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NIMH-funded antidepression drug efficacy / safety studies_What do they prove?

Two studies purporting to report “new encouraging” findings about the efficacy and safety of antidepressantsas tested in the “real world”were published on Sunday by The American Journal of Psychiatry with an accompanying editorial by Dr. Thomas Insel, director of these studies’ funding agency, the National Institute of Mental Health.

Drugs, Devices & Doctors – NYT Paul Krugman

New York Times columnist, Paul Krugman, got it right!

The real story behind the crisis at Merck, the Cleveland Clinic, and the medical industrial complex as a whole "is bigger than either the company or the clinic. It’s the story of how growing conflicts of interest may be distorting both medical research and health care in general."

National Plan for Universal Mental Health Screening:A Pharma Friendly Remedy for Societal Problems

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Slide 2: I’ll begin with the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health[1] recommendation to screen the US population for mental illness – 52 million children first. In no other democratic country has the government adopted a policy to screen the population for presumed, undetected, mental illness. The rationale behind this mind-boggling Orwellian nightmare is not improving mental health, but rather increasing life-long consumers of psychoactive drugs and to control behavior. Two NFC recommendations are designed to do just that. TeenScreen is promoted as a suicide prevention model when it in fact, increases the number of children labeled suicidal and depressed.

Gov Accountability Project Creates "FactSquad" on Rx Drugs

Gov Accountability Project Creates “FactSquad” on Rx Drugs December 11, 2005 In the wake of the credibility crisis public trust in the safety of FDA-approved prescription drugs is eroded. The Government Accounability Project (GAP) has established a “Fact Squad” to challenge poor performance; in particular,  FDA’s failure to protect the…

Study found: older patients risk death on BOTH old and new Antipsychotics

Study found: older patients risk death on BOTH old and new Antipsychotics Thu, 01 Dec 2005 Elderly patients prescribed antipsychotics–old neuroleptics (such as Haldol) or the new antipsychotics (such as Zyprexa or Risperdal)–were at increased risk of death. The risk for the older drugs is estimated to be 17.9%  and…

Analysis of S. 1873 – The Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act of 2005

INTRODUCTION: This bill seriously endangers, if not completely undermines, the democratic process and the rule of law. It will absolutely destroy the unalienable rights of trial by jury and informed consent. It is a radical transfer of the US Treasury into the hands of unaccountable private companies whose record shows far more concern about profits than in protecting and improving the health of the American people. It also concentrates the power of life and death in the hands of one very fallible human being and creates an unaccountable federal bureaucracy not subject to disclosure, independent oversight or the safeguards of accountability necessary in a free republic.

Depression-Serotonin: How Did So Many Smart People Get it So Wrong?_WSJ

"Serotonin and depression: A disconnect between the advertisements and the scientific literature."
"Some 19 million people in the U.S. suffer from depression in any given year. For many, SSRIs help little, if at all. To do better, we have to get the science right." Sharon Begley, Wall Street Journal
 

Ethics, Conflict of Interest, first ever public response by David Healy, MD, to James Coyne, PhD, attack in AJOB

The Columbia lecture was originally scheduled as a debate between David Healy, MD and James Coyne, PhD. The debate did not take place, and Dr. Coyne subsequently lectured in Rutgers the following week. The lecture covered the main points Dr. Coyne makes in the e-mail below. Dr. Healy’s response follows….