I received this e-mail from the pfs foundation today drawing our attention to media coverage of another pfs suicide.
Dec. 1, 2016
Dear Friends:
It pains us to once again discuss suicide among PFS patients, but at this point we feel we have no choice than to address the issue head on, rather than sweep it under the rug.
For if it’s swept under the rug, the number of such needless deaths promises to increase.
Yet by banding together and letting those patients who are suffering know that we’ll do our best to help them through the rough spots, we stand a good chance of saving lives.
On Nov. 24, the French national public TV network France 5 ran a story on Santé, its nightly health-magazine show.
Titled Finasteride: A Drug Under Scrutiny (youtube.com/watch?v=KOZle3i6xwg), the report by investigative journalist Ludivine Favrel focuses on the case of Romain Mathieu.
In June of this year, the 25-year-old Parisian, who’d several months earlier moved home from London where he’d been studying at the most prestigious business school in Europe – and had been scheduled to intern at Deutsche Bank in July – sealed himself in a tent at a local park.
Then he released carbon monoxide gas which, as intended, ended his life.
The would-be investment banker signed his suicide note “Romain Mathieu, a victim of Propecia.”
He’d been suffering from PFS for more than three years.
The Santé report includes an interview with Dr. Bruno Toussaint, managing editor of the French medical journal Prescrire (pfsfoundation.org/wp-content … r-2016.png), in which he states:
“Sexual dysfunction and suicidal ideation that appears to result from [finasteride] are important adverse effects. Patients should be informed of these risks, so that they can weigh the benefits of harms against treatment.”
As we noted last week with regard to the Vice Media report on PFS suicides (us5.campaign-archive2.com/?u=644 … bUNIQID%5d), the foundation has been painfully aware of such tragedies for several years now.
In response, we recently launched a Patient Support Program (pfsfoundation.org/news/suppo … worldwide/) to connect PFS patients with fellow patients and their family members worldwide. As part of the same program, we are now able to connect family members of PFS patients who have taken their own lives with other family members dealing with the same tragedy.
Anyone interested in participating in these efforts, should download our Patient Support PDF (social@pfsfoundation.org.
We’ve also been building a list of doctors who see PFS patients and have volunteered to help counsel them. At present, there are more than 30 medical professionals on that list, which can be found in the Patient Support section of our Resources (pfsfoundation.org/resources/) page.
Meanwhile, we’re once again reminding all PFS patients and/or their loved ones who have not yet done so to report their symptoms to the FDA’s MedWatch program as directed here (accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/ … rting.home).
And for those of you living outside the U.S., please access the WHO’s Collaborating Centre for International Drug Monitoring list of pharmacovigilance agencies (who-umc.org/DynPage.aspx?id= … 1&mn3=7477), and report to your respective health agency.
We hope that through continued medical research, sponsored both by the PFS Foundation and medical institutions worldwide, an effective therapy for the condition can be developed in the coming years so that the thousands upon thousands of men currently struggling desperately with it can once again live healthy, happy lives.
Please take a moment to watch the France 5 report at your earliest convenience.
Thank you.
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