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.
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…
ADHD drug – Cylert withdrawn from market due to Liver Toxicity, a Major Risk of Psychotropic Drugs Tue, October 25, 2005 The FDA announced that another drug prescribed for ADHD–Cylert–was removed from the US market for safety reasons. On September 25, 2005, the Associated Press reported: “Eli Lilly said it…
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…
Antidepressant Use in Children Soars Despite Efficacy Doubts – Washington Post Mon, 19 Apr 2004 A front page article by Shankar Vedantam in The Washington Post examines the soaring increase in the antidepressant drug prescriptions for children, noting: “The explosion in antidepressant use occurred even though the vast majority of…
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…
