Drug Safety Issues: Risks
"The drugs most commonly used to soothe agitation and aggression in people with Alzheimer’s disease are no more effective than placebos for most patients, and put them at risk of serious side effects, including confusion, sleepiness and Parkinson’s disease-like symptoms, researchers are reporting
today."
A Special Article By Curt D. Furberg, MD, PhD; Arthur A. Levin, MPH; Peter A. Gross, MD; Robyn S. Shapiro, JD; Brian L. Strom, MD, MPH
Two actions by the FDA last week demonstrate where the agency’s priority lies—and that priority is NOT to protect public safety, NOT to protect children’s safety. FDA’s priority—as demonstrated by its actions—is approval of new drugs or approval for expanded even dubious uses of patented drugs.
Urge your Senators to VOTE YES for the Child Medication Safety Act (S. 4041, HR 1790) !!!
The most striking acknowledgement in this sad story underscores the shaky foundation upon which the field of child psychiatry rests is the following statement by a Harvard University child psychiatrist: "When she was almost 8… Haley met full criteria for virtually every mental disorder listed."
Alternative Medicine is a national magazine with 165,000 subscribers. It is also sold nationwide on newsstands. Its cover story, Nov/Dec, is Kids & Psychiatric Drugs: BIG PHARMA comes to the classroom!
“The Drug Trial That Went Wrong” is an investigative report by Chanel 4 (UK) about the circumstances surrounding the near fatal drug trial testing the safety of TGN1412, a monoclonal antibody drug, conducted in March 2006 at London’s Northwick Park Hospital. [1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/health/5377226.stm It airs momorrow.
"As long as we continue to manipulate biology in new ways, we probably cannot prevent all such events from occurring. We must do what we can to minimize risk, but the future health of the world population demands that we not let adverse events put an end to medical progress."
Evidence of an association between violence and widely prescribed antidepressant drugs is the focus of this Infomail.
Dr. Robert Wachter, author of The Truth Behind America’s Terrifying Epidemic of Medical Mistakes, provides an incisive blueprint for changing the culture in medicine. His starting point is the unexplained death of children following surgery at Stony Brook University Hospital, L.I.
A study published in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute, found that advanced chemotherapy put patients at far greater
risks of harm than adverse effect reports from clinical trial data reveal.
The New York Times reports (below) that after months of foot dragging, the FDA has finally issued additional warnings on the labels of widely
prescribed psychostimulant drugs–Ritalin, Adderall, Concerta.
