Calls for better monitoring of antipsychotic drug linked to hundreds of deaths

Calls for better monitoring of antipsychotic drug linked to hundreds of deaths

our last photograph together and our last holiday together four months after this family holiday Shan Crawford was dead quite often people will talk about whether someone is a a glass half empty or half full person and the best way I can sum up Sean is by saying he was somebody who was just gratefully had a glass he was his happiest when everybody else was happy he was a 41-year-old man with the diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia at an inquest the coroner ruled that his death resulted from combined Toxic effect of alcohol and clopine individually not at fatal levels acting to suppress his central nervous system clopine is a drug prescribed for schizophrenia when other drugs have failed and many health professionals describe it as absolutely gold standard for preventing things like hallucination but there are increasing concerns about how well patients are being monitored and whether they’re truly being informed of the sometimes toxic side effects a recent analysis by the Times newspaper found an average of more than 400 clopine linked deaths per year have been reported to the medicines and healthc care products regulatory agency the MH eight times more than any other high-risk medic medon Mr Crawford was under the care of the community team run by tesque and we Valley mental health trust the coroner’s findings included this none of the teas esam Valley staff dealing with sha ever warned him or his family of a danger of death associated with alcohol consumption in the context of using clopine that this danger was not recognized or predicted is a more than minimal contributor to his death sha was not an alcohol olic but he did like a drink we were repeatedly told it was a known fact that paranoid schizophrenics will self-medicate with alcohol because it helps them to relax um and that actually the conversations that anyone had with us around that were that it could be dangerous for Shawn to stop drinking the alcohol the coroner also found the management of care plans and the recording data as to plasma levels and other Health Data by the trust was dangerously inadequate Sean went to the Community Health Team um physical health check Clinic every month you have to when you on close p and we thought his physical health was being properly robustly monitor through that process in the two appointments in the runup to when he’s died there’s been no readings whatsoever recorded in a prevention of future deaths ruling the coroner has now informed the health secretary Victoria Atkins Mrs Crawford and her local MP have also asked for a meeting the department of health said these were complex issues and they would be responding in June course the MH told channel 4 news they are reviewing the data and once that’s in we will consider the concerns raised and whether additional risk minimization measures are needed to raise awareness and reduce the risks further the patient leaflets do warn about alcohol use Mrs Crawford though says they need to be more explicit in terms of the alcohol as an immediate measure I would like it to say the label that’s on there do not drink because it could kill you or reference to that possibility of a ferality so that there’s a distinction between the kind of medication where if it has exactly the same label and you drink you might get a bit a little bit sick but you won’t die T’s esan Weare Valley Trust said we have reviewed Sha’s care and treatment and are committed to making changes this includes strengthening our processes for clopine prescribing dispensing supplying and monitoring and we have made a number of changes to the clopine guidance William North cotle whim for short died in 2021 after taking the drug for years William was gold dust he was a golden human being he could have added something to this world but the way the system is set up he never got that chance and in fact the medication that he was given actually killed him in the end an interim death certificate describes fatal arhythmia most likely due to prescription drug toxicity we found out in the autopsy his heart was double the size he had blood clots he was immensely overweight and these are very standard um symptoms of clopine toxicity since then his sister has been campaigning for a new women protocol there has to be a wholesale change in how the monitoring is done for clopine alongside of that is an Al a look at how we look at schizophrenia and serious mental illness as a society and the Royal College of psychiatrists is now working with Kate to improve information given to patients and medical professionals psychiatrist are well aware of the side effects of Cline and actually psychiatrists regularly tell people about the side effects of clopine however the monitoring system as I said is limited and it means that particularly at a time when services are so stretched and a person may not get to see a psychiatrist very clearly we need to ensure that everybody across the system is aware of the all the different side effects and is’s able to understand them and therefore convey those side effects talk about those side effects with patients neither sha nor Williams families dispute the value of clopine this is not they say a call for it to be withdrawn it is a demand though that better care is taken of the patients who need it

The families of people who have died while taking an antipsychotic drug have told Channel 4 News there needs to be a wholesale change in how it’s monitored. Around 37,000 people in the UK are prescribed clozapine, which is primarily used to treat drug-resistant schizophrenia.

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Its benefits are huge, but it’s a high-risk medicine and without proper monitoring those risks can be fatal. The drug has been linked to some 400 deaths a year since its approval for use here.

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