INFORMED CONSENT AND PSYCHIATRIC DRUGS
Informed Consent is the process by which a person voluntarily agrees to a medical treatment, procedure, test or participation in research after receiving enough information to make an informed decision. NHS England figures show the amount of annual prescriptions for antidepressants alone in England has risen steadily from 23-25 million in 2000 to over 92.6 million in 2024/2025. Under NICE Guidelines, the prescriber should discuss the expected benefits, common side effects and treatment alternatives relating to antidepressant medications with the patient. In practice, with the average GP consultation lasting between 10 and 15 minutes, this does not always happen. As antidepressants and other psychiatric medications carry the severest side effect Black Box warning, I wanted to redress the balance by giving you some information about psychiatric medications from others. To find out more, please read on …
The Need for Informed Consent
There are several reasons for the big increase in antidepressant prescriptions. Many more people now get lost in the system and remain on antidepressants for years, rather than months. Covid-19 policies had a detrimental effect on the population, particularly young people who had their education ruined. More doctors are faced with chronically ill patients with complex medical conditions (many of which have been triggered by the events of recent years). Prescribing antidepressants off-label for conditions like pain, fibromyalgia, sleep, IBS, migraine, chronic fatigue syndromes, has become commonplace, often without having done the necessary lab work to find out what is driving the condition. Psychiatric medications can make existing physical conditions worse.
An Ethical and Legal Principle
In healthcare, Informed Consent is both an ethical principle and legal requirement. In the UK, Informed Consent standards have been significantly shaped by the legal case of Montgomery vs Lanarkshire Health Board. The legal principle from this case is that the patient should receive information that a reasonable person in that situation would likely consider important in making their own decision.
In practical terms, if a clinician recommends an antidepressant, antipsychotic, mood stabiliser, or anxiolytic, the Montgomery standard supports a discussion that is tailored to the patient’s circumstances and includes the benefits, material risks, and reasonable alternatives - not merely a statement that the medication is recommended.
Surveys show that patients with psychiatric prescriptions are not being adequately informed about the following side-effects:
*Sexual side effects
*Emotional blunting
*Withdrawal symptoms when stopping medications
*Black Box warning for suicide/suicidal ideation
*Duration of treatment
What happened to the Hippocratic Oath and its principle ‘First do No Harm’, which doctors in the UK are no longer required to follow?
Be informed about Psychiatric Drugs
Let us now hear from public and professionals about the side-effects of psychiatric drugs:
*“Psychiatric medications are not a cure. They do not fix any kind of chemical imbalance. This is just marketing slogans, not scientific fact.”
Dr. Josef Witt Doerring, MD, Psychiatrist
*“They found antidepressants reduce your ability to feel the suffering of others. Brain scans confirm it - you can still see pain. you just stop feeling it. This isn’t a side effect. This is the product.”
Dr Roger McFillin, Psychologist
*“To be totally honest with you, when (the psychiatrist) passed away, I got on my knees and thanked God.”
Britney Spears
(Britney Spears told the court that her previous psychiatrist (who died in 2019) was abusive in his treatment of her. She alleged that she was subjected to lengthy psychological evaluations, forced into a $60,000-a-month inpatient facility and told that she wouldn’t be able to see her children if she failed to comply.)
*Michael Jackson was murdered by a mix of psychiatric drugs and an anaesthetic. The anti-anxiety psychiatric drugs Valium, Ativan and Versed mixed with an anaesthetic killed him. He was also given the psychiatric drugs Zoloft and Paxil, which both have the side-effects of insomnia, worsening his dependency on the anaesthetic and anti-anxiety benzodiazepines which killed him.
*For decades, tranquillisers, sleeping pills and antidepressants have been given to generations of women - three times as many as to men!
“These pills, these ‘mother’s little helpers’ have left a legacy of millions of women locked into a terrible torment, doomed to a life of dependence from which there is still very little help to escape…Dealing with these pills has now become a greater problem than the ‘condition’ that caused them to be taken in the first place.”
Princess Diana
*The musician Kurt Cobain was prescribed Ritalin at the age of 10. Ritalin is a Schedule 2 drug, in the same drug category as cocaine and speed. Studies show using Ritalin increases risk of later illegal drug use. Stomach pain is a side-effect of Ritalin. Cobain started usingheroin because he said it “quenched the fire in my gut.” 36 hours after visiting psychiatrists, he killed himself. The psychiatric drug Valium was found in his blood. The label on Valium states it can cause suicidal thoughts and actions at all ages.
*“Psychiatry…doesn’t know how the brain generates thought. We don’t know what constitutes the mind. So we have this bad habit of making a lot of shit up. Like diagnoses, for damn sure.”
Dr Paul Minot, MD Psychiatrist
*“We’re launching studies on the potential contribution of some of the SSRI (antidepressant) drugs and some of the other psychiatric drugs that might be contributing to violence.”
Robert F. Kennedy, Health Secretary, United States Government
*”(Antidepressants) double the risk of suicide, both in children and adults.”
Dr Peter Gotzsche, MD Professor of Internal Medicine
*“Most psychiatric drugs lead to massive weight gain. Some of them, like Olanzapine (Zyprexa) for example, can lead to weight gains of 25, 30, even 40 kgs in a year or two, and that is serious.”
Dr Niall McLaren, MD Psychiatrist
*“I was on Prozac, anti-anxiety medications…No wonder men and women are killing themselves…because these pills have everyone depleted - I felt like my soul was gone.
I knew after I was almost killed by pills that the stuff psychiatrists were doing wasn’t working, unless, of course, they were trying to kill me, which…hmmm?”
Mike Vega, former Navy Seal and Chief Petty Officer
In conclusion, always ask for the Informed Consent procedure to be implemented when your clinician wants to prescribe a new medication. If this request is refused, do your own research, then discuss it with your clinician, but above all, make your own informed decisions. Do not be afraid to do so. Your life may depend on it.
If you would like to gain control of your own health, please get in touch with the Good Health Clinic on goodhealthclinic@outlook.com to request a free 30 minute Enquiry Call or book an appointment. Please note that an Enquiry call is not a consultation but an exploratory call to see if this is a clinical approach you wish to pursue.To your very good health,
Suzanne Jeffery (Nutritional Medicine Consultant)
M.A.(Oxon), BSc.(NMed), PGCE, GNC, BSEM, MNNA, CNHC
The Good Health Clinic at The Business Centre, 2, Cattedown Road, Plymouth PL4 0EG
Tel no: 07836 552936/ Answer phone: 01752 774755
Disclaimer:
All advice given out by Suzanne Jeffery and the Good Health Clinic is for general guidance and informational purposes only. All advice relating to other health professionals’ advice is for general guidance and information purposes only. Readers are encouraged to confirm the information provided with other sources. Patients and consumers should review the information carefully with their professional health care provider. The information is not intended to replace medical advice offered by other practitioners and physicians. Suzanne Jeffery and the Good Health Clinic will not be liable for any direct, indirect, consequential, special, exemplary or other damages arising therefrom.