US Preventive Services Task Force: No evidence that screening for suicide reduces suicide Fri, 21 May 2004 The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) issued its findings and recommendation against screening for suicide. The USPSTF findings corroborate those of the Canadian PSTF. “USPSTF found no evidence that screening for suicide…
Three Questionable FDA policies: drug factory inspection rules/ clinical trials/ Paxil ads Thu, 22 Aug 2002 Three news items highlight questionable FDA policies that are in conflict with consumer health interests. 1) Poor quality control standards in American drug and vaccine manufacturing plants is a disgrace. The Associated Press reports…
APA Claims Credit for Censoring News Report about Mental Screening Sun, 16 Oct 2005 The American Psychiatric Association acknowledges its role in suppressing a major news story about the President’s New Freedom Commission Report recommendation. That recommendation is the center of a heated debate among advocates for personal privacy, parental…
Ethical Violations / Investigations Today Congressional Investigations Office of Human Research Protections (OHRP) Letters of Determination: http://ohrp.osophs.dhhs.gov/detrm_letrs/lindex.htm Office of Protection from Research Risks* (OPRR) List of Compliance Oversight Investigations Resulting in Restrictions or Actions to federally licensed Institutions between 1990 – 2000. *Reorganized in 2000 as OHRP Mar 30: AHRP…
The Evidence base: rock of certainty or shifting sands? – BMJ Wed, 5 May 2004 Dr. John Dewhurst, has written an extraordinary article from his first-hand experience as a pharmaceutical company physician who discovered the disparity that exists between the claimed and actual evidence of drug effectiveness–and the reality-based severe,…
British Medical Journal critized for promoting drug cocktail ignoring risks Mon, 14 Jul 2003 The push toward adopting a radical cholesterol lowering strategy, including the use of statin drugs was given a shot in the arm when the British Medical Journal (BMJ) published an article– endorsed by its editor–promoting the…
Pharma’s Pervasive Influence Corrupts Medicine both sides of Atlantic Tue, 4 Oct 2005 The focus of criticism in medicine has shifted from cost and barriers to access to treatments to an examination of the safety and benefit of current treatments. The pharmaceutical industry’s corrupting influence on physicians, academic researchers, the…
Bioethics Debate: Ethics of U Penn Surgical “Drug Implant” Experiment This debate between AHRP President, Vera Sharav and Bioethicist, Paul Root Volpe, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, was prompted by an October 7 infomail. The reasons for AHRP’s opposition to drug implants for psychiatric patients are explained here: https://ahrp.org/ahrpspeaks/drugimplant1103.php —–Original Message—–…
“The scariest thing is that nobody knows” risks of depression drugs for children Mon, 10 May 2004 Forest Laboratories, manufacturer of the antidepressant, Celexa / Lexapro, is the latest manufacturer to issue warnings (April 2004) about the possibility that “patients with major depressive disorder, both adult and pediatric, may experience…
Counterpuch–The Pills Your Mother Gives You…Death, Depression and Prozac Sat, 02 Apr 2005 Alexander Cockburn, co-editor of Counterpunch, the bi-weekly muckraking newsletter that prides itself: “We have all the right enemies” takes a swipe at Prozac, Eli Lilly and its battalion of heavy hitters who have successfully shielded Prozac from…
Philadelphia Daily News Pharma Influence: Penn Psychiatrist Files Whistleblower Lawsuit – Investigtion Confirms Medicare Chief Lied to Congress Wed, 7 Jul 2004 “Drug companies not only write checks to hospitals, they write checks to politicians…They write checks to both sides of the aisle.” Two separate news reports provide a glimpse…
Human Pesticide Experiments “Allowing human experiments, such as those conducted recently in the United Kingdom, to serve as the basis for registering pesticides, is ethically indefensible.” Ken Cook, President Environmental Working Group January 8, 2003 "Should the EPA Accept Human Pesticide Experiments?", testimony by Vera Hassner Sharav before the Committee…
