On March 14, 2021, I saw the following notice on the AntiDepAware website:
“I have decided reluctantly to end my involvement with this website. Although the site will remain online in the meantime, there will be no further updates, and the email address is no longer valid.
Many thanks to all those who have contacted me and given me encouragement.
Brian”
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The object of AntiDepAware has been to promote awareness of the dangers of antidepressants. Here’s a quote from the site’s Home page:
“In 2009 my son, who had never been depressed in his life, went to see a doctor over insomnia caused by temporary work-related stress. Contrary to NICE Guidelines, he was prescribed Citalopram, and within days he died a violent death.
At my son’s inquest, I told the coroner that I believed that Citalopram had taken my son’s life. The coroner agreed with me, rejected a suicide verdict, and delivered a narrative judgment in which Citalopram was cited by name.
After retiring from work in 2012, I had time to investigate more thoroughly the link between self-inflicted deaths and the prescription of SSRI antidepressants.
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- As a consequence I learned of the risk of suicide on antidepressants, particularly in the early weeks of uptake or if the dosage is increased, decreased, withdrawn, or changed for another brand.
- I also discovered that, prior to a number of self-inflicted deaths, SSRI antidepressants had been taken along other psychiatric medication, such as anti-psychotics or benzodiazepines.
- And what became evident from many of the reports I read was that the person who had died by suicide had not been depressed, but had nevertheless been prescribed antidepressants for conditions such as anxiety, insomnia, PTSD, work-based stress or grief.
This website, which I began in 2013, includes links to reports of inquests held in England and Wales since 2003. Most of these were found in the online archives of local and national newspapers. It must be noted that these lists are far from exhaustive but, even so, contain summaries of almost 8000 reports on self-inflicted deaths, all of which are related to use of antidepressants.
There are also many articles, most of which I have written myself, based on what I have discovered during my research.
My motivation in embarking on this site has been to offer some understanding to the grieving families who are invariably left a legacy of unanswered questions and ‘if onlys’, along with misplaced guilt and the memory of horrific loss. Perhaps this website will help answer some of their questions.”
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The inquest reports on the site are detailed and compelling, and reflect Brian’s dogged perseverance in the face of psychiatrists’ routine assertions that their “treatments” are safe and efficacious.
The articles are heart-breaking. They present the victims and their families as real people with real lives who mistakenly believed the rhetoric that psychiatry is a “helping profession”.
Brian’s site should be compulsory reading for psychiatrists, GP’s, and other physicians who prescribe psychiatric drugs, and for anyone contemplating a career in psychiatry.
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Thank you, Brian, for the heroic and painstaking work, and for the important archives that you are giving us. Your impact has been enormous.