Recent developments in gene transfer research: risk and ethics Mon, 10 Jan 2005 An analysis by Dr. Jonathan Kimmelman, in the British Medical Journal provides an illuminating, clearly articulated discussion about the ethical dilemmas that challenge gene transfer experiments – essentially a kind of human genetic engineering involving somatic cells,…
Bush Plans to Screen Whole US Population for Mental Illness – BMJ Thu, 24 Jun 2004 A second article in the British Medical Journal discloses additional evidence uncovered by Allen Jones, the whistle blower from the Pennsylvania Inspector General’s Office. The first BMJ article focused on the Texas Medication Algorithm…
Not-So-Public-Relations: Drug Industry & Bioethics – is it casuistry or sophistry? Fri, 19 Dec 2003 Carl Elliott is a clear eyed academic who teaches bioethics at the University of Minnesota . He is currently a visiting associate professor at School of Social Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton….
FDA Underhanded Tactics Against Medical Officer Who Blew the Whistle Mon, 29 Nov 2004 The Food and Drug Administration is the epicenter of a collision between medical officers in the drug safety office and senior officials in managerial positions whose focus is on facilitating new drug approvals. Officials at the…
Prozac Suicide Risk – CNN Posts long concealed Eli Lilly Internal Documents Tue, 4 Jan 2005 An internal company document titled Activation and Sedation in Fluoxetine Clinical Trials dated 11/8/1988, provides insight into how marketing divisions of pharmaceutical companies rationalize lethal adverse drug effects. Of note: the terminology in 1988…
Nazi euthanasia files are made public – BMJ Fri, 17 Oct 2003 Documents pertaining to Nazi euthanasia–i.e., medically approved murder (1939-1944) have been concealed for half a century by the secret service of the former German Democratic Republic. Among the victims targeted for medical murder were mentally and physically disabled…
Just How Effective are Medical Screening Tests? Mon, 17 Nov 2003 A investigative report in the Guardian (UK) takes a critical view of medical screening for early detection of latent diseases. Contrary to the promoters of medical screening tests, there is scant evidence that early detection actually saves lives. The…
Bush’s plan to screen for mental health meets opposition in Illinois – British Med J Fri, 5 Nov 2004 The New Freedom Commission recommendation calling for government screening the entire nation for mental illness, beginning with America’s 52 million children, is backfiring. The recommendation runs contrary to freely made health…
Additional information as of late Wed Oct 19: Although I was assured that attendance for a presentation by Dr. David Healy (at Columbia University School of Public Health on Oct. 20 at 12:30) would be open to the public, a problem seems to have emerged after an AHRP Infomail about…
The battle lines were drawn between those who recognize the corrosive effect that the pharmaceutical industry is having on the safety and integrity of medicine and medical research, and the powerful stakeholders–the pharmaceutical-academic industrial complex.
“a study published yesterday overturns conventional wisdom about antipsychotic drugs, which cost the United States $10 billion a year.”
Success in academic psychiatry is not measured in the improvement of patients' mental health, but rather in quantifiable commercial tender.How many grants one brings to the university, how many publications one churns out each year, and how many corporate and professional advisory boards one serves on–and how much money one…
