Infomail 2004 News Stories on Human Research Protection and Commentary by Vera Hassner Sharav Dec 31: FDA to review “missing” drug company documents Dec 30: Family of Woman Killed by AIDS Drug Test Sues Doctors, Manufacturer Dec 30: Doctors, Too, Ask: Is This Drug Right? Dec 29: Bill would shield…
Linguistic Tinkering with Regulatory Terminology Increases Risk of Harm for Children: "minimal risk" "minor increment of minimal risk" and "disorder or condition" January 28, 2001 A cornerstone of the Declaration of Helsinki (adopted by the World Medical Association in 1964, and reaffirmed on Oct. 2000) is the distinction between research…
Spitzer Expands drug Probe: Johnson & Johnson / New FDA analysis Confirms SSRI Risks to Kids – WSJ Thu, 5 Aug 2004 A front page article in The Wall Street Journal reports that a second FDA analysis of 25 clinical trials of SSRI antidepressants in children was conducted after a…
Instead of a War against Drugs, Children Riddled with Psych Drugs Tue, 14 Jan 2003 In his 1994 book, The War on Children, psychiatrist, Dr. Peter Breggin exposed the practice of prescribing psychiatric drugs as a method for controlling children’s behavior. Dr. Breggin was reviled by the psychiatric establishment, even…
AHRP Campaign to Protect Children from Harm Oct 15: FDA Orders Black Box Warnings on Antidepressants labels and Patient Information Guides to Warn about Suicide risk Oct 3: BBC PANORAMA TONIGHT – Taken on Trust – 13 years-Medical Deception Sep 30: GSK Sales Reps told NOT to Divulge Paxill Data…
$95 billion a year spent on medical research in US – JAMA Fri, 23 Sep 2005 A special issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, JAMA, focuses on medical research spending and findings. A study that examined US spending for medical research—$95 billion approaching $100 billion–57% is spent…
Credibility Crisis:Survey FDA Scientists – Death in NIH-AIDS Trial – Tauzin Moves to PhRMA Thu, 16 Dec 2004 A credibility crisis in medical research is smoldering: like the Enron accounting scandal, the prescription-drug debacle is a matter of systemic corruption, including gross and widespread failure by the regulatory process. Unlike…
Columbia Journalism Review–The Complicity of the Media in Drug Marketing Wed, 27 Jul 2005 An excellent article in the Columbia Journalism Review examines pharmaceutical industry hype and the media’s role in helping that industry create false impressions about the safety and benefits of newly marketed drugs: “stories trumpeting new drugs…
Randomized Controlled Trials: Evidence Biased Psychiatry By David Healy, MD MRCPsych Introduction A new drug gets introduced to the market. It has been approved after stringent scrutiny by the FDA, which requires ever more convincing evidence that it works and that its safe. The new treatment will always cost more…
Cognititve Therapy Halves Risk of Second Suicide Attempt – JAMA Tue, 6 Sep 2005 A study tested the effect of cognitive therapy in reducing the risk of a second suicide attempt by following 120 people who had attempted suicide. They were followed for 18 months–far longer than drug trials. According…
Worldwide Drug Industry Ailing – PhaRMA Giants Reeling Blockbuster Drugs Found Hazardous Sat, 18 Dec 2004 Daily headlines provide confirmatory evidence supporting what critics of the drug industry have been say:ing for years. First, as The New York Times notes in one of its 4 articles about the latest “unexpected”…
Researcher To Be Sacked After Reporting High Rates of ADHD – BMJ Sun, 10 Apr 2005 The BMJ reports that Dr. Gretchen LeFever, a clinical psychologist and professor at Eastern Virginia Medical School, whose published reports (since 1995) have raised the alarm about a spiraling increase in elementary school children…
