At the end of today’s hearings, an FDA advisory panel will issue recommendations about whether manufacturers of electroconvulsive devices must put their devices to rigorous safety tests or whether they should be reclassified from Class III (high risk) to Class II (moderate risk)> Below are critical comments by Professor John…
The latest psychotherapy fad is "cybertherapy embraces escapism and the mechanized techniques of "virtual reality." It has been given a veneer of legitimacy by a prominent article in the New York Times "Science" section.
Despite the fact that children may be at highest risk of antidepressant-induced suicide, GlaxoSmithKline is testing Paxil on 7 to 18 year old Japanese children.
"the first-ever randomized, placebo-controlled trial for the alleviation of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)" reports: "we found that it really offered patients no benefits of any symptoms." [1]
Today's news report circulated by the media about the negative findings of a much touted, but uncontrolled observational study of depression (STAR*D) promotes the business interests of SSRI antidepressant drug manufacturers.
Advisory Committee tells FDA: strengthen warnings on SSRI drug labels now Wed, 4 Feb 2004 On February 2, more than 60 families and children from all across America testified at a public FDA advisory committee hearing describing (in 2 minutes) how their children suffered drug-induced harm after being prescribed an…
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…
Pharma Efforts to Bar Placebo Responders from Trials – WSJ Fri, 25 Jun 2004 A clinical trial report in The Lancet debunks the value of Aricept, a popular drug prescribed for Alzheimer’s patients. The findings of a three-year placebo controlled trial show that: “Although the patients taking the drug did…
Commonly recommended Treatments found Worthless Wed, 19 Mar 2003 Independent analyses of the clinical studies upon which widely recommended drug treatments have been based, have now been found to be fatally faulty, and the drugs are deemed worthless. An analysis of 83 studies found that drugs used to treat 90,000…
Reply to the American College of Neuropharmacology’s Report on SSRI and Suicidal Behavior in Children Jonathan Leo, Ph.D. Introduction The American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) recently released an Executive Summary from its Task Force on SSRIs and Suicidal Behavior. The task force concluded that "taking Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs)…
Next Phase in Psychiatry? Or, NIMH Effort to Rescue Bad Drugs – WSJ Fri, 29 Jul 2005 The Wall Street Journal uncritically reported: “The results of the largest studies ever conducted of depression and schizophrenia will be released in coming months, potentially transforming the way patients are treated and shaking…
Are SSRIs and Atypical Antidepressants Safe / Effective for Children / Adolescents/ Neonates? Wed, 2 Mar 2005 The American psychiatric establishment continues to operate within a “head in the sand” culture of denial when confronted with compelling evidence that has been scientifically replicated showing that their prescribing of antidepressants for…
