Antidepressant Safety Tour

Please support my 2024 North American ANTIDEPRESSANT SAFETY TOUR by making a donation (anonymously if you like) of any amount to my GoFundMe campaign, and by sharing this page on your social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, Twitter) and by email.

The details about my North American tour are on the Tour page at KnowYourDrugs.org.

Thank you,

David Carmichael

The global antidepressant market was valued at $15.65 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach $21 billion by 2030, and consumers are getting younger. In England, for example, there was a 41% increase in the prescribing of antidepressants to 5- to 12-year-olds between 2015 and 2021.

Antidepressants generally do more harm than good. The type of antidepressants most prescribed since the late 1980s, based largely on the false claim that they correct a chemical imbalance in the brain, are Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs), which include Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Luvox, Celexa, and Lexapro. SSRIs are only effective 15 percent of the time and often cause the side effects of sexual dysfunction (can be permanent), not being able to feel positive or negative emotions, and suicidal ideation (ideas).

Every type of antidepressant is dangerous to stop taking abruptly, and all of them have discontinuation (withdrawal) symptoms. Even with a gradual taper, some withdrawal side effects can be debilitating, and some can be permanent.

ANTIDEPRESSANT SAFETY TOUR

In 2024, an Antidepressant Safety Day will be held in 20 North American cities (listed on Tour page at KnowYourDrugs.org) to raise awareness of the risks of antidepressants, which will help people make informed choices about use. Most of the discussion during the day will be about SSRIs because of how frequently they are prescribed, and how lethal they can be. In rare cases, SSRIs cause suicide, violence and homicide, and are connected to school shootings.

There will be four parts to each Antidepressant Safety Day, which I’ll be facilitating. People can attend one, two, three, or all four parts. Registration will not be required:

1. 10:30 to 11:30am – Discussion about Preventing Antidepressant Tragedies

2. 12 to 1pm – Seminar on Alternatives to Antidepressants

3. 5 to 6pm – Seminar on Tapering Off Antidepressants

4. 7 to 9pm – Screening of documentary Letters from Generation Rx

My Story

In July 2004, shortly after starting the SSRI Paxil, I had a psychotic episode and took the life of my 11-year-old son, Ian, in a London, Canada hotel room. I was then charged with first-degree murder, judged not criminally responsible (insane) in October 2005, institutionalized in a mental health centre (forensic psychiatric hospital), and conditionally discharged in December 2007, which allowed me to live with my wife Elizabeth and daughter Gillian again. I received an absolute discharge from the Ontario Review Board in December 2009.

Since 2006, I’ve been sharing my story publicly to help prevent Antidepressant tragedies. Gillian and I appeared on The Dr. Oz Show in 2018, in two episodes of the Canadian current affairs show CTV W5 (2007 and 2021) and in the 2017 BBC Panorama documentary A Prescription for Murder?