A Tragic Lesson

Heath Ledger was both over and undermedicated. His last interview was almost certain evidence of a cyclothymic/bipolar problem. It's strange to me that the psychiatry professor didn't say anything about that.
That would go against his antimedicine theory. Yes,too many medicines are being given, but in Heath Ledger's case the right medicine, a mood stabilizer, was not prscribed. A primary care doctor should know to screen for that, but with the government and insurance companies push for assembly line medicine, it's not surprising that it was missed. As a primary care physician, I frequuently am reluctant to send a patient to a psychiatrist as the commentator suggests. In our area they tend to add a medicine at every visit instead of changing to an effective one. Children are often on five or six medicines when the do better when changed to one mood stabilizer and perhaps an anti depressant.

It is possible that Ledger refused a mood stabilizer, opting for the bandaid treatment with valium like drugs. These give immediate relief but don't treat the underlying condition. Things usually get worse over the long haul as in Ledger's case. It's easy to see a desperate in amanic insomnia taking more and more drugs to get to sleep. Finally it's enough to puy you in a permanent sleep. As many as one in thirty people has bipolar or it's milder cousin, cyclothymic disorder. This is extremely common in actors and other creative people. They tend to be the movers and shakers of the world. Think Alexander the Great, Teddy Roosevelt,Ted Turner, Van Gogh, Jim Bakker. They get things done but are at risk of getting carried away. It's only a little exageration to say these people either become millionaires, go to prison, or both. It must be controled to get the maximum benefit without the harmful results. This does involve counseling, education, and yes, mood stabilizers at the lowest effective dose. A knowledgible primary care physician is essential to manageing this condition through it's fluctuating stages.

Heath Ledger was both over and undermedicated. His last interview was almost certain evidence of a cyclothymic/bipolar problem. It's strange to me that the psychiatry professor didn't say anything about that.
That would go against his antimedicine theory. Yes,too many medicines are being given, but in Heath Ledger's case the right medicine, a mood stabilizer, was not prscribed. A primary care doctor should know to screen for that, but with the government and insurance companies push for assembly line medicine, it's not surprising that it was missed. As a primary care physician, I frequuently am reluctant to send a patient to a psychiatrist as the commentator suggests. In our area they tend to add a medicine at every visit instead of changing to an effective one. Children are often on five or six medicines when the do better when changed to one mood stabilizer and perhaps an anti depressant.

It is possible that Ledger refused a mood stabilizer, opting for the bandaid treatment with valium like drugs. These give immediate relief but don't treat the underlying condition. Things usually get worse over the long haul as in Ledger's case. It's easy to see a desperate in amanic insomnia taking more and more drugs to get to sleep. Finally it's enough to puy you in a permanent sleep. As many as one in thirty people has bipolar or it's milder cousin, cyclothymic disorder. This is extremely common in actors and other creative people. They tend to be the movers and shakers of the world. Think Alexander the Great, Teddy Roosevelt,Ted Turner, Van Gogh, Jim Bakker. They get things done but are at risk of getting carried away. It's only a little exageration to say these people either become millionaires, go to prison, or both. It must be controled to get the maximum benefit without the harmful results. This does involve counseling, education, and yes, mood stabilizers at the lowest effective dose. A knowledgible primary care physician is essential to manageing this condition through it's fluctuating stages.

I doubt very much if poverty was 'the biggest cause' or even a factor in Heath Ledger's death. The use of the word "then" for "than" makes me doubt your professionalism, but I do agree that drugs make people "do strange and terrible things they would regret forever"--if they ever get off of them and get back to a mental state where they can regret them. I agree with this because that's exactly what happened to me.
I was prescribed Paxil and Xanax and Trazodone all at the same time. When I complained to my Dr. that I was getting worse instead of better, he increased the dosage. How was that supposed to help?
TV commercials for drugs clearly tell of side-effects and negative results, which the doctors should, but usually don't. When you fill a prescription, the drug store staples a sheet of paper with the side effects written on it, so that is no excuse for patients wanting the drugs anyway, unless they can't read (closed captioning) or hear--yet there were other side effects from the drugs I took that I experienced, that weren't anywhere on the papers or in the doctor's mouth, that I actually had to search the internet to find.
People already on drugs don't mind being put on more drugs. It's like using peroxide to pre-soften resistant hair so that it will "take" more peroxide hair color-- one drug conditions the patient to accept more with no concern for the side effects or damage they can cause.
Aren't doctors to drug companies what mechanics are to parts companies? It's sad the way things are and it's sad that Heath is dead. I think it boils down to one thing. When it comes to what happens to the people taking their prescriptions, the doctors and the drug companies simply do-- not-- care--.

Very good list. I think psychiatry has failed 1-6 so far

I believe Heath would still be alive if the masseuse would have called 911 immediately.

Cumulative effects of two anti-anxiety drugs plus the use of oxycodone would certainly lead to a potential life threatening toxicity even in a patient used to such drugs. Was he using alcohol at the same time thus intensifying the effects of all the drugs? Was he also seeing more than one doctor for the prescriptions thus resulting in multiple rx's and leading to confusion on his part. Yes it is a shame that we have lost such a wonderful person but let that be a lesson to all of us: be careful with the use of any prescription drug wether it be a narcotic, sedative, laxative or antihypertensive. All drugs have the potential for lethal side effects if not taken correctly and safely.

To say the man is a drug addict is like saying you know a total stranger in a store is a shopaholic?
I do not think there is a person in this country who is not on some form of medication, and or have a vice.
Whether it be drugs, alcohol, or chocolate...
I do not know why he would be taking 2 painkillers, as well as 2 anti-anxiety medications?
But I do know that Temazepam has claimed many victims when taken with combination of sleep aids even at a low dose.
They said he was having trouble sleeping and even when taking the medications for sleep, he could not stay asleep for more than 2 to 4 hours.
He must have been having some mental issues at the time, and sometimes people actually do listen to their doctors, and take the medications provided by them, to get well, because it is a doctor, that is who you go to, listen to when health issues arise.
I think if he had multiple doctors like 12, or 13 there was a underlying problem, but if he had gone to 2 different doctors, and didn't think of telling them the combination of drugs, how would they know?
Most doctors do not talk to one another unless some sort of communication is needed.
It is a tragic loss of such talent, and it seems a really good, human being has left this world as well...

Of course it coulbe prevented. Who in their right mind would prescribe or take two different massive painkillers? I have trouble getting my monthly 30 count hydrocodone refill and I am a 60% service connected veteran with serious spinal injuries. And again who would prescribe and who would take two different anti-anxiety meds? Having worked with seriously disturbed patients in inpatient units I have never seen one on two anti anxiety meds at the same time.

Of course it coulbe prevented. Who in their right mind would prescribe or take two different massive painkillers? I have trouble getting my monthly 30 count hydrocodone refill and I am a 60% service connected veteran with serious spinal injuries. And again who would prescribe and who would take two different anti-anxiety meds? Having worked with seriously disturbed patients in inpatient units I have never seen one on two anti anxiety meds at the same time.

oh, good grief. The headline just screams for comment: "Could Heath Ledger's overdose have been prevented?" Of course, it could. By any of the following:

1. someone to monitor his meds if he was incapable of reading
2. him reading the labels and paying attention to the inserts that are given out with every prescription

Either of these steps would have prevented. The rush to absolve him of responsibility for his own foolishness is so predictable and so infuriating. I wonder who will be found to serve as defendant in the lawsuits that are sure to be filed against SOMEBODY because he took too many pills.

HEALTH
A Tragic Lesson
Could Heath Ledger's overdose have been prevented?
By Jennifer Barrett | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Feb 6, 2008 | Updated: 5:35 p.m. ET Feb 6, 2008

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Back to your depressing agents. The more of the cocktail you take the brain misrecognise what to absorb primarily and goes in a cobweb like situation. The dead brain tells no tale and ends there. The dead brain, the medications are sold on the counter hidden as fat burners, or the belt to reduce the waist. Try this and you go up fast. This is silly. The adult ought to know how much is too much. Remember we use the phrase, ???If you drink do not drive???, who listens. The drunk drivers knock many. This is the same here
Nothing sir. In the land of blind, one eyed is a king sir.
I thank you
Firozali A Mulla MBA PhD
P.O.Box 6044
Dar-Es-Salaam
Tanzania
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The medical profession prescribes according to what the Pharmas Bachelor degreed detail salespeople market to them; most haven't a clue about pharmacology, or what they're prescribing, yet many receive "incentive rewards" for writing the scrips. It must stop. We need more basic science education in medicine.

It is people like mfenwick who restore my faith in the truth of religion. Yes, Mr. Ledger killed himself so his beneficiaries would get a big payday. Astute. Wasn't it Christ who said,"I don't feel one damn bit sorry for him?"

This lecturer so-called needs to take a step into the real world. Psychotherapy, aka a grand waste of time and the pastime for the IDLE RICH and NEUROTIC, is not covered by insurance. Or if it is, the payout is ridiculously low. Heath Ledger wasn't a moron, as far as I know. He knew what drugs he was taking. He knew he was abusing them and self-medicating. Any combination of those drugs with the flu could have suppressed his respiratory system. How does this Therapist know he wasn't seeing a psychiatrist? He doesn't. This is one movie star under tremendous career pressure who was overdoing the drugs so he could get to sleep. How do you extrapolate to the entire country based on this? Yes, television is evil, praise the lord. I'm sure Heath watched a lot of TV and went into his Dr.'s office for oxycontin. They have an hilarious ad for oxycontin out now. All the addictive drugs have great ads. I don't think so.
This Doctor is as misinformed as are most experts Newsweeks interviews. And don't drop Yale's name so easily. It is my alma mater. Has this clown ever done anything but talk about his book on a college tour? Is that where he gets Yale on his resume. Perhaps he rushed into the hospital to use the men's room and starting ranting in the waiting room. Marketing books for quacks is as bad as a Crestor ad with Mandy Patinkin.

As someone looking at Hollywood and the entertainment industry from the outside in I can't imagine how people remain level headed in that field of work. Hollywood wants to create super humans who are perfect. I tuned in to TMZ once and never watched again. I can't believe people get paid to do that type of work! I think you could easily lose your sense of self in the entertainment industry and so you find "help" to get you through it. Medication, in my opinion, should be a last resort when you have exhausted all other options. Maybe some celebrities trust drugs more than they trust people in the business?

mfenwick, I would dispute your conclusions. Considering that he was taking multiple medications, even taking the exact prescribed dosage of each drug could have been enough to cause an overdose, if they were all taken together. If he had taken staggered doses of his various prescriptions, so that the drugs weren't clearing his system before the next dose of medication arrived, that could have been enough to cause the kind of fatal overdose that he suffered.

To the best of my knowledge, Heath Ledger had no medical degree, and might not have known that just because the dosage prescribed is safe on it's own, it may not be safe when combined with another drug (or two, or five). For example, Valium is a drug that, even when taken at the exact prescribed dosage, can cause an overdose when mixed with alcohol. It doesn't surprise me at all that it could cause a serious overdose situation when combined with oxycodone, hydrocodone, or his sleeping aid medications.

No one's asking you to feel sorry for him. But please show some respect. A man died. As John Donne said, "each man's death diminishes me."

You cannot overdose "accidentally" on the medication he was taking. He either committed suicide or took more than he was supposed to due to drug addiction. His death was ruled accidental so that his life insurance would pay the benificiaries. Insurance companies won't pay because of suicide or drug addiction. I don't feel a damn bit sorry for him or any of those Hollywood fools.