Wikipedia
Prescripticide is defined as a death that is caused by an adverse reaction to a prescription drug. In his book Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime: How big pharma has corrupted healthcare, Dr. Peter Gotzsche, a Danish medical researcher and co-founder of the Cochrane Collaboration, states that prescription drugs are the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer. According to Dr. David Healy, a Wales psychiatrist, psychopharmacologist and the principal founder of RxISK.org, adverse reactions to psychiatric drugs are the leading cause of death in mental health.
Famous victims
Over the last several decades, millions of people throughout the world have died from prescripticide. You can read about some of the more famous victims at prescripticide.com including Judy Garland, Phil Hartmann, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Health Ledger, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Tony Scott, Anna Nicole Smith, and Robin Williams.
Speaking out
Many people who have dealt with prescripticide tragedies have written books, set up websites, produced videos, and pursued legal action to prevent families from experiencing similar tragedies. The courageous individuals who have broken their silence and shared their tragedies publicly include Elaine Billings, Angela Bischoff, Sara Bostock, Maria Bradshaw, Neil and Rhonda Carlin, David Carmichael, Kim Crespi, Laura Delano, Wendy Dolin, Mathy and Andy Downing, Leonie Fennell, Kristina Gehrki, Janet Janes, Kim Ledger, Stephanie McGill and John Lynch, Nancy and Shaun McCartney, Michael Mildo, , Kim Witczak, and Terence Young.
Origin of word
Prescripticide was coined on November 30, 2015 by David Carmichael, a Canadian who took the life of his son Ian in July 2004 while in a state of Paxil-induced delirium-psychosis. David was meeting in the United States with Charles Tudor, an American filmmaker and news correspondent, and Anelia Sutton, the mother of a young woman named Lorita Aiken who attempted to take the life of her 2 children and herself in November 2013 in Virginia Beach while psychotic 15 days after starting the antidepressant Celexa while she was already on Wellbutrin, Ativan and Ambien.
When David was meeting with Charles and Anelia, he told Charles that adverse reactions to antidepressants are causing people to commit suicide and homicide and, in fact, in the book Death by Prescription: A father takes on his daughter's killer - the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry, Terence Young, a former Member of Parliament and the driving force behind Vanessa’s Law (Protecting Canadians from Unsafe Drugs Act), explains that adverse reactions to prescription drugs is the fourth leading cause of death in Canada after cancer, heart disease and stroke. Charles asked David to come up with a word, just a single word, to explain what is happening. The word David came up with was “prescripticide”.
References
1. Gotzsche, Peter C. Deadly Medicines and Organized Crime: How big pharma has corrupted healthcare. Radcliffe Publishing. London, England. 2013.
2. Healy, David. Pharmageddon. University of California Press. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California, United States. 2012.
3. Lazarou J, Pomeranz BH, Corney PN. Incidence of adverse drug reactions in hospitalized patients: A meta-analysis of prospective studies. The Journal of the American Medical Association. 1998; 279(15): 1200-1205.
4. Phillips J, Beam S, Brinker A, Holquist C, Honig P, Lee LY, Pamer C. Retrospective analysis of mortalities associated with medication errors. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy. 2001. 58 (19): 1835-1841.
5. Starfield B. Is US health really the best in the world? The Journal of the American Medical Association. 2000; 284: 483-485.
6. Warner M, Chen LH, Makuc DM, Anderson RN, Miniño AM. Drug poisoning deaths in the United States 1980-2008. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center for Health Statistics, United States. Data Brief. 2011. 81: 1-8.
7. Weingart SN, Wilson RM, Gibberd RW, Harrison, B. Epidemiology of medical error. BMJ. 2000; 320: 774-777.
8. Young, Terence H. Death by Prescription: A father takes on his daughter’s killer – the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry. Key Porter Books Limited. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 2009.