Dying to Take Drugs.

I just thought I'd share with you this qoute in todays Indepedent:

Dr David Shiers, co-author of the “Healthy Active Lives” statement, said: “The evidence is now clear – weight gain, cardiovascular risk and metabolic disturbance commonly appear early in the course of emerging psychosis and are potentially modifiable. As clinicians, if we dismiss these disturbances as being of secondary to controlling their psychiatric symptoms, we may be inadvertently condoning a first step on a path towards physical health inequalities for these young people. This vulnerable group needs a far more holistic and preventive approach.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/psychiatrists-call-for-action-over-premature-deaths-of-mentally-ill-8664106.html

The second part of the qoute is one of the things I complained about in a recent letter writing campaign, writing to all the players in UK Mental health care, including the regulators. 'If we dismiss these disturbances as being of secondary to controlling their psychiatric symptoms, we may be inadvertenty condoning a first step on a path towards physical health inequalities...' A bit of long winded way to say that the risk to benefit ratio, is too high, when taking psychiatric drugs. They will kill you by the age of about 55-60. If you're lucky enough to live that long. Given the laws of averages, lowering life expectancy by 15 to 20 years, means that many are dying much much earlier than that and are bringing the average downards. And by a lot.