyprexa, another atypical antipsychotic, has already settled with patients due to the risk of diabetes associated with its schizophrenia drug. Mark & Associates, P.C. takes all Risperdal cases on contingency, meaning that there will be NO legal fees unless we win or settle your case. Call 1-866-50-RIGHTS (1-866-507-4448) to speak with a defective drug lawyer at our firm today, or fill out our online case form on youhaverights.com.

Did you or a family member take Risperdal and suffer from diabetes or another blood sugar disorder? If so, you have legal rights and are encouraged to contact Mark & Associates, P.C. today for a FREE legal consultation about your potential case.Eli Lilly, the manufacturer of Zyprexa, another atypical antipsychotic, has already settled with patients due to the risk of diabetes associated with its schizophrenia drug. Mark & Associates, P.C. takes all Risperdal cases on contingency, meaning that there will be NO legal fees unless we win or settle your case. Call 1-866-50-RIGHTS (1-866-507-4448) to speak with a defective drug lawyer at our firm today, or fill out our online case form on youhaverights.com.