Episode 2: Gail Regenbogen

07/11/19 • 59 min

On this second episode of Akathisia Stories, we hear from Gail Regenbogen. In late 2010 Gail's husband, Howard, went on the antidepressant Cymbalta; in a short period of time he changed from the "very outgoing, happy" man Gail had known him to be through 30 years of marriage, to someone who was "real quiet and withdrawn." "This was three weeks into the course of the Cymbalta,” she recounts. “And that night my daughter called me up and she said, ‘We were all driving home and we were talking about dad tonight and I think something’s not right.’ And I said, ‘Well, I’ve noticed a change in his personality, as well.’ And my kids were concerned, and I sort of just kind of let it be because I really wasn’t educated on any of the side effects of any of these drugs. You know, all I knew is that these drugs work and they help people."

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Episode 1: Wendy Dolin

We launch the Akathisia Stories podcast series with MISSD founder Wendy Dolin. Over the course of two interviews recorded in the first half of 2019, she talks to Akathisia Stories host Andy Miles about the 2010 suicide of her husband, Stewart Dolin, the work of the foundation she started in his name, medication-induced suicide and cases of chronic akathisia, her work with and on behalf of veterans, the legal battle she has waged in the courts and the status of her petition to the United States Supreme Court, and more.

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Episode 3: Kristina Kaiser Gehrki

In this third episode, we hear from Kristina Kaiser Gehrki, whose daughter Natalie's prescription drug-induced tragedies began at the age of two and a half, when she was prescribed a powerful cancer drug to combat juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Around the time of her 10th birthday, Natalie was put on Prozac for mild social anxiety. A year and a half later the prescribing doctor advised Natalie to take a medication holiday. Kristina Gehrki: “When the doctor told her to immediately and cold turkey stop Prozac, within two weeks I had to rush Natalie to the hospital. And what I did was this: I came into Natalie’s room and she said, ‘Mom’ – she was very flat – she said, ‘Mom, I can’t stop thinking about killing myself, but I know I can’t so I won’t.’ And I was just shocked. And I rushed her to the hospital because I didn’t know what was happening and I was so concerned. And what we learned is you’re not supposed to stop cold turkey. You’re supposed to taper. And if you do stop cold turkey, it can cause withdrawal akathisia."