Thread by @Altostrata

@dianamswancutt @shayla__love Truly excellent article, Shayla.

I know you couldn't cover everything -- @angpeacock1111 represents the epidemic of misdiagnosis & overprescribing affecting millions of people. Issues around psychosis are fascinating to academics, but there's a larger public health issue..../1

@dianamswancutt @shayla__love @angpeacock1111 Please consider another in-depth article on the patient movement represented in Medicating Normal. It is huge. There is a large peer support underground helping people deprescribe themselves -- they can't find doctors who know how to taper. Millions are looking for this help. /2

@dianamswancutt @shayla__love @angpeacock1111 Millions have been misdiagnosed & overprescribed. GPs mostly do this, but #psychiatry ignores it.

This is a patient movement that is not academic anti- or critical psychiatry, but very angry with #psychiatry for not stepping up for patient safety in #psychiatric treatment. /3

@dianamswancutt @shayla__love @angpeacock1111 Patients have been begging for medical help in tapering off #psychiatric drugs for 25 years, with little progress except in the last 2 years in UK. @rcpsych started to write an informational pamphlet about tapering, but it's gotten stalled internally. /4

@dianamswancutt @shayla__love @angpeacock1111 @rcpsych #Psychiatry is in the dark ages in understanding the need to #deprescribe & taper people off psychotropics besides prescribe prescribe prescribe prescribe. GPs follow the habit of overprescription. Unnecessary #psychotropic polypharmacy, like @angpeacock1111's, is endemic. /5

@dianamswancutt @shayla__love @angpeacock1111 @rcpsych The peer support underground on the Web, on Facebook, on reddit, on Quora has thousands begging for help in going off their drugs. Ordinary working people, not people disabled by severe mental conditions. They wandered into a one-way street with #psychiatric psychotropics. /6

@dianamswancutt @shayla__love @angpeacock1111 @rcpsych Their doctors never told them about withdrawal, they kept adding drugs, people get sick from too many psychotropics! They need help minimizing drugs, but doctors do not know how to taper. The methods they suggest are ignorant guesses, nonetheless promulgated by #psychiaty. /7

@dianamswancutt @shayla__love @angpeacock1111 @rcpsych Statistics across US, UK, Europe show massive numbers of people taking #antidepressants (the bulk of #psychiatric prescribing) for many years, while #psychiatry claims severe conditions are undertreated. Majority of long-term #antidepressant prescriptions are inappropriate. /8

@dianamswancutt @shayla__love @angpeacock1111 @rcpsych But people stay on the drugs because they're afraid of withdrawal symptoms & doctors don't know how to gradually taper them to minimize the difficulty. This affects >10% of adults taking #antidepressants, not counting all the other #psychiatric psychotropics. /9

@dianamswancutt @shayla__love @angpeacock1111 @rcpsych #Psychiatry has refused to address epidemic problems of overprescription, unnecessary polypharmacy, misdiagnosed adverse drug effects, & need for #deprescribing -- which means tapering. This affects millions across the world. It should not be left to a patient underground! /10

@threadreaderapp please unroll

@dianamswancutt @shayla__love @angpeacock1111 @rcpsych Shayla, @angpeacock1111 & Dave, who appear in Medicating Normal, got tapering info & peer support for withdrawal syndrome from my Web community, SurvivingAntidepressants.org Many Facebook groups refer to our tapering articles in their peer counseling.

We need doctors to help!